Meet Feargal, a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator and a bioinformatics group leader at FHMRI. His research uses multi-omics to explore disease mechanisms, treatment outcomes, and the body’s interactions with microbes. With experience at the Hudson Institute, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), and APC Microbiome Institute, Feargal’s work spans fields from inflammatory bowel disease to vaccine responses. He enjoys the variety in his work and thrives at the intersection of multiple disciplines. In his spare time, Feargal loves cooking, running, and spending time with his retired greyhound, Oswald.
What is your role and what does your work focus on?
I am an NHMRC Investigator and the new bioinformatics group leader in FHMRI. My research utilizes multi-omics to unravel disease mechanisms, understand why treatments succeed or fail, and explore how the body’s interactions with microbes shape overall health. I’ve worked across a wide array of fields, from studying the underlying biology of diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and long COVID, to examining why people respond differently to vaccines, faecal microbiota transplants and other therapies. My research also covers bacterial and viral taxonomy, the development of computational tools and the influence of the microbiome on brain development, among many other topics.
Where did you work before joining CMPH?
I spent most of 2024 on a sabbatical in Melbourne, primarily at the Hudson Institute in Monash. Before this, I’ve been at SAHMRI working with Prof. David Lynn. Before that, I was at the APC Microbiome Institute in Ireland.
What journey brought you to this point in your career?
Probably the most pivotal decision for me was after my undergraduate degree deciding to do a masters in bioinformatics and systems biology, a decision largely informed by the fact that was the cheapest masters out of everything I was considering.
What is something you love most about your work?
The sheer diversity of problems and tasks. Being at the intersection of several disciplines means no two days are the same. I might start my morning programming in Rust to develop a new computational tool, then switch to planning a preclinical experiment with a collaborator. The next day might be focused on data visualisation for a large clinical study, followed by trying to figure out what is driving some unexpected signals in gene expression data for writing up a paper (which often leads to me digging through the stack of review articles). The day after might begin with teaching best practices in microbiome data analysis to some students, followed by a meeting with a consumer group to ensure their interests are represented in a grant application I’m working on. It’s always changing which keeps things interesting.
How do you like to relax or spend your spare time?
If you spend more than an hour with me, I’ll probably end up talking about my dog, a retired greyhound named Oswald. In my spare time, I enjoy tinkering with gadgets—right now, I’m obsessed with a fingertip-sized microscope that attaches to a phone and has 1000x magnification. I also love cooking and running which help me unwind.