Hilary Browne
Biography
Dr. Browne has a degree in Agricultural Science from University College Dublin and Masters in Biotechnology from University College Cork. Following time spent in Japan and Australia, he started at the Wellcome Sanger Institute near Cambridge in the UK as a computational biologist before joining Dr. Trevor Lawley’s lab, (also at the Sanger Institute) as a research assistant. During this time, he completed his PhD supervised by Dr. Lawley and Prof. Brendan Wren based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and was also awarded the Garnham award from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for outstanding research student completing a doctoral thesis in the area of basic or laboratory science. Following his PhD, Dr. Browne was promoted to Staff Scientist and then Senior Staff Scientist at the Sanger. In 2023 he was awarded an ERC Starter Grant to set up his own research group and commenced his current role at the School of Microbiology and APC Microbiome Ireland in 2024.
Research Interests
Dr. Browne’s research seeks to characterise the adaptations of gut bacteria that promote transmission and intestinal colonisation. A specific interest is the role of spore-formation as a means for anaerobic bacteria to transmit effectively between hosts, ensuring their survival. Dr. Browne’s team uses anaerobic microbiology, genomic and metagenomic approaches to understand the metabolic properties of spore-formers, the genetic architecture and evolution of spore-formation and the phenotypic triggers of sporulation and germination. Given their resistance properties, a deeper understanding of intestinal sporulation could allow spores to be used to deliver therapeutic anaerobic bacteria to the gut.
Publications
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h3JT8HsAAAAJ&hl=en