Gerard Clarke
Biography
Gerard Clarke holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry, an MSc degree in Neuropharmacology (1999 and 2001; Both from National University of Ireland, Galway) and a PhD degree (2009) in Neurogastroenterology (Department of Psychiatry, University College Cork). He was a visiting scientist in the University of Mississippi Medical Centre in Jackson prior to working for a number of major multi-national pharmaceutical companies in both Ireland and Australia, including Wyeth, Pfizer and 3M. Since 2012, he has been an academic staff member of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioural Science, University College Cork, Ireland, where he currently holds a faculty position as lecturer. He is also a Faculty Investigator in the brain-gut-microbiota research theme of the APC Microbiome Institute. Research interests include microbial regulation of tryptophan metabolism and biomarkers of stress-related brain-gut axis disorders. His translational research programme incorporates studies in both clinical populations and in animal models using early-life stress templates that produce specific disease phenotypes in adulthood and microbiota-deficient animal models. He is particularly interested in the advancing our understanding of how tryptophan degradation along the kynurenine pathway influences psychopathology and in evaluating novel therapeutic interventions which can reverse such deficits. He was selected for a young investigator award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) in 2013 and from the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society (ANMS) in 2011. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers (h-index = 34), 4 book chapters and has recently edited a book titled ‘The Gut Microbiome and Behaviour’.
