Biography
I am currently a Herchel Smith postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. My research aims to uncover the molecular mechanisms that govern interkingdom interactions during polymicrobial infection.
Following my undergraduate degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Maynooth University (2008-2012), I carried out my PhD in Biotechnology at Maynooth under the direction of Prof. Sean Doyle (2012-2016). I also visited the laboratories of Prof. Gustavo Goldman at the University of São Paulo (2014) and Prof. Wulf Blankenfeldt at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany (2015). For my PhD I characterised novel regulators of toxin production in the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and explored their potential applications in diagnostics and biotechnology.
Research
I have a keen interest in both the mechanistic and regulatory aspects of virulence in opportunistic human pathogens.
Publications
Dolan S.K., (2020) Current Knowledge and Future Directions in Developing Strategies to Combat Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection. Journal of Molecular Biology. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.07.021
Dolan S.K., Kohlstedt, M., Trigg, M., Vallejo Ramirez, P., Kaminski, P.F., Wittmann, C., Welch, M., (2020) Contextual flexibility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa central carbon metabolism during growth in single carbon sources. mBio. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02684-19
Dolan S.K, Pereira. G.P., Silva-Rocha, R. and Welch, M. (2019) Transcriptional regulation of central carbon metabolism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Microbial Biotechnology. doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.13423
Doyle, S., Jones, G.W, and Dolan S.K. (2017) Dysregulated gliotoxin biosynthesis attenuates the production of unrelated metabolites in Aspergillus fumigatus. Fungal Biology. doi: 10.1016/j.funbio.2017.12.007.
Dolan S.K, Bock, T., Hering, V., Jones, G.W, Blankenfeldt W., Doyle S. (2017) Structural, mechanistic and functional insight into gliotoxin bis-thiomethylation in Aspergillus fumigatus. Open Biology. doi: 10.1098/rsob.160292
Dolan, S. K., Owens, R. A., O’Keeffe, G., Hammel, S., Fitzpatrick, D. A, Jones, G. W., and Doyle, S. (2014) Regulation of Nonribosomal Peptide Synthesis: bis-Thiomethylation Attenuates Gliotoxin Biosynthesis in Aspergillus fumigatus. Cell Chemistry and Biology. 21, 999–1012. doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2014.07.006.
McNamara, L., Dolan, S.K., Walsh, J.M., Stephens, J.C., Glare, T.R., Kavanagh, K., Griffin, C.T. (2019) Oosporein, an abundant metabolite in Beauveria caledonica, with a feedback induction mechanism and a role in insect virulence. Fungal Biology. doi: 10.1016/j.funbio.2019.01.004
Crousilles, A., Dolan S.K., Brear, P., Chirgadze, D.Y., and Welch, M. (2018) Gluconeogenic precursor availability regulates flux through the glyoxylate shunt in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J Biol Chem. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.004514.
Manfiolli, A. O., de Castro, P. A., dos Reis, T. F., Dolan, S.K., Doyle, S., Jones, G., … Goldman, G. H. (2017) Aspergillus fumigatus protein phosphatase PpzA is involved in iron assimilation, secondary metabolite production, and virulence. Cellular Microbiology. doi: e12770.
Mulvihill, E., Moloney, N., Owens, R.A., Dolan, S.K., Russell, L and Doyle, S (2017) Functional Characterization, Vacuolar Localization and Role of MirC in Iron Homeostasis in Aspergillus fumigatus. Front. Microbiol. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00418
Castro, P.A., Dos Reis, T.F, Dolan, S.K., Manfiolli, A.O., Brown, N.A., Jones, G.W., Doyle, S., Riaño-Pachón, D.M., Squina, F.M., Caldana, C., Singh, A., Poeta, M., Hagiwara, D., and Goldman, G.H. (2016) The Aspergillus fumigatus SchASCH9 kinase modulates SakAHOG1 MAP kinase activity and it is essential for virulence. Molecular Microbiology. doi: 10.1111/mmi.13484
Smith, E.B., Dolan, S.K., Fitzpatrick, D.A., Doyle, S., and Jones, G.W. (2016) Towards understanding the gliotoxin detoxification mechanism: in vivo thiomethylation protects yeast from gliotoxin cytotoxicity. Microbial Cell. doi: 10.15698/mic2016.03.485
Owens, R. A., O’Keeffe, G., Smith, E., Dolan, S. K., Hammel, S., Sheridan, K., Fitzpatrick, D. A, Jones, G. W., and Doyle, S. (2015) Interplay between Gliotoxin Resistance, Secretion and the Methyl/Methionine Cycle in Aspergillus fumigatus. Eukaryotic Cell. EC.00055-15.
Winkelströter, L.K., Dolan, S. K., Reis, T. F., Bom, V. L., Castro, P. A., Hagiwara, D., Alowni, R., Jones, G.W., Doyle S., Brown, N.A. and Goldman, G.H. (2015) Systematic Global Analysis of Genes Encoding Protein Phosphatases in Aspergillus fumigatus. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics. doi:10.1534/g3.115.016766
Dolan, S. K., O’Keeffe, G., Jones, G. W., and Doyle, S. (2015). Resistance is not futile: gliotoxin biosynthesis, functionality and utility. Trends in Microbiology. 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.tim.2015.02.005.
