Discipline Head, Food Science and Industrial Biotechnology

Email: gemma.kinsella@tudublin.ie

Expertise Keywords: 

• Protein structure prediction/engineering
• Computational drug design/optimisation

Short Summary: 

Enzymes can modulate the rate of chemical reactions and are, themselves, reusable. Altering enzymes through protein engineering, guided by computational modelling, permits their use in complex enzymatic reactions for green chemistry applications. This leads to enzymes that are more stable in various solvents and temperatures, as well as altering their specificity and applicability, resulting in enhanced bioprocesses that are efficient and environmentally friendly. My research focuses on protein structure prediction/engineering and an active research interest is on the production and characterisation of lipases for plastic degradation and of β-glucosidase for hydrolytic and synthetic activity with the applied enzymology group (AEG) in TU Dublin (Prof Henehan and Dr Ryan). Here I co-supervised 3 PhD students who graduated in 2020.

I also have extensive knowledge in compound design and optimisation; protein structure analysis and in silico screening used in the early stages of drug design/development. Computational modelling techniques allow the biological activity of millions of compounds to be studied without the need to synthesize them in the laboratory. Such approaches significantly reduce the cost and time to drug design work.

External Profile Link: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/faculties-and-schools/sciences-health/food-science--environmental-health-grangegorman/people/gemmakinsella.html