PEOPLE SEARCH

Ongoing research in the MFAA group focuses on the development of synthetic methodology required in Drug Discovery and Drug production. Mauro has published more than 85 papers and is a named inventor on 10 patent families. Prof. Adamo is particularly skilled at developing new synthetic routes for active pharmaceutical ingredients and has a number of industry funded collaborations in this field. Additional interests regards the of hypervalent sulfur species for the enanyoselective synthesis of halogenated compounds, in particular fluorinated (18F and 19F) amino acids and peptides.

Dr. Rana Ahmed is a global health researcher with over 15 years of experience in epidemiology, biostatistics, health informatics, geospatial disease mapping, and data analysis. Her work focuses on designing and managing large-scale public health studies using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Rana holds a PhD in Tropical Medicine from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where her doctoral research focused on the burden of chronic non-communicable lung disease among adults in both rural and urban Sudan.

She has extensive experience leading and contributing to research on both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including neglected tropical diseases, tuberculosis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). During her research career at the Epidemiological Laboratory, a leading research institute in Sudan, she led large-scale epidemiological studies, including the international Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study. Rana has contributed to data-driven approaches aimed at improving public health interventions and services. She has also collaborated internationally, published in peer-reviewed journals, and supervised early-career researchers.

As a Postdoctoral Researcher with the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Neglected Tropical Diseases, Rana co-leads the geospatial mapping theme in Sudan and Ethiopia. She led the Sudan component of the project, which includes research on scabies and other neglected tropical diseases among marginalised populations, particularly internally displaced persons (IDPs). Her work combines epidemiological and spatial approaches to generate evidence that informs public health planning, policy, and practice.

In January 2025, Rana joined RCSI as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Population Health. Her current research focuses on understanding and addressing cognitive and behavioural factors that influence participation in Ireland's cancer screening programs (BreastCheck, BowelScreen, and CervicalCheck). The ultimate goal of her work is to design interventions that enhance cancer screening participation and improve health outcomes.

Across her research, Rana is particularly interested in cross-cutting, data-driven approaches to public health research, and in translating complex data and rigorous methodological evidence into clear, credible and actionable findings that can inform policy and practice.

Daniela Costa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the RCSI School of Physiotherapy, awarded with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship, and mentored by Prof. Helen French. Her project, SPECs-OA (Social PrEscribing integration in the Care Pathway for people with OsteoArthritis), explores if and how social prescribing can be integrated in the healthcare management of people living with osteoarthritis, using quantitative and qualitative study designs and realist methods.

She holds a PhD in Public Health (Epidemiology) from the NOVA National School of Public Health, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal (2023). Supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and Pfizer, her doctoral research project analysed the prevalence, severity and impact of osteoarthritis in Portugal and made contriutions to the development of a national model of care. 

Giuseppe Aleo (MA, PhD) is a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow and Honarary Research Fellow at the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery since September 2020. His current role is to support the work and research activities of Dr. Cathy Fitzgerald at the European Centre of Excellence for Research in Continuing Professional Development.
Giuseppe has a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and taught Scientific English for over 20 years to undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral nursing students in Italy, and 16 years of experience as a Continuing Professional Development Officer at the IDI Dermatological Hospital and Research Institute in Rome, Italy.
He collaborated with the Italian Nursing Regulatory Board (FNOPI) to support the establishment of the European Council of Nursing Regulators in Brussels, and with the Nursing Regulatory Board of Rome (OPI Roma) to support the establishment of the first Centre of Excellence for Nursing Scholarship (CECRI) in Italy.
During his PhD in Public Health and Prevention at the University of Genoa, he conducted a national multicentre survey to study sun-safe behaviours, personal risk, and knowledge about cutaneous melanoma in the general population. He has been a speaker at many international conferences and is co-author of a book.
He has worked as a Visiting Lecturer and coached doctoral students to help them write scientific papers in English at the University of Genoa (Italy) for more than 10 years. He has co-authored over 140 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Marwa Aly is the Research Programme Manager for RCSI SIM, Centre for Simulation Education and Research in the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI). 

Dr Stephanie Annett is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at RCSI, where she leads a research programme focused on molecular pharmacology and translational therapeutics. She was appointed as Lecturer in 2021 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2025. Dr Annett completed a Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) at Queen’s University Belfast and subsequently trained as a registered pharmacist before undertaking a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology. She later carried out postdoctoral research at RCSI.

Dr Rob Argent is a Lecturer in Digital & Connected Health in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, and a Funded Investigator in FutureNeuro, the Research Ireland Centre for Translational Brain Science. 
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A Physiotherapist by background, Rob spent several years working clinically in the NHS. With an interest in improving efficiency and health outcomes by utilising innovative technology-driven methods, he undertook a PhD in University College Dublin as part of a European-wide Connected Health programme. Dr Argent's research is predominantly focussed on patient or user facing digital health technologies, working across multiple clinical contexts in the orthopaedic and neurological domains. 

Dr Argent works at the intersection between clinicians and technologists, regularly collaborating with industry partners on projects exploring digital biomarkers and remote patient monitoring. His current research seeks to both assist in the development of new digital health tools, and evaluate existing technologies available on the market, assessing the value proposition to all stakeholders.

He is also part of the organising committee for Health 2.0 Dublin, a digital health community hosting regular events. Dr Argent has completed a Professional Certificate in University Teaching & Learning and a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Professions Education, and is committed to preparing the next generation of scientists and healthcare professionals to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of digital health.

Dr Nikolas Aristokleous is an Honorary Researcher at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. His research lies at the intersection of biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, computational modelling, and digital health, with a particular focus on translating advanced engineering methods into clinical applications.

Dr Aristokleous has held research and academic appointments at leading international institutions, including Lund University, University College Dublin, University of Limerick, and University of Dundee. His work has contributed to the advancement of patient-specific modelling, digital twins, and simulation-driven healthcare technologies.

Dr. Bahlool is a pharmacist and a lecturer in Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and the International College for Pharmaceutical Innovation (ICPI) , SUDA, Suzhou, China. He previously worked as a Process Development Scientist at CureVac SE in Tübingen, Germany, contributing to the development and scale-up of GMP- compliant mRNA-LNP vaccine formulations. He served as Assistant Professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the school of pharmacy at Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan (ZUJ). 

Dr. Bahlool obtained his BSc of Pharmacy from the University of Jordan. He then completed a joint Master’s degree in Nanomedicine for Drug Delivery through Erasmus Mundus joint Master’s program Jointly between four universities Université Paris Cité and the University of Angers in France, the University of Pavia in Italy, and the University of Patras in Greece. He was then awarded his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). His doctoral research focused on the development of inhalable nanoparticle-based host-directed immunotherapies for tuberculosis. Dr. Bahlool research interest is in translational pharmaceutics, biopharmaceutics, nanomedicine, bio-nanointeraction, drug targeting, Inhalable and pulmonary therapeutics, RNA-based therapeutics, mRNA vaccine technologies and long acting injectables development.

Dr. Barlow obtained his B.Sc.(Pharm.) [1998] and Ph.D. [2002] degrees at The University of Dublin, Trinity College. He worked in community practice prior to his appointment as Lecturer in Pharmacognosy at RCSI, where he has worked since 2004, and is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Barlow is interested in small-molecule natural products, with a particular interest in those with anti-infective and anti-cancer activity. He has active research collaborations in Brazil, Portugal, Bangladesh and France. Dr. Barlow has, since 2009, acted as Director of Assessment for the various programmes in Pharmacy, and has a leading role in the design and management of licensure examinations for the profession.

Dr Sarah Barry PhD is Senior Lecturer and Director of Academic Programmes at the School of Population Health, RCSI. Sarah leads the multidisciplinary Cameron Team at the School of Population Health with its specific brief to support the education and research targets of the School over five years. Sarah is the first Programme Director of the MSc in Population Health Leadership established in 2024. She was previously the Director of the Centre for Health Policy and Management at Trinity College Dublin, and Co-Director of the National HRB-funded SPHeRE PhD training programme securing €6m in funding with colleagues from RCSI and UCC. Sarah directed Trinity's MSc in Health Services Management for over 5 years.

Sarah is Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, and Visiting Lecturer at Munster Technological University. She is a member of the Strategy and Reform Committee of the HSE Board having previously served on the Performance and Planning Committee from 2020 to 2024; She is also a member of the Population-Based Planning Expert Advisory Group for HSE Public Health. She was appointed by the Minister for Health to the Board of the Health Research Board (HRB) in November 2022, and also serves as Deputy Chair for the Advisory Board of the Advanced Care Research Centre Academy at the University of Edinburgh.

Sarah completed a Diploma in Corporate Governance in 2021 at the Corporate Governance Institute International, a PhD (Organisational Learning on ‘Another Map’) at the Center for Global Health, Trinity College Dublin in 2010; a Masters in Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation from the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, UK in 2001; and a Bachelor of Divinity from The Gregorian Pontifical University, Rome, Italy in 1995. Sarah was also awarded a Baccalaureate in Philosophy from the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Dublin in 1992.

I am a specialist registered General Practitioner with additional clinical expertise and experience in Pre-Hospital Emergency Care and in Public Health Medicine. My research interests are in health systems and population health, primarily at the interface of primary and emergency/unscheduled care.

I previously led the research component of the national ‘MERIT’ (Medial Emergency Responders Integration and Training) project which provided training and equipment for GPs to manage community emergencies, facilitated integration with the statutory ambulance services and demonstrated the life saving effects of GP based emergency care. 

I was awarded the 2019 European Resuscitation Council, Petter Steen Young Investigator Award for my doctoral work on cardiac arrest community first response systems. I was further awarded a Health Research Board, Clinician Scientist Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020, and then an Emerging Clinician Scientist Award in 2024.

I was appointed to the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) in 2021, where I have served as Medical Advisory Committee Vice-Chair and then Chair. In 2025 I was appointed by the Minister for Health to Chair Council.  I also currently serve on the Editorial Board for ‘Resuscitation Plus’.

Rachel Beatty received her undergraduate Bachelor of Science, focused on Anatomy from the University of Galway in 2017. Following a brief period working in the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia, she returned to complete her PhD in Anatomy at the University of Galway, funded through the Advanced Materials for BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Centre (2018 - 2022). Following two short postdoctoral positions, she was recruited as a Lecturer in Anatomy and AI Applications in Medicine at the University of Galway (2024 - 2026). More recently she has taken up a new position as a Lecturer in Anatomy and Soft Robotics at RCSI, Dublin. She has been awarded funding under several bodies including the ARC Hub for Health Tech and Enterprise Ireland's Disruptive Technology and Innovation Fund (DTIF). She was recently listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 European class of 2026 in the Science and Healthcare category. Her research is closely aligned with the Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG) cluster and Trinity Center for Bioengineering (TCBE) in TCD.

Dr Tina Bedenik is a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher leading a qualitative study that explores rare disease research environment in Ireland. Prior to that Tina successfully led two qualitative projects in RCSI, which explored the application of AI in clinical decision-making in neurology, and the use of health data for secondary purposes. Before joining RCSI Tina worked in DCU Business School on a cross-cultural study of technology entrepreneurship, and she held research posts in the public healthcare sector including the HSE. She designed and taught both undergraduate and postgraduate modules, and she supervises undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students. She also advises HIQA on health data re-use under the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation. Tina obtained her PhD from University College Dublin having conducted a phenomenological (IPA) study of women's experiences of labiaplasty, funded by the Irish Research Council. She has an interdisciplinary background with a joint MA in Human Rights from University of Tromsø (Norway), University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and University of Roehampton (UK), and MA in Political Science from University of Zagreb (Croatia). She received multiple awards for research excellence, including the HSE Open Access Research Award for the best research article in Ireland in 2025 in category Integrated Servics. A qualitative researcher by training, Tina is particularly interested in participatory methodologies and the intersection of health and social (in)equality.

Dr Caragh Behan is a Psychiatrist and Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She holds a PhD in Health Economics, a Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), and an associate fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (AFRCSI). She has post graduate qualifications in Medical Education, Family Therapy and in Mindfulness Meditation.  Clinically she is on the General Adult Psychiatry Specialist Register and has been affiliated with the DETECT early intervention for psychosis service in Dublin, Practitioner Health and the adult services in St John of God Community Services. Her interests span compassionate healthcare, youth mental health, health services research, health economics research, physical and mental illness comorbidity and the lived experience of being a patient and carer. She is on the PPI in Education committee in RCSI and is a faculty advisor for the Gold Honour Humanism Society (GHHS). She is a guest editor for the BMC Medical Education special issue on Psychiatry education and its challenges, and is on the editorial board of the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine (IJPM). She has co-authored a book on Compassionate Healthcare with Prof. Brendan Kelly.

Claire Behan is a Lecturer and Programme Director of the Neurology Specialist Practice Programme at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences School of Nursing and Midwifery, and a visiting Advanced Nurse Practitioner in the Epilepsy and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex service at St James’s Hospital, Dublin. Claire has over 20 years of clinical experience in neurology and critical care. Her academic work bridges clinical practice and translational research, with a focus on improving diagnostic pathways and service delivery for people with seizures, epilepsy, and rare neurological disorders particularly Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. Claire has contributed to national and international collaborations, published in leading journals, and received multiple awards recognising her leadership and research impact.

Dr Abdelsalam Ben Saaud, MB BCh BAO (Hons), MSc (Hons), PgCert, FIPC, PhD, is an Academic Lead and Lecturer in Postgraduate Medical Education at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). His work centres on curriculum development and innovation, postgraduate training in medical professionalism, and the advancement of evidence-based, patient-centred education across the health professions. He is the co-founder and lead of Ireland’s and Europe’s first MSc/PGDip in Professionalism in Medicine & Health Sciences, where he oversees programme design, accreditation, launch, and delivery. In this role, he collaborates closely with RCSI Online, the Graduate School of Healthcare Management, Surgical Affairs, and the Quality Enhancement Office (QEO) to implement high-quality governance, robust assessment frameworks, and academically rigorous learner support.

Clinically, Dr Ben Saaud is a Cardiovascular Physician trained in Emergency Medicine and in Cardiovascular and Endovascular Medicine. He holds a First-Class MSc in Preventive Cardiology and completed his PhD at the University of Galway, where he specialised in multidisciplinary cardiovascular risk-management strategies in carotid artery disease. His clinical background informs his teaching in acute and cardiovascular care, risk assessment, ethical decision-making, and high-acuity clinical reasoning, contributing to interdisciplinary educational initiatives across cardiovascular, surgical, and emergency care pathways.

At RCSI, he contributes to the integration of medical professionalism, human-factors science, reflective practice, leadership development, and patient-safety principles across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. His academic leadership includes developing Marks & Standards, assessment blueprints, curricular mapping to international frameworks (GMC, IMC, ABIM, CanMEDS, WHO), and collaborating with consultants, Training Programme Directors (TPDs), and clinical supervisors to enhance learner experience and programme quality. He integrates high-fidelity educational approaches, including simulation-supported learning, case-based scenarios, technical and non-technical skills teaching, hybrid learning, and OSCE-style assessments, to support professional competence, team performance, and clinical realism. His work aligns with RCSI Strategy 2023-2027 and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health & Well-Being).

Dr Ben Saaud co-leads a broad research portfolio spanning cardiovascular care and prevention, endovascular medicine, medical professionalism, professional identity formation, behaviour assessment, and health-professions education. His scholarship includes Cochrane systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, mixed-methods studies, psychometric validation of behavioural assessment tools, and national longitudinal studies such as the HEA-funded PROPER project. His methodological expertise spans clinical trials, epidemiology, behavioural research, psychometrics, and learning analytics. Through peer-reviewed publications, invited presentations, and educational leadership, his research informs patient-centred cardiovascular care, patient-safety systems, professionalism training,  curriculum design, and evidence-based educational governance.

Internationally, Dr Ben Saaud serves as Associate Editor of the European Heart Journal – Case Reports, Chairperson within the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress Clinical Case Committee, and Member of the Cochrane Heart Group (UK). He is a Fellow of the National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health (NIPC), a former Ambassador of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC), and a former Nucleus Member of the Alumni Working Group in Preventive Cardiology at the University of Galway. He also contributes to institutional leadership as an Academic Member of the RCSI Race Equality Action Plan Committee (2025–2029). His contributions have been recognised through several distinctions, including the CROÍ Cardiology Gold Medal, the NIPC Educational Bursary, the NUIG Early-Stage Researcher Award, and additional awards for academic excellence. Across his clinical, academic, and research roles, Dr Ben Saaud is committed to shaping future healthcare professionals and advancing excellence in postgraduate education, cardiovascular practice, medical professionalism, patient safety, and high-quality clinical care.