Dr Patrick Harrison, Department of Physiology, University College Cork

Dr Patrick (Paddy) Harrison is a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Physiology at University College Cork where he has built up a research group to apply gene editing techniques to better understand genetic diseases. He has a long-stranding interest in the use of gene-based medicines for a wide of genetic disorders, and has been the European Editor of the journal Gene Therapy since 2017.

With grant support from both Cystinosis Ireland and the Cystinosis Research Foundation, he played an early role in developing gene editing for Cystinosis, and which led to a long term collaborator of Jennifer Hollywood to develop isogenic pluripotent cell models of Cystinosis.

With additional grant support from the Health Research Board, Paddy teamed up with Don Cairns and Cystinosis Ireland to launch the inaugural Dublin Cystinosis Workshop in 2015, which has now become an annual fixture in the International Cystinosis Research Calendar.