Biography
Laura graduated from Trinity College Dublin Medicine in 2010, and attained membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (MRCPI) in 2013. She completed her Higher Specialist Training in Respiratory and General Internal Medicine in 2020, before embarking upon a Clinical Fellowship in Pleural Disease and Interventional Pulmonology in Imperial NHS Trust in London.
Throughout her training, Laura was actively involved in translational medical research, and was awarded the Health Research Board's (HRB) Health Professional Fellowship to fund her PhD work examining the immunometabolic response of human macrophages to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. Through this work, she demonstrated for the first time the centrality of glycolytic reprogramming in the early innate immune response to Mtb infection, and crucially demonstrated defects in this essential immunometabolic response in alveolar macrophages from smokers' lungs.
In 2023, she was appointed as Associate Professor in Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, and Consultant Respiratory Physician in St James's Hospital. With the support of HRB funding through the Clinician Scientist Fellowship, she is exploring the role of safe, FDA-approved metabolic manipulators on the immunometabolic innate immune response to infection and the impact of macrophage ontogeny on metabolic and functional outcomes in infection, with a view to developing new treatments for TB and other respiratory pathogens.
Laura is passionate about promoting the clinical / scientific collaborations to promote truly transformative translational research that addresses questions that really matter and delivers solutions to the patient's bedside.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Gleeson LE, Waterer G, Beyond antibiotics: recent developments in the diagnosis and management of NTM infection, Breathe (Sheffield, England), 18, (2), 2022
Gleeson LE, Waterer G., Beyond antibiotics: recent developments in the diagnosis and management of nontuberculous mycobacterial infection., Breathe (Sheffield, England), 18, (2), 2022, p210171
Gleeson, L.E. and Roche, H.M. and Sheedy, F.J., Obesity, COVID-19 and innate immunometabolism, British Journal of Nutrition, 125, (6), 2021, p628-632
O'Brien CM, O'Brien AC, Gleeson L, Conlon K, Feeney J, Malone DE., Imaging of genetically-mediated pancreatitis., Clinical imaging, 65, 2020, p113-118
Herron M, Chong SG, Gleeson L, Nicholson S, Fahy RJ., Paraneoplastic sarcoidosis: a review., QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians, 113, (1), 2020, p17-19
Hackett, E.E., Charles-Messance, H., O'Leary, S.M., Gleeson, L.E., Muñoz-Wolf, N., Case, S., Wedderburn, A., Johnston, D.G.W., Williams, M.A., Smyth, A., Ouimet, M., Moore, K.J., Lavelle, E.C., Corr, S.C., Gordon, S.V., Keane, J., Sheedy, F.J., Mycobacterium tuberculosis Limits Host Glycolysis and IL-1ß by Restriction of PFK-M via MicroRNA-21, Cell Reports, 30, (1), 2020, p124-136.e4
Gleeson LE, Gary Lee YC., Predicting Patient Outcome in the Evolving Field of Malignant Pleural Effusion., Journal of bronchology & interventional pulmonology, 27, (1), 2020, p1-3
Dockry É, O'Leary S, Gleeson LE, Lyons J, Keane J, Gray SG, Doherty DG, Epigenetic induction of CD1d expression primes lung cancer cells for killing by invariant natural killer T cells, OncoImmunology, 2018, pe1428156-
Gleeson LE, O'Leary SM, Ryan D, McLaughlin AM, Sheedy FJ, Keane JM., Cigarette Smoking Impairs the Bioenergetic Immune Response to Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection., American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology, 2018
Gleeson LE, Sheedy FJ, Palsson-McDermott EM, Triglia D, O'Leary SM, O'Sullivan MP, O'Neill LA, Keane J, Cutting Edge: Mycobacterium tuberculosis Induces Aerobic Glycolysis in Human Alveolar Macrophages That Is Required for Control of Intracellular Bacillary Replication., Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950), 196, (6), 2016, p2444-2449
O'Connor G, Gleeson LE, Fagan-Murphy A, Cryan SA, O'Sullivan MP, Keane J, Sharpening nature's tools for efficient tuberculosis control: A review of the potential role and development of host-directed therapies and strategies for targeted respiratory delivery., Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 102, 2016, p33 - 54
Ní Cheallaigh, C., Sheedy, F.J., Harris, J., Muñoz-Wolf, N., Lee, J., West, K., McDermott, E.P., Smyth, A., Gleeson, L.E., Coleman, M., Martinez, N., Hearnden, C.H., Tynan, G.A., Carroll, E.C., Jones, S.A., Corr, S.C., Bernard, N.J., Hughes, M.M., Corcoran, S.E., O'Sullivan, M., Fallon, C.M., Kornfeld, H., Golenbock, D., Gordon, S.V., O'Neill, L.A., Keane, J. Lavelle, E.C, A Common Variant in the Adaptor Mal Regulates Interferon Gamma Signaling., Immunity, 44, (2), 2016, p368 - 379
Gleeson, L.E., Sheedy, F.J., Metabolic reprogramming & inflammation: Fuelling the host response to pathogens, Seminars in Immunology, 28, (5), 2016, p450-468
Palsson-McDermott EM, Curtis AM, Goel G, Lauterbach MA, Sheedy FJ, Gleeson LE, van den Bosch MW, Quinn SR, Domingo-Fernandez R, Johnson DG, Jiang J, Israelsen WJ, Keane J, Thomas C, Clish C, Vanden Heiden M, Xavier RJ, O'Neill LA, Pyruvate Kinase M2 Regulates Hif-1alfa Activity and IL-1ß Induction and Is a Critical Determinant of the Warburg Effect in LPS-Activated Macrophages., Cell metabolism, 21, (1), 2015, p65-80
Gleeson LE, Keane J, First Steps in Biomarker Assessment for Reactivation Risk in Latent Tuberculosis Infection., American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 192, (5), 2015, p534-5
Gleeson, L.E., Varghese, C., Ryan, E., Kane, M., Mcdonald, C., Gleeson, N., McLaughlin, A.-M., Butler, K., Gavin, P., Keane, J., Untreated chronic tuberculous salpingitis followed by successful in vitro fertilization conception and congenital tuberculosis, QJM, 108, (11), 2015, p899-901
O'Leary SM, Coleman MM, Chew WM, Morrow C, McLaughlin AM, Gleeson LE, O'Sullivan MP, Keane J., Cigarette smoking impairs human pulmonary immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis., American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 190, (12), 2014, p1430 - 1436
Gleeson LE, Jennings S, Gavin R, McConaghy D, Collins DR, Primary care in nursing homes revisited: survey of the experiences of primary care physicians., Irish medical journal, 2014
Gleeson L, Alam J, Lane S., SMART phones and the acute respiratory patient., Irish medical journal, 105, (5), 2012, p143-146
Recognition
Memberships
European Respiratory Society
Irish Society of Immunology
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
Irish Thoracic Society