UCD scientist who advanced our knowledge of brain

Prof Ciarán Regan, who has died aged 64, was a distinguished scientist and teacher whose groundbreaking research led to a better understanding of how the brain works and advancements in treating conditions such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and depression.

Many illnesses affecting the brain are characterised by difficulties in learning and recall. Prof Regan’s chief area of research related to understanding the mechanisms that contribute to the formation of long-term memory and exploiting these mechanisms as novel drug targets.

Based on his work on cell-adhesion molecules in the 1980s and 1990s, he was among the first scientists in the world to demonstrate that brain nerves physically change their connections when new memories are formed. His subsequent work built on this fundamental principle, allowing him to develop new treatments that increase and restore cognitive functions.

Ciarán Regan was born in Dublin, where his father Tom worked as an orthotist in the surgical appliance-making business on Mount Street. His mother Ethna ran the home and he always attributed his curiosity – a very important trait for a scientist – to her.

He attended junior school at Mount Sackville and secondary school at the Christian Brothers, Westland Row, which he disliked intensely. He received his BSc (1973), PhD (1976) and DSc (1992) from University College Dublin. He was EMBO postdoctoral fellow at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands (1976-78) and MRC scientific officer at the Institute of Neurology, London (1978-80). He lectured in science in UCD from 1980 to 2014, where he became Professor of Neuropharmacology in 2006.

His research resulted in more than 170 scientific publications, including five patents, and many contributions to scientific journals and books. He was a dedicated teacher of pharmacology, and sought to promote a deep interest among his students in the brain and how drugs affect its function.

He published Intoxicating Minds in 2000, a book for the non-specialist about the effects of mind-altering drugs. It proved to be a major contribution to the popularisation of science. He was co-editor of Intoxication and Society (2013), a book that brought together a group of scholars across a range of disciplines to look at the nature of intoxication.

He set up the Applied Neurotherapeutic Research Group in 2003, an interdisciplinary research cluster funded jointly by Science Foundation Ireland and Wyeth Discovery, New Jersey, which investigated the molecular and structural changes in nerve cells necessary for the formation of long-term memory.

Treatment of autism

He also co-founded and chaired the UCD campus company, Berand Neuropharmacology, in 2004, which develops novel therapeutics for the treatment of autism and obesity.

His success in establishing links with international industry through the commercialisation of neuroscience research won him awards such as the NovaUCD Innovation Award (2007); other awards include the Conway Medal of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy Medal for Achievement in Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Professor Regan had a lifelong passion for the arts and was himself a sculptor who worked in bronze. He loved the company of friends and family and was known for his infectious laugh.

He is survived by his wife Veronica, his mother Ethna, two daughters Theia and Helen from a previous relationship, his stepchildren Jason, Rebecca and Stephen James, and his brothers Colm, Brian and Conor.