How studying bats can show us how to slow down ageing and live forever young!
Emma Teeling
- đź“…Tuesday, February 18, 2025
- đź•Ą10:30 – 12:30
- 🏟Newtownpark Pastoral Centre (map)
Emma Teeling is the Full Professor of Zoology at University College Dublin (UCD), She graduated from University College Dublin with a BSc in Zoology, then obtained an MSc in Animal Behavior from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, studying the captive behavior of the endangered swift fox in Canada. Her PhD was awarded from Queen’s University Belfast, during which she spent two years at the University of California Riverside, USA working with Mark Springer reconstructing the evolutionary relationships of bats by generating the first large molecular phylogenies. She continued this research during her postdoc at the National Institutes of Health, Maryland USA under the supervision of Stephen O’Brien until returned to Ireland to start her faculty position at UCD, integrating cutting-edge molecular technology with field-based ecology and behavioural studies to develop bats as unique model study species.
For the past twelve years she has pioneered the study of wild bats as new models of extended mammalian healthspan uniting field, molecular, cellular and genomic studies to uncover how bats slow down expected ageing and resist disease, collaborating with researchers throughout the globe. She has been awarded prestigious personal grants for her research including a President of Ireland Young Researcher Award; an Irish Research Council (IRC) Laureate Award; European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant, ERC Synergy Grant. She has been awarded Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, by the French Government; the Murray Lectureship from University of Sydney; the Miller Award by the North American Bat Research Society, and Commended Irish Research Council Researcher of the Year Award (2023), for her research. She is an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy and has given countless high-profile public presentations throughout the globe (e.g. World Economic Forum, TED, European Parliament and European Commission) highlighting her findings.
