SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER, 2018 – UWI TODAY
15
Once upon a time in Ireland,
there lived a little
family of five. Dad, a chemical engineer, Mum, an
art teacher and the three children looked much like
everyone else around, but something was different.
Their food, for example, was uncommonly spicy and
they regularly hosted unusually lively gatherings with
strange, exotic music, often featuring metal drums.
Some neighbours even claimed that the music made
references to cannibalism, obeahmen and loose
women with names like Jean and Dinah, Rosita and
Clementina. They blamed the mother. She was from
Trinidad and apparently couldn’t help it. On the plus
side, she was wonderful with people and passionate
about her children’s education. To everyone’s delight,
despite their mother’s peculiar habits and their very
unusual upbringing, the children turned out quite
well.
One of those children, Professor Dermot Kelleher,
stands before us today, an extraordinary scientist
and clinician, renowned for his pioneering research,
transformative medical leadership, innovation and
entrepreneurship. He is a Fellow of the Academy of
Medical Sciences and Royal College of Physicians
(London), Trinity College Dublin, and the American
Gastroenterology Association and was the 2011
recipient of the prestigious Conway Medal from the
Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland). Dr. Kelleher
gained First Class Honours in Medicine at Trinity
College Dublin in 1978 – a rare feat at the time.
Inspired by his mentor Professor Donald Weir, he
specialised in gastroenterology, training first inDublin
and then as a 1986 Fogarty Scholar at the University of
California. In 1989, he returned to Trinity College as
aWellcome Senior Fellow in Clinical Science earning
his MD in 1994. Seven years later, he was appointed to
the Trinity College Chair in Clinical Medicine.
Dr. Kelleher’s research (which has generated
over 300 publications to date) has focussed on the
mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases of the
gastrointestinal tract. Innovation, entrepreneurship
and the ability to move basic research findings
from the laboratory bench to the bedside have been
hallmarks of his career. For example, his identification
of mechanisms by which Helicobacter pylori (a major
cause of ulcers) protects itself from the immune
system led to an effective vaccine licensed to the
Chiron Corporation.
He has patented inventions in the areas of
diagnostics, drugs and nano-fluidics through spin-out
companies. These include Opsona Therapeutics (for
which he was co-founder) which develops drugs and
vaccines, Deerac Fluidics (nowmerged with Labcyte)
and Cellix, both global leaders inmicro and nanolitre
liquid handling systems for the Life Sciences industry.
Dr. Kelleher has repeatedly demonstrated that
the key to accelerating this so-called “translational
research” is working inmultidisciplinary settings and
he was central to the creation of a number of institutes
and networks that bring together engineers, physicists,
chemists, biologists and academic clinicians. These
include the Institute forMolecularMedicine at Trinity
College Dublin, the Wellcome Trust HRB Clinical
Research Facility at Trinity College Dublin and St
James’ Hospital, and the newMedical School Building
as part of the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute.
He was also one of the co-founders of the Dublin
Molecular Medicine Centre which led to the creation
of Molecular Medicine Ireland, a consortium of Irish
Universities and their associated academic hospitals.
The UWI 2018 Honorary Graduate Citation
PROFESSOR DERMOT P. KELLEHER
Awarded Degree of Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa
GRADUATION 2018
Professor Dermot Kelleher, who received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from The UWI, here gives the guest speech at the 4pm
graduation ceremony on Saturday, October 27.
PHOTO: GUYTN OTTLEY
Like his mentor, Dr. Kelleher combines excellent
medical research and practice with great leadership.
Currently Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice-
President, Health at theUniversity of BritishColumbia
in Vancouver, Canada, his previous roles include
serving as Head of the School of Medicine and Vice-
Provost for Medical Affairs at Trinity College, Dublin,
Director at Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin,
andmore recently, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at
Imperial College London and Dean of the Lee Kong
Chian School of Medicine in Singapore.
Being a successful Dean is a noteworthy
achievement but Dr. Kelleher is clearly a bit of an
overachiever: he was Dean of Imperial College and the
Lee Kong Chian simultaneously (on two continents)!
Furthermore, during this tenure he oversaw the
renewal of Imperial’s designation as one of only five
Academic Health Sciences Centres in the UK and
led the teams that secured Imperial College’s highest
ever ranking in the Research Excellence Framework.
Dr. Kelleher is also a member of the London
Health Commission and has founding membership
of MedCity, a collaboration between the Mayor
of London, Imperial College, King’s College and
University College London aimed at promoting life
sciences investment, entrepreneurship and industry.
He has served as President of the Federation of
European Academies of Medicine and is a Non-
Executive Director of ICON plc, one of the leading
global clinical research organisations.
On top of all this, Dr. Kelleher fancies himself as a
premier footballer, having represented Ireland in the
2015 and 2016 World Medical Football Federation
Championship. He has not yet scored a winning
goal but I have no doubt he will get there. After all,
his motto is “never take no for an answer”. By this,
he doesn’t persist by banging his head against walls;
instead he finds creative ways around them. So when
his Irish Medical Federation football team no longer
wanted him, he just joined the Masters team. Dr.
Kelleher recognises that having a great team is key to
success and in addition to his many collaborators, he
credits his wife Jean, his children, the Fajgendaums
and the rest of his Trini family for their unwavering
support… and last, but not least, all the spicy food,
tropical music, patience, kindness and love from his
inspirational Trini mother.
