Silvia Melgar
Biography
Dr Silvia Melgar is a senior research fellow and funded investigator in APC Microbiome Ireland with a PhD in Immunology earned at Umea University, Sweden, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship and senior research scientist position at AstraZeneca, R&D, Sweden. Dr Melgar was a principal scientist/in vivo research coordinator under the collaboration between GlaxoSmithKline and the APC. Dr Melgar has a h-Index 36 (Google Scholar) and has published 73 peer-review articles, reviews and book chapters in journals including Gut Microbes, Microbiome, Nature Communications, Mucosal Immunology, Frontiers Immunology, Cell Death and Disease, Journal of Control Release and Cell Reports covering the areas of immunology, pharmacology, gastroenterology, and microbiology.
Her research aims to identify molecular mechanisms regulated by inflammation (Flood et al, 2022; Hall et al, 2013; Melgar et al, 2005); environmental factors such as diet and dietary components (O’Mahony et al, 2023; Saiz-Gonzalo et al, 2021) and by bacteria and metabolites (Singh et al, 2023; O’Mahony et al, 2023; Saiz-Gonzalo et al, 2021; Aguilera et al, 2021; and Ryan et al, 2020) in intestinal disorders including inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer and metabolic conditions. Her group uses a combination of in vitro cell systems, primary ex vivo cultures such as organoids and in vivo preclinical models. Her research is funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, Irish Research Council and the European Commission (MSCA & Horizon Europe). She’s currently leading a WP under the “GENEGUT” project aiming to oral deliver RNA-therapies in Cronh’s Disease and co-PI under the “PreVegDiet” project aiming to understand the relationship between diet, immune response, infection and metabolic conditions.
Research Interests
Research theme: Theme 4 – host microbe dialogue.
SDGs: 3, 4, 5, 9, 12
Research key words: host-microbe, host-diet and host-diet-microbiome interactions, bacteria, metabolites, epithelial cell biology, diet, IBD, preclinical models, oral delivery
Publications
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=melgar+silvia&sort=date&size=50
Google schoolar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ib5wJ5UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao