Meet the team

Professor Gerard Curley is Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care in Beaumont Hospital. He is Associate Scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St Michael’s hospital, Toronto.  He is also Honorary Senior Lecturer at Queens University Belfast.

Prof Curley graduated from National University of Ireland, Galway in June 2002.  He completed clinical training in anesthesia and intensive care in Ireland and Toronto (Critical Care Medicine Fellowship), and subsequently completed a PhD as a Molecular Medicine Ireland Clinician Scientist Fellow at NUI, Galway, where he focused on the development of stem cell therapies for repair of the injured lung. 

Prof Curley also completed post-doctoral studies at University of California, San Francisco and in the Departments of Experimental Physiology and Anesthesia at University of Toronto, where he examined ways to optimize cell therapy for clinical translation to patients with critical illness. He was Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto and Staff Anesthesiologist/Intensivist in St Michael’s Hospital Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care until 2016.

He has been awarded the Australia/New Zealand Intensive Care Society Global Rising Star Award 2014, an Early Researcher Award from the Government of Canada Ministry of Research and Innovation and an International Anaesthesia Research Society Research Award (2013).

Read more here. 

Dr Fionnuala Keane graduated with a BSc Honours and a PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland Galway. She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in molecular biology and neurochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry, UCD, before also working in industry.

Fionnuala has over 20 years' clinical research experience having joined the All-Ireland Co-operative Oncology Research Group (ICORG) in 2003. She remained in ICORG until 2014 working in a variety of clinical research roles, including clinical trial project management, pharmacovigilance and programme lead.

Fionnuala was appointed to the roles of Development Lead and Chief Operations Officer to HRB Clinical Research Coordination Ireland from 2014 to 2021 and subsequently to the role of Manager of the HRB National Clinical Trials Office until December 2022. Fionnuala also worked as a Project Manager with UCC on the EU response and WHO COVID-19 trials for Ireland during the pandemic.

Fionnuala joined the RCSI CRC team in January 2023 as Head of Operations.

Ailbhe Cullen has been a core member of RCSI CRC since it opened in 2000.

Ailbhe completed her registered general nurse training in Beaumont Hospital before continuing her training by completing her registered sick children’s nurse training in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. She worked in the area of paediatric intensive care nursing for six years and completed a paediatric intensive care course during this time. She has work abroad, in both the USA and Australia.

Since joining the RCSI CRC, she has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Research in John Moore’s University Liverpool and an MSc Research (Nursing) in RCSI. Ailbhe has worked in a management role in the CRC for 23 years and has experience in a variety of therapeutic areas, as well as study feasibility and set-up, study budgets, quality management and the day-to-day management of the research centre.

Deirdre Hyland is a registered nurse and midwife with extensive experience of medical and surgical nursing, including 13 years working in gynaecological oncology and head and neck oncology.

She joined the RCSI CRC as a clinical research nurse in 2004, working on a variety of research projects and clinical trials. Deirdre commenced the role of Director of Research Nurse Education in 2009. She has developed and delivered modules in many aspects clinical research coordination and management, and also leads on the provision of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Training for IMP and medical device trials.

Deirdre is also the principal investigator on a three-year HRB award to the Irish Research Nurses and Midwives (IRNM) Network that is exploring the roles and responsibilities of the research nurse and midwife, and associated skills and competencies. She is a member of the IRNM Committee, education workstream of the UK Clinical Research Facilities Network and the UK/Ireland branch of the International Association of Clinical Nurses (IACRN).

Patricia Burke has been a core member of RCSI CRC since 2006 and has extensive experience in the day-to-day running of the research centre.