Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

After an undergraduate degree in Theoretical Physics (Trinity College Dublin, 1996), Cathal Seoighe undertook a PhD in Molecular Evolution/Bioinformatics, under the supervision of Ken Wolfe (Trinity College Dublin, awarded 2000). In 2000 he went to Cape Town, South Africa, working initially with the South African Medical Research Council on a national biotechnology strategy and at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI), University of the Western Cape (UWC), as director of Bioinformatics training. In 2001 he began working full-time as a lecturer at UWC, before joining the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2004 as Associate Professor. He returned to Ireland in 2001 as Stokes Professor of Bioinformatics in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics at NUI Galway. Although now motivated primarily by biological problems, he has a long-standing interest in the the intersection of the mathematical and biological sciences. In Cape Town he was involved in the establishment of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis (Sacema) and the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), representing UWC on the inaugural executive committee of the latter. Current research interests include probabilistic models of molecular evolution, transcriptomics and epigenetics. He is interested in the development of methods to analyze gene expression, mRNA splicing and epigenetic data and in understanding the impact of mutations on gene expression, particularly how human mutations responsible for complex diseases can lead to widespread perturbations of gene expression patterns.