Colum Dunne BSc (Hons), PhD, MBA, LLM, FRCPath is currently the Head (Dean) of the School of Medicine at University of Limerick and Foundation Professor and Director of Research.  Colum served in two terms of the University’s Governing Authority (University Board).  He was appointed Honorary Professor at Queen’s University Belfast in 2024.

He is Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (London) (FRCPath), Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, and Royal Society of Medicine (London).  He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy Life and Health Sciences Committee (RIA).  Colum is a Trustee and Council Member of the Healthcare Infection Society (London).

Colum began his third level education at University College Cork (UCC).  He held senior research roles at Ireland's National Food Biotechnology Centre, UCC's BioMerit Research Centre & the Departments of Microbiology and Medicine in UCC following a period of research at Michigan State University, USA.

Having been General Manager of a cancer research centre (supported largely through philanthropy) developing gene-/chemotherapies and innovative medical devices, Colum joined multinational Glanbia Plc as Director of Research, and served for five years as a Director and member of the Boards of the Glanbia Nutritionals group of companies.  He is an inventor on multiple patents, and was CEO and Founding Director of SoloPep Ltd, which commercialised an infection risk-reduction medical device for patients with respiratory illness.

Colum has published extensively (>275 peer-reviewed articles; H-index 47). His award-winning research aims to better understand intestinal diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, microbial colonisation and infection, host response, healthcare associated infections, prevention and ways to mitigate effects. Further research focuses on medico-legal  aspects of vulnerable populations. 

Publications

Kiernan, M.G., Coffey, C.J., Sagebally, S.M., Tibbitts, P., Lyons, E.M., O’Leary, E., Olowabi, F., Dunne, C.P. (2020) Systemic molecular mediators of inflammation differentiate between Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, implicating threshold levels of IL-10 and relative ratios of pro-inflammatory cytokines in therapy. J Crohn’s Colitis 2020 Jan 1;14(1):118-129. doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjz117

Miranda G Kiernan, J Calvin Coffey, Kieran McDermott, Paul D Cotter, Raul Cabrera-Rubio, Patrick A Kiely, Colum P Dunne (2018); The Human Mesenteric Lymph Node Microbiome Differentiates Between Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, jjy136. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjy136

Colum P. Dunne and Suzanne S. Dunne, ‘Personalized medicine should not be restricted to the wealthy’, Nature. 2018 Jul;559(7712):32. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-05609-9. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05609-9

Calvin J Coffey, Miranda G Kiernan, Shaheel M Sahebally, Awad Jarrar, John P Burke, Patrick A Kiely, Bo Shen, David Waldron, Colin Peirce, Manus Moloney, Maeve Skelly, Paul Tibbitts, Hena Hidayat, Peter N Faul, Vourneen Healy, Peter D O’Leary, Leon G Walsh, Peter Dockery, Ronan P O’Connell, Sean T Martin, Fergus Shanahan, Claudio Fiocchi, Colum P Dunne; Inclusion of the Mesentery in Ileocolic Resection for Crohn’s Disease is Associated With Reduced Surgical Recurrence, Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, Volume 12, Issue 10, 9 November 2018, Pages 1139–1150. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjx187

Donnchadh O’Sullivan, Barry Linnane, Amanda Mostyn, Nteimam Jonathan, Marie Lenihan, Nuala H. O’Connell, Colum P. Dunne; Detection of Neisseria meningitidis in a paediatric patient with septic arthritis using multiplexed diagnostic PCR targeting meningitis/encephalitis (ME), Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials (2018), 17:14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12941-018-0268-7

Kevin J. O’Sullivan, Louise Collins, Deirdre McGrath, Barry Linnane, Leonard O’Sullivan, Colum P. Dunne; Children With Cystic Fibrosis May Be Performing Oscillating Positive Expiratory Pressure Therapy Incorrectly, Chest (2018), 154:1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2018.03.057