معرفی
Professor Raymond O'Keefe serves as Professor of Molecular Genetics and Head of the Division of Evolution, Infection and Genomics at the University of Manchester. With over two decades of academic service since joining as a Research Fellow in 1997, he has established himself as a leading researcher in RNA biology and genetic mechanisms.
Dr. O'Keefe earned his undergraduate degree from Connecticut College in 1987, followed by work with Nobel Laureate Dr. George Palade at Yale University. He completed his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from SUNY Stony Brook in 1994, conducting research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under Dr. David Spector. After receiving the Hitchings-Elion Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Dr. Andrew Newman at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, he joined Manchester in 1997.
His research focuses on pre-mRNA splicing mechanisms and non-coding RNA (ncRNA) function. His lab investigates how splicing errors contribute to diseases including diabetes, cancer, and developmental disorders, while also pioneering large-scale functional analysis of ncRNAs using molecular barcoded deletion strains in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Analysis of his 76 research outputs reveals a strong emphasis on molecular genetics, with particular focus on neurodevelopmental disorders, mitochondrial translation defects, and splice variant interpretation in clinical contexts. His work bridges fundamental molecular mechanisms with clinical applications.
- Hitchings-Elion Postdoctoral Fellowship from The Burroughs Wellcome Fund
- Significant media coverage for work on Perrault syndrome (picked up by 14+ news outlets)
- Extensive social media engagement with research (100+ X posts, 4+ Wikipedia references)
Professor O'Keefe actively contributes to education through teaching Molecular Biology (BIOL10221), Gene Regulation and Disease (BIOL31181), and coordinating the Biochemistry Research Skills Module (BIOL20312). He also serves as a Medical Student Problem Based Learning tutor and has supervised 20 students through their academic work. His current research includes the project 'Pleiotropic disorders of mitochondrial translation' (2022-2025), examining connections between mitochondrial function and human disease.
