
Dr Conor O'Donovan
BA(Mod), BM, BCh, BAO, PhD
Current positions
Honorary Research Associate
School of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
I am a resident doctor in Paediatrics in the Severn deanery, and the Spencer Dayman Meningitis Research (SDMR) Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.
My research focusses on developing novel molecular methods to detect invasive bacterial infections, with the aim of improving clincial diagnosis for individual patients, and expanding our understanding of the molecular epidemiology of invasive bacterial infections. My current 2-year clinical research fellowship is funded by Spencer Dayman Meningitis Research (https://www.spencerdaymanmeningitisresearch.org).
I undertook my primary medical training at Trinity College, University of Dublin, graduating in 2015, and intercalated in immunology. My foundation training took place in East of England. I undertook my PhD under the supervision of Felix Randow at University of Cambridge, which focussed on the molecular biology of Shigella flexneri invasion into epithelial cells, completing in 2022. I then started postgraudate paediatric training as an Academic Clinical Fellow in the Severn deanery. The integrated academic portion of my training has been based at Bristol Vaccine Centre with Anu Goenka and Alice Halliday, and has focussed on understanding the modern epidemiology of invasive Group A Streptococcal (iGAS) disease. My work now continues in this group to improve diagnosis and molecular epidemiology of iGAS disease as the SDMR Clinical Research Fellow.
Publications
Recent publications
20/05/2026Infection, inflammation and immune dysregulation: evolving perspectives on the host response
Archives of Disease in Childhood
