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Courses
Courses
Choosing a course is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make! View our courses and see what our students and lecturers have to say about the courses you are interested in at the links below.
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University Life
University Life
Each year more than 4,000 choose NUI Galway as their University of choice. Find out what life at NUI Galway is all about here.
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About NUI Galway
About NUI Galway
Since 1845, NUI Galway has been sharing the highest quality teaching and research with Ireland and the world. Find out what makes our University so special – from our distinguished history to the latest news and campus developments.
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Colleges & Schools
Colleges & Schools
NUI Galway has earned international recognition as a research-led university with a commitment to top quality teaching across a range of key areas of expertise.
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Research & Innovation
Research & Innovation
NUI Galway’s vibrant research community take on some of the most pressing challenges of our times.
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Business & Industry
Guiding Breakthrough Research at NUI Galway
We explore and facilitate commercial opportunities for the research community at NUI Galway, as well as facilitating industry partnership.
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Alumni, Friends & Supporters
Alumni, Friends & Supporters
There are over 90,000 NUI Galway graduates Worldwide, connect with us and tap into the online community.
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Community Engagement
Community Engagement
At NUI Galway, we believe that the best learning takes place when you apply what you learn in a real world context. That's why many of our courses include work placements or community projects.
Research
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Pharmacology & Therapeutics-research degrees: M.Sc. and Ph.D.
General
The Department is actively engaged in a vigorous research programme which is centred around the areas of neuropharmacology (the study of the effects of drugs on the central nervous system), immunopharmacology (the study of the effects of drugs on the immune system), and signalling in vertebrate development. The Department has research links with other national and international centres, including the Departments of Biochemistry and Physiology, the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science (NUI Galway), the Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin, the University of Pennsylvania, and H/S Lundbeck, Denmark.
The research activities of the Department are funded from a variety of competitive sources.
Staff Research Interests
Molecular mechanisms of intestinal injury, repair and carcinogenesis; focus on biological functions of transcription factor NF-kappaB; identification and characterization of novel therapeutic targets for inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer and radiation injury to the intestinal tract.
Investigation of the mechanism of action of antidepressants and the development of novel targets using animal models; the effects of antidepressants on modulating immune responses; development of nonanimal alternatives for toxicological assessment of drugs.
The molecular and cellular biology of vertebrate embryo development; identification and regulation of zygotic genes in zebrafish; the role of cell adhesion signalling in vertebrate development.
Dr. Grealy collaborates with Dr. Lucy Byrnes (Department of Biochemistry)
The development and validation of novel cell and gene therapies for Parkinson’s disease. For example, using viruses to deliver therapeutic gene products to the brain, and transplantation of dopaminergic neurons derived from stem cells.
Neurochemical, neuroendocrine and molecular mechanisms underlying pain, anxiety and depression. Neuropharmacology of cannabinoid and opioid receptors. Imidazoline binding sites, brain monoamines and the stress response. Neuroimmune mechanisms of relevance to pain, inflammation and mood disorders.
The cell and molecular biology of programmed cell deaths in cancer cells and other in vitro model systems.
- Innate immunity: the genetic, epigenetic and biochemical regulation of pattern recognition receptors such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and NOD-like receptors (NLRs).
- Epigenetics: the role of DNA methylation and histone modification in innate immunity and chronic inflammatory disease.
- Neuroinflammation: the role of the innate immune system (TLRs) in neurodegerative diseases.
- Brain-gut interaction: the role of the innate immune system in brain-gut communication.
- Psychiatric & affective disorders: the role of the innate immune system in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.