Innovator and communicator

Prof Luke O’Neill is not only a researcher into the immune system, but is also engaged in the educational and commercial application of his pioneering work

THE WINNER OF the 2009 RDS Irish TimesBoyle Medal for Scientific Excellence has been described as "a fantastic ambassador for Irish science". Trinity College Dublin's Prof Luke O'Neill is the 37th recipient of the Boyle Medal since its inception 110 years ago. He has won the prize for his pioneering work on the molecular basis of our innate immune system and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The seven people on the international judging panel invited to Dublin to adjudicate the 2009 award were unanimously agreed that the prize would go to Prof O’Neill. He and three other world-class scientists were shortlisted for the Boyle Medal award last May.

The judges praised O’Neill for his “significant contribution to international research into the immune system”. They also singled out his ongoing contribution to student education and training, and his engagement with commerce. This latter refers to his involvement with a campus company, Opsona Therapeutics, which he co-founded.

O'Neill is a member of a number of professional societies, including the Biochemical Society, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Association of Immunology and the International Cytokine Society, of which he is a councillor. He has links to a number of leading international journals and became the first associate editor outside the US of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He is a reviewer and contributor to the Nature Immunologyand Sciencejournals.

After the award was announced, the judges made reference to the fact that O’Neill “is in international demand” as an invited speaker on his chosen area of research, a family of immune-system proteins known as the “Toll-like receptors”. He has attended 75 gatherings to discuss this subject in the years since 2005. He was also one of the organisers of the internationally important Keystone Meeting, which took place in Banff, Canada, last March.

The Boyle Medal was set up by the RDS to highlight the best of Irish scientific endeavour. The award has done this over the past 110 years by celebrating the accomplishments of leaders of Irish research.

The Irish Timesjoined with the RDS to relaunch the Boyle Medal programme in 1999. It is a reflection of the newspaper's commitment to support better public understanding of science.

The first Boyle Medal recipient in 1899 was George Johnstone Stoney. Irish physicist John Joly, famous for the development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer, took the prize in 1911.

More recent winners have been Patrick Cunningham, currently the Government’s chief scientific adviser, in 1996 and Garret A FitzGerald, based at the University of Pennsylvania, in 2005.