Dr Andrew McDowell

Overview

Dr Andrew McDowell is a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology in the School of Biomedical Sciences, Ulster University. His research is focused on opportunistic infection and the role of the resident human microbiota, particularly anaerobes, in health and disease. Dr McDowell continues to play a leading role in national and international collaborative projects and is also an affiliate PI on the INTERREG VA-funded BREATH (Border and REgions Airways Training Hub) project. He is also a co-investigator on the €4M Strand III Higher Education Academy (HEA) North-South Award to the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI) which aims to build critical mass in precision cancer medicine on the island of Ireland.

He has a strong and sustained track record of publications in high quality, internationally excellent and world leading peer-review journals, such as the Lancet, Blue Journal, Thorax and British Journal of Dermatology, and multiple publications with international co-authors from world-renowned institutions. He was fully returned in REF2021 and in the last six years (2016-2022) has published 25 full papers. He is also on the editorial board of several leading international journals. Over his career, Dr McDowell has won a number of awards in recognition of his work and been an invited speaker at national and international conferences. He has strong links with industry, including Big Pharma, and has a keen interest in knowledge transfer as evidenced by patents and invention discourses. He sits on the advisory board of a number of biotechnology companies, and is also confounder of the start-up venture ECM Biologics, Inc which is developing novel therapeutic drug approaches to prevent and treat medical device-related biofilm infections.

Dr McDowell is the Course Director for the MSc in Biotechnology Research, and teaches across a range of on-campus and distance learning undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including as module coordinator. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a registered STEM ambassador.