Investigator Scientist 

Current work and interests

Mícheál is a visiting worker at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, and is currently involved in projects relating to bone health and various life stages including pregnancy and lactation, childhood growth, and musculoskeletal aging in both the UK and The Gambia. This work has involved facilitating and the collection of anthropometric, and bone densitometry data in addition to the auditing, analysis, and interpretation of DXA, pQCT, and HR-pQCT bone image data

In addition to Nutrition and Bone Health Research Group work in The Gambia, he has also been involved in the Sub-Saharan African MuSculOskeletal Network (SAMSON) through which he has been involved in capacity building workshops in Zimbabwe and supporting South African colleagues in the analysis of pQCT data.

Research Interests:

• Nutrition and bone health
• Nutrition and bone research in LMIC
• Ethnic differences in bone phenotype
• Musculoskeletal ageing
• Calcium economy during pregnancy and lactation
• Bone imaging
• Peripheral QCT
• High Resolution pQCT

Background and experience

Mícheál initially studied Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity College Dublin, during which he completed his BSc. thesis at the University of Gothenburg (Erasmus Programme) looking at vitamin D in late pregnancy and HR-pQCT bone outcome measures postpartum. He was an Investigator Scientist in the  former MRC Nutrition and Bone Health Research (NBH) Group led by Professor Ann Prentice.

During his PhD at the University of Cambridge his research focused primarily on quantifying pregnancy-induced bone mineral mobilisation using peripheral qualitative computed tomography (pQCT) bone imaging techniques. This involved the longitudinal analysis of bone densitometry data from two discrete populations: A rural subsistence farming community in The Gambia from whom pQCT data had been previously collected; A Cambridge based cohort of pregnant women and healthy non-pregnant non-lactating controls from whom pQCT and HR-pQCT data were prospectively collected.