Anne Parle-McDermott is Professor in Genetics in the School of Biotechnology and the founding Director of DCU Life Sciences Institute (LSI). As Principal Investigator of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory and LSI member, her research interests are in the complementary areas of functional genetics as it relates to human health and the application of DNA/RNA-based methodologies for clinical diagnostics and biosensor development for environmental, contamination and pathogen monitoring.

Anne has worked in Molecular Biology for over 25 years having learned the fundamentals while studying at Trinity College Dublin, including being part of the European Yeast Sequencing Project. She earned her doctorate in Molecular Cancer at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and returned to Trinity as a Postdoctoral Fellow where she was introduced to folate research and understanding its role in human health. She progressed to a temporary lecturing position at Trinity before moving to DCU in 2006 where she attained tenure in 2009. Anne has held numerous roles in DCU including Head of School from 2018 to 2020.