Ellen Kelly

Senior Technical Officer, Molecular Virology

National Virus Reference Laboratory

Biography

After graduating from UCD in 2016 with a Pharmacology degree, I joined the National Virus Reference Laboratory in 2017. In 2018, I was promoted to a technical officer post and now currently work as a senior technical officer in the Molecular Virology Section. My work involves performing diagnostic tests in line with established procedures and ensuring a rapid turnaround of test results to the NVRL service users. Performing verifications and validations of diagnostic tests and equipment is also a significant part of the workload, along with the training of new staff.

I was awarded a master’s degree in Biomedical Science (Medical Microbiology) from Ulster University. My research project investigated Torque Teno Virus loads as a marker of immunosuppression in paediatric kidney transplant recipients. This project was in collaboration with the Nephrology Department at Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street. The findings were presented at Biomedica 2023 and at the International Pediatric Transplantation Association Meeting in Austin, Texas, 2023. My literature review titled “Torque Teno Virus Loads as a Marker of Immunosuppression in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients” was recently published in Pediatric Transplantation.