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Dr. David Finlay

Associate Prof. in Immunometabolism (Biochemistry)

Associate Prof. in Immunometabolism (Pharmacy)


I first became captivated by the complexities of cellular signal transduction pathways during my undergraduate biochemistry degree at Trinity College Dublin, which led me to a PhD at the University of Dundee investigating roles for protein kinases such as mTORC1 in the control of metabolic pathways in hepatocytes. I retained a keen interest in protein kinase signalling during my postdoctoral research in Prof. Doreen Cantrell's lab at the University of Dundee. It was during this time in I realised that mTORC1 is a key regulator of CD8 T cell biology largely because it controls cellular metabolic pathways. This research led to one of the first publications in the then emerging field of immunometabolism and motivated me to establish my independent research group to further explore how cellular metabolism is linked to the control of immune cell fate and function. Since 2011, I have secured in excess of €3.4 million research funding and my research has contributed significantly to the current understanding that cellular metabolism is integrally linked to immune cell functions. My research is at the forefront of the Immunometabolism field and I have published high impact studies that have challenged established dogmas. My research group was the first to characterize cellular metabolic pathways in Natural Killer cells to show that the way they metabolize glucose is different to the metabolic pathways described in biochemistry textbooks (Journal of Immunology 2014, Nature Immunology 2017, Nature Communications 2018). My research has also made key contributions to an emerging idea that nutrients are more than just fuels and function as important signals; we showed that glucose controls signal transduction pathways in Dendritic cells (DC) to inhibit DC functions and to limit the induction of CD8 T cell responses (Nature Communications 2017). My contribution to leading this new field of immunometabolism have been recognised with invitations to write review articles for high impact journals including the Journal of Clinical Investigation (2016), Seminars in Immunology (2017) and Nature Reviews Immunology (2019, which have been well received and highly cited. In 2017 I secured an ERC Consolidator Award to study nutrients as key determinants of DC-induced CD8 T cell responses. Successful implementation of this ERC research programme will open new horizons for the study of nutrients as determinants of immune responses. Based on my expertise in the area of lymphocyte metabolism, it is my ambition that this ERC research programme will lead me to further ground-breaking studies assessing the role for nutrients in controlling T cell and NK cell responses in diverse inflammatory situations.
  AMPK   Biochemistry, metabolism   Cell signalling, proliferation & differentiation   C-MYC   GLUCOSE   GLUCOSE METABOLISM   GLUTAMINE   GLUTAMINE METABOLISM   Glycolysis   HIF1-alpha   Immunity   Immunometabolism   LIPID METABOLISM   MITOCHONDRIA   mTOR   OXIDATIVE PHOSPHORYLATION   Regulation of Metabolism   Sterol regulatory element binding protein (Srebp)
 Investigating nutrients as key determinants of DC-induced CD8 T cell responses
 Investigating Natural Killer (NK) cell metabolism as a determinant of NK cell anti-tumour activity
 Characterising the role of mammalian Target Of Rapamcyin Complex 1 (mTORC1)/Srebp1c signaling in directing the differentiation and function of T cell subsets.
 Investigating the impact of cholesterol on anti-tumour NK cell responses.
 Investigating 25-hydroxycholesterol as a novel regulator of Natural Killer cell anti-tumour responses.

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Details Date
Established an Immunometabolism Forum to support immunologists and foster collaboration. Hosts >80 attendees from multiple Schools in TCD, and from RCSI, UCD and NUIM. Sponsorship secured from Agilent 2017-present
Established a global version of the Immunometabolism Forum when we moved online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Speakers from Dublin, Europe and USA with as many a 250 attendees. 2019-present
Instrumental in establishing Dublin's reputation as hub for excellent Immunometabolism research through activities including the local and global Immunometabolism forums and the Immunometabolism forum YouTube channel 2017-present
Editorial Board for "Immunometabolism" Journal 2018-present
Expert reviewer for Funding agencies including the Wellcome Trust, MRC, BBSRC, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and ERC Starter and Advanced grants 2013-present
Expert reviewer for high impact scientific journals including Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Cell Metabolism. 2013-present
Sit on the scientific advisory board for Quihan Biotech 2021-present
Scientific advisory role to Irish Biotech company Avectas 2019
Scientific advisory role to Ono Pharma UK Ltd 2016
Details Date From Date To
Irish Society of Immunology 2011 present
British Society of Immunology 2012 present
Biochemical Society 2011 present
TCD Students Biochemical Society 2011 present
Ryan, E.K. and Clutter, C. and De Barra, C. and Jenkins, B.J. and O†Shaughnessy, S. and Ryan, O.K. and McKenna, C. and Heneghan, H.M. and Walsh, F. and Finlay, D.K. and Sinclair, L.V. and Jones, N. and Leung, D.T. and O†Shea, D. and Hogan, A.E., Iron Is Critical for Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cell Metabolism and Effector Functions, Journal of Immunology, 212, (11), 2024, p1706-1713 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Scott, B. and Day, E.A. and O†Brien, K.L. and Scanlan, J. and Cromwell, G. and Scannail, A.N. and McDonnell, M.E. and Finlay, D.K. and Lynch, L., Metformin and feeding increase levels of the appetite-suppressing metabolite Lac-Phe in humans, Nature Metabolism, 6, (4), 2024, p651-658 , Notes: [cited By 5], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Nosenko, M. and Anisov, D. and Gubernatorova, E. and Gorshkova, E. and Zeng, Y.-R. and Ye, D. and Wang, P. and Finlay, D. and Drutskaya, M. and Nedospasov, S., Itaconate and dimethyl itaconate upregulate IL-6 production in the LPS-induced inflammation in mice, Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 116, (3), 2024, p611-620 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Pelgrom, L.R. and Davis, G.M. and O'Shaughnessy, S. and Wezenberg, E.J.M. and Van Kasteren, S.I. and Finlay, D.K. and Sinclair, L.V., QUAS-R: An SLC1A5-mediated glutamine uptake assay with single-cell resolution reveals metabolic heterogeneity with immune populations, Cell Reports, 42, (8), 2023, Notes: [cited By 2], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Jenkins, B.J. and Blagih, J. and Ponce-Garcia, F.M. and Canavan, M. and Gudgeon, N. and Eastham, S. and Hill, D. and Hanlon, M.M. and Ma, E.H. and Bishop, E.L. and Rees, A. and Cronin, J.G. and Jury, E.C. and Dimeloe, S.K. and Veale, D.J. and Thornton, C.A. and Vousden, K.H. and Finlay, D.K. and Fearon, U. and Jones, G.W. and Sinclair, L.V. and Vincent, E.E. and Jones, N., Canagliflozin impairs T cell effector function via metabolic suppression in autoimmunity, Cell Metabolism, 35, (7), 2023, p1132-1146.e9 , Notes: [cited By 18], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Schimmer, S. and MittermÃŒller, D. and Werner, T. and Görs, P.E. and Meckelmann, S.W. and Finlay, D.K. and Dittmer, U. and Littwitz-Salomon, E., Fatty acids are crucial to fuel NK cells upon acute retrovirus infection, Frontiers in Immunology, 14, (1296355), 2023, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Cervantes-Silva MP, Carroll RG, Wilk MM, Moreira D, Payet CA, O'Siorain JR, Cox SL, Fagan LE, Klavina PA, He Y, Drewinski T, McGinley A, Buel SM, Timmons GA, Early JO, Preston RJS, Hurley JM, Finlay DK, Schoen I, Javier Sánchez-García F, Mills KHG, Curtis AM., The circadian clock influences T cell responses to vaccination by regulating dendritic cell antigen processing., Nature communications, 13, (1), 2022, p7217 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Currivan, E., Finlay, DK., Moreira, D., Dendritic cells metabolism: a strategic path to improve antitumoral DC vaccination, Clinical and experimental immunology, 208, (2), 2022, p1993 - 2001, Review Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Slattery K , Woods E , Zaiatz-Bittencourt V, Marks S , Chew S , Conroy M , Goggin C, MacEochagain C, Kennedy J, Lucas S , Finlay DK , Gardiner CM, TGFβ drives NK cell metabolic dysfunction in human metastatic breast cancer, Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer , 9, (2), 2021, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Jones N, Blagih J, Zani F, Rees A, Hill DG, Jenkins BJ, Bull CJ, Moreira D, Bantan AIM, Cronin JG, Avancini D, Jones GW, Finlay DK, Vousden KH, Vincent EE, Thornton CA, Fructose reprogrammes glutamine-dependent oxidative metabolism to support LPS-induced inflammation, Nature Communications, 22, (12), 2021, p1209-, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
  

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David Finlay, Nutrient transport and anti-tumour NK cell responses, 19th Meeting of the society for natural immunity (NK2022), Florida, USA, 14th May, 2022, Society for natural immunity , Invited Talk, PRESENTED
David Finlay, Nutrients and metabolites controlling NK cell responses, Institutional seminar series, online, 26nd February, 2022, Karolinska institutet, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
David Finlay, Fuels that drive your CARs! Optimizing NK cell metabolism for cellular therapies, Company seminar series, Online, 3rd June, 2022, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
David Finlay, QUAS-R: Glutamine (Q) Uptake Assay with Single cell Resolution reveals metabolic heterogeneity with immune populations, Cytometry Society of Ireland annual conference, Dublin, Ireland, 25th October, 2022, Cytometry Society of Ireland, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Alejandro J Brenes, Jens L Hukelmann, Laura Spinelli, Andrew JM Howden, Julia M Marchingo, Linda V Sinclair, Christina Rollings, Olivia J James, Iain R Phair, Stephen P Matthews, Sarah H Ross, Simon C Arthur, Mahima Swamy, David K Finlay, Angus L Lamond, Doreen A Cantrell, Immunological Proteome Resource, BioRxiv, 2022, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Leonard R. Pelgrom, Gavin Davis, Simon O'Shaughnessy, Sander Van Kasteren, David Finlay, Linda V. Sinclair, QUAS-R: Glutamine (Q) Uptake Assay with Single cell Resolution reveals metabolic heterogeneity with immune populations. , BioRxiv, 2022, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
David Finlay, Amino acid regulation natural conventional DC Function , Gordon Conference on "Immunometabolism in Health and Disease", Bryant University, Rhode Island, USA, June 19th -24th, 2022, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
David K Finlay, Nutrients and metabolites controlling NK cell responses , European Federation of Immunological Societies in tour, Online via Zoom, 19 Feb, 2021, EFIS, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
David Finlay, Natural Killer cell and cancer cell metabolism intertwined, EMBO Workshop on Cancer Immunometabolism, Sitges, Spain, 29th Nov - 1st Dec, 2021, EMBO, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
David Finlay, Science, Nutrients and Immunity. What is the stress about?, ISI Early Career Researchers Meeting, Dublin, 25th Nov, 2021, Irish Society of Immunology, Invited Talk, PRESENTED

  

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Award Date
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin 2018
European Research Council Consolidator Award 2017
Science Foundation Ireland - Career Development Award 2014
Marie Sklodowska Curie - Career Integration Fellowship 2012
Our immune system is important for our health protecting us from infection/cancer, but inappropriate immune responses cause us harm. Diverse diseases could be treated through therapeutic manipulation of our immune systems. My research group wants to understand how to control immune cells and is now revealing the importance of cellular metabolism. We are revealing novel strategies to modulate immune cell function through targeting cellular metabolism and new therapeutic opportunities are being explored. Our data show following activation Natural killer (NK) cells, lymphocytes with important anti-cancer and anti-viral functions, undergo robust metabolic changes. We have identified the key metabolic regulators of this metabolic response to be mTORC1, cMyc and Srebp. Directly disrupting metabolic pathways in NK cells or interfering with the function of these metabolic regulators severely inhibits NK cell anti-cancer and anti-viral functions, including target cell killing. We are exploring how NK cell metabolism might be manipulated to improve NK cell-based anti-cancer immunotherapies through a Enterprise Ireland Innovative partnership with a Galway-based company ONK Therapeutics. In contrast to lymphocytes, mTORC1 and glucose metabolism actually inhibit the function of Dendritic Cells (DC). We made the novel discovery that starving DC of glucose results in increased proinflammatory outputs and enhanced DC-induced T cell responses. This study highlights the complex relationship between nutrient availability and the induction of immune responses. An important next step will be investigating the distribution of nutrients in vivo, to determine which immune cells are nutrient replete and those that are deprived of nutrients. Ongoing projects include: --Investigating nutrients as key determinants of DC-induced CD8 T cell responses (funded by ERC-CoG) --Characterising how the tumour microenvironment disrupts NK cell metabolism towards engineering NK cells for improved metabolic resilience and improved met to improve anti-tumour NK cell therapies.(funded by Enterprise Ireland and ONK Therapeutics)