Rate My Professor Conor O’Byrne

Conor O’Byrne is a Personal Professor of Microbiology in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the University of Galway. He holds a BSc in Microbiology from University College Cork (1986-1990) and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee (1990-1994). His postdoctoral research at Colworth Laboratory, Unilever Plc (1994-1997), was followed by an ACT(R) Postdoctoral Fellowship and University Lectureship at the University of Aberdeen (1997-2002). Since joining NUI Galway in 2002 as a Lecturer in Microbiology (2002-2009), he advanced to Senior Lecturer (2014-2019) and Personal Professor (2019-present), while serving as Vice Dean for Internationalisation in the College of Science (2009-2014). He also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice at NUI Galway (2007-2010). As Director of the Bacterial Stress Response Group, established in Aberdeen in 2000 and relocated to Galway in 2002, he leads research on molecular mechanisms enabling food-borne bacterial pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella Typhimurium to sense and adapt to environmental stresses including acid pH, osmolarity, oxygen depletion, light, and temperature changes.

Professor O’Byrne’s work elucidates transcriptional responses, sigma factor regulation, osmoregulation, and persistence mechanisms in these pathogens, with applications to preventing growth in food chains and hosts. He led the MSCA-ITN PATHSENSE project, training 13 PhD students on bacterial stress sensing across Europe, and has obtained funding from Research Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. His research outputs include 112 publications, with over 5,000 citations noted on ResearchGate. Key publications are 'Methods for studying microbial acid stress responses: From molecules to populations' (FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 2024), 'A low acriflavine dose strongly potentiates the antimicrobial effect of blue light on Staphylococcus aureus' (Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, 2025), and 'The impact of different acidic conditions and food substrates on Listeria monocytogenes biofilms' (International Journal of Food Microbiology, 2024). He has supervised numerous PhD, MSc, and undergraduate students, hosted international visitors, and serves as a member of the Internationalisation Committee.