in the news: 

Seán Ó Murchú

The multi-disciplinary and broad-ranging Medical and Health Sciences programme allowed me to develop a huge passion for human health and scientific research, which culminated in the conduction of a final year research project under the stewardship of Professor Ken O’Halloran. Our research focused on using acute intermittent hypoxia as a therapy to alleviate respiratory insufficiency in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a fatal X-lined genetic disorder whereby patients suffer from both muscle weakness and wasting. As our muscles are so important for breathing, ventilation is significantly affected in this disease. We therefore sought to investigate if acute intermittent hypoxia, a therapy whereby patients are subject to intermittent bouts of low oxygen exposure and which has been shown to be effective to ameliorate in other diseases such as spinal cord injury and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, could be used in a pre-clinical model of DMD. I was lucky enough to be afforded the opportunity to present my final year research findings at the International Society for Arterial Chemoreception Conference in Lisbon in June.

I hope to combine a life in the clinic with a life in academic research following completion of a MSc in Physiotherapy at King’s College London. I believe it is imperative that we seek to continue to improve the collaboration between clinicians and academic researchers to best make use of every individual skillset in the quest to seek the best possible patient outcomes for those who need it most.

I’d like to thank all the lecturers from the programme who made such a strong contribution to my education and to the development of a novel and highly innovative new programme at UCC, with a special mention for Professor Aideen Sullivan and Dr. Louise Collins.

Seán Ó Murchú

Fourth Year Medical and Health Sciences Student 2022

Seán in the news:

Double prizewinner Seán Ó Murchú completes Medical and Health Sciences BSc viva during 6-day charity cycle!!