Meet the Team 

Grace Mulcahy

Our project leader is Grace Mulcahy. Grace is a full-time Professor of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin. From January 2007 - September 2016 she was Dean of Veterinary Medicine, and during this time worked to ensure the current position of the school as leading international player in veterinary education and research, and to advance research across the "One Health" spectrum, utilising synergies between its health professional schools.

She leads an active research group with interest in helminth immunobiology, using ruminant fasciolosis as a model system to understand helminth- mediated immunoregulation, the results of co-infection between helminths and other pathogens and realtionships between gut helminths, the microbiome and inflammation.

Having started her scientific career as a virologist studying foot-and-mouth disease, she is currently leading a Science Foundation Ireland Rapid Response COVID-19 study, UPCOM, as well as the REFOHCUS project.

Roisin Guyett-Nicholson

Roisin Guyett-Nicholson is one of the Outreach Officers in UCD Access and Lifelong Learning. She has a BA in History & Politics and an MA Irish History, both from UCD. Her MA research focused on educational outreach programmes among Irish Republican women in the early 20th Century. Her position as Outreach Officer covers student experience, community outreach and admissions pathways. Roisin's role is to provide a link between the University and groups that are distant from Higher Education.

Roisin has a background in public engagement and education, particularly in UCD's College of Arts and Humanities. She is passionate about outreach and helping people discover the opportunities available in Higher Education.

Daniel Breen

Daniel is our Project Co-Ordinator for REFOHCUS. He graduated from UCD in 2018 having earned himself a BA Degree in English and Philosophy. He is deeply interested in community development and outreach work.

This can be seen through his time in UCD he worked closely with UCD’s Access and Lifelong Learning Centre as both an Access Leader and a Future You Mentor. This has given him the opportunity to educate diverse groups of prospective students by providing professional support by communicating essential information they will need for third-level.

He has done similar work with secondary schools in Ballyfermot through the Ballyfermot Chapelizod Partnership. He is a big advocate for widening the participation of higher education and for there to be less barriers for students who wish to progress onto third-level education.

Annetta Zintl

Annetta Zintl BSc PhD is a zoology graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, where she also completed her PhD at the Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry. Following this, she worked for several years as a post-doctoral and Newman fellow in the Veterinary Sciences Centre, University College Dublin.

Since 2012 she has been teaching immunology and parasitology to veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing students at the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine.

Annetta's research has focused on the epidemiology, detection, transmission and control of various parasites with the chief aim of investigating their importance for animal and/or human health in Ireland. More recently she has become more interested in exploring their impact in conversations with students, vets and farmers.

Amalia Naranjo Lucena

Amalia graduated as a vet in 2013 from University of Córdoba (Spain) and afterward completed a MSc in Biotechnology. She moved to Ireland to start a PhD position at UCD, where she explored the epidemiological and immunological effects of infection with F. hepatica, a common parasite of livestock, on concurrent parasitological or bacterial infections.

She continued her research on the same parasitic infection during her time as a Post-Doctoral researcher in UCD, focusing on the study of the immune response in the liver of sheep. Amalia is now a Veterinary Research Officer at the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, and she is working in the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) section.

Her role is to help manage and supervise AMR surveillance in farmed animals and food products in Ireland, collaborate in the design and implementation of animal disease control programs and undertake active research.

Caitriona Cunningham

Caitriona is an Associate Professor at UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science. Her research and teaching focuses on musculoskeletal health, related health services and promotion of physical activity and exercise. 

She is a state registered physiotherapist with over ten years clinical experience and has a strong commitment to facilitating the translation of evidence into practice, with active involvement in national and international research, professional and community networks. As a former Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning, she promotes excellence in teaching and education developments across a range of health and sports programmes. 

Caitriona is a member of UCD’s Widening Participation Committee and chairs its associated Outreach Coordinating Network. In 2015, She cofounded the innovative UCD Physio Hub to facilitate the delivery of Physiotherapy-led exercise and health promotion programmes to a wider community and provide ‘real world’ learning and research opportunities. 

Carla Perrotta

Carla graduated as Medical Doctor in 1993 at the University of Buenos Aires. She completed her clinical training in Internal Medicine and was invited to complete a Research Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at UPMC, Pittsburgh (1998) and completed a Clinical Fellowship in General Medicine in Buenos Aires (1999) along with a master’s in clinical Effectiveness (2000), a Fellowship in Cochrane Collaboration (2003), PhD in Epidemiology at the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science in 2008.

Carla has pursued a career in Public Health and General Practice, working on both sides of the Atlantic. She has also worked as external Consultant for UNICEF, WORLD BANK and IBEROAMERICAN FUND BANK in a wide range of Public Health Programs including patient advocacy and community outreach programs.

She is currently leading a research team aiming to understand COVID-19 super spreader events in work environments in Ireland funded by Science Foundation Ireland. 

 Gerald Barry

Gerald is a lecturer in the School of Veterinary Medicine in University College Dublin, Ireland. He teaches university students about viruses and the diseases that viruses cause, and he also loves to talk about science to anyone that will listen! Alongside teaching he manages a lab research team that is interested in the body's immune system and how it defends the body against infection.

Animals and humans have similar ways to defend themselves against viruses, so we study both animals such as cattle as well as humans. We study a variety of viruses, some that are spread in Ireland such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and others that are spread by insects such as mosquitoes in warmer parts of the world.

At home, he is married with 3 daughters (8,5 and 18 months) and he lives in Trim, Co. Meath.

Peter Stuart

Peter Stuart did his degree in Applied Ecology at University College Cork and received his PhD from NUI Galway, looking at the role of wild carnivores in the epidemiology of parasitic disease.

Following this he carried out work on wildlife disease in the Czech Republic, Finland, Sumatra and the US before returning to Ireland to be a postdoctoral fellow in Trinity College Dublin with Professor Celia Holland. Most recently Peter has taken up a position as an assistant lecturer in the Munster Technological University, Kerry (previously IT Tralee).

He is primarily interested in wildlife disease ecology. He studies this from a direct conservation approach looking at endangered species but also investigates the processes occurring that result in animals becoming more susceptible to infection and pathology. Peter mainly studies this in mammals (orangutans, carnivores and small mammals). Central to his research is trying to understand who is getting infected and why. 

Susan Enright

Currently, Susan lectures in MTU Kerry in the Department of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is also involved in developing and delivering courses through the lifelong learning department. Her qualifications include an honours degree in biochemistry and an MSc in Biological Sciences. She has previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry for several years, and during a career break when her kids were young, she became interested in education.

At that time, she set up an early year’s service and completed a BA Honours in Early Years Studies.  Her thinking and views on education have been influenced through engagement with various education-related courses. She is interested in accessible lifelong learning and encouraging people to see themselves as lifelong learners. 

Susan joined the REFOHCUS team because she believes in the importance of promoting STEM education and helping people to discover the scientist within themselves.