Feargal is a NHMRC-funded investigator (EL1) in the Computational & Systems Biology Program at SAHMRI and holds a level B appointment in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University. Feargal’s research combines microbiology, bioinformatics, and systems immunology to understand how host-microbe interactions shape health in the fields of gut microbiome, infection (COVID-19, ZIKV) and cancer.

He has co-authored 25+ peer reviewed articles including in top ranked journals such as Gut, Cell Host & Microbe and Nature Communications. Feargal has worked with global leaders in the gut microbiome field including at the APC Microbiome Institute (Ireland), Kings College London (UK) and the Janssen Human Microbiome Institute (USA). He has also led development of highly cited computational analysis tools (Allard, Ryan et al. BMC Bioinformatics 2018) and reproducible protocols for generating metagenomic data.  (Shkoporov, Ryan et al. Microbiome 2018). Additionally, Feargal also has extensive industry and translational experience having worked with Second Genome Inc. in San Francisco, to develop a novel probiotic during his PhD.

In addition to this research, Feargal aims to support and promote upcoming researchers in his field. To this end he is the postdoc rep of the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (ABACBS), as well as sitting on the committees for the SAHMRI early- and mid- career researcher working group, and Epigenetics Consortium of South Australia (EpiCSA).