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Dr. Devon Kavanaugh, orcid 0000-0001-8831-8248

Postdoctoral Researcher: INRA-Micalis, PIMs team –

Devon Kavanaugh is 35 years old and has recently begun his work with the PIMs team. 

While his principal field of research is classified as glycobiology, Devon draws on his experience in pharmacology, biochemistry, and biology to pursue his research interests relating to the gut microbiome and biosensor development.

He graduated from the honours Biology and Pharmacology program from McMaster University in 2006, and began his PhD under the joint-supervision of Dr. Rita Hickey and Prof. Lokesh Joshi in Cork, Ireland in 2008 (in partnership with the National University of Ireland, Galway).  The project was based on the influence of milk oligosaccharides upon intestinal bacteria, and involved many different aspects, including oligosaccharide isolation and characterisation, microbiology, cell culture, and gene expression analysis.  Finishing in late 2013, Devon joined the research group of Dr. Nathalie Juge at the Institute of Food Research (now the Quadram Insititute Bioscience) for his first postdoctoral post.  His work there focused on the interaction between the intestinal microbiota and the host, more specifically, bacterial adhesins and their attachment to mucin glycans.  His second postdoctoral post with the Juge group was centred on the expression and characterisation of bacterial-derived, carbohydrate-active enzymes.  Devon has recently began a postdoctoral position within the group of Dr. Nalini Rama Rao, where he will perform research related to the selection and characterisation of biomarkers, with a view to better existing methodologies regarding pathogen identification.

Education:

2006: Hons. B.Sc. Biology and Pharmacology - McMaster University, Canada

2013: Ph.D. - NUI Galway / Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Ireland

Current position: Postdoctoral researcher, MICALIS Unit (INRA), PIMS team

Previous employment:

2013-2017: Postdoctoral researcher, Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK, Juge Group

Team Management : Supervision of 1 stagiare (3 mos., 2017), oversight of 1 phD student (2016-2017), manager of cell culture lab (2013).

Communications :

- 2 oral presentations at international conferences, 1 regional conference

- 5+ poster presentations at local and international conferences.

- Participant in Norwich Science Festival

On going grants as coordinator:

-   IBCarb network, Proof of concept grant approved (£20k)

Publications: 12 publications in peer reviewed journals.

5 major papers in last 5 years:

1 - Lecointe et al (2018) FASEB (in press)

2 - Sequeira et al (2018) PNAS (in press)

3 - Bene, et al. (2017) Front Microbiol 8: 321. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00321

4 - Gunning, et al (2016) Int J Mol Sci 17:1854; DOI:10.3390/ijms17111854

5 - Tailford, et al (2015) Front Genet DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2015.00081. (Cited by 113)

 Awards:

-  McMaster University entrance scholarship for academic excellence (2001)

-  Walsh Fellow (2008-2012)

-  Travel award: Glycom – Top 4 abstracts submitted. ‘The 1st International Conference on Human Milk Oligosaccharides’, Copenhagen, Denmark, May 16-17, 2011.

-  Travel award: ENGIHR conference ‘The gut microbiota throughout life’, Karlsruhe, Germany, September 24-26, 2014.