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Dr. Suzanne Cloonan

Professor in Respiratory Biochemistry (Clinical Medicine Tallaght)
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Suzanne Cloonan

Professor in Respiratory Biochemistry (Clinical Medicine Tallaght)

 SUZANNE.CLOONAN@tcd.ie

 


Dr. Cloonan is a Professor in Respiratory Biochemistry in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Cloonan received her PhD in Biochemistry in 2010 from Trinity College Dublin Ireland. She carried out her Post-Doctoral training in the lab of Dr. Augustine MK Choi in The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women"s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. In 2014, she became faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine having obtained funding from the National Institute of Health (K99/R00 award) and the American Lung Association to understand the role of mitochondrial dysfunction and iron metabolism in the development of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). After obtaining Science Foundation Ireland Future Research Leaders Award, she relocated her lab to Trinity College Dublin as an Associate Professor in 2020. Her lab is focused on applying cutting edge techniques and concepts to aid in understanding the molecular mechanisms behind iron metabolism in normal and diseased lung; related to inflammation, alveolar epithelial cell biology, host-pathogen interactions in the lung microenvironment and subsequent systemic implications. She is currently Chair of Assembly 3.02, Airway cell biology and immunopathology and is a member of the fellowships and awards committee for the European Respiratory Society. She is also a program committee member for the Allergy, Immunology and Inflammation assembly of the American Thoracic Society and is an associate editor at Scientific Reports and Respiratory Research.
  Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome   ALVEOLAR EPITHELIAL-CELLS   ALVEOLAR MACROPHAGES   COPD   EMPHYSEMA   FERRITIN   Hepcidin   HUMAN ALVEOLAR MACROPHAGES   HYPEROXIA   IDIOPATHIC PULMONARY FIBROSIS   IRON   IRON CHELATORS   IRON CLUSTER   IRON COMPLEXES   IRON DEFICIENCY   Mitochondria   MITOCHONDRIAL ACTIVITY   MITOCHONDRIAL DNA   Mitochondrial fission & fusion mechanisms   Mitochondrial function   MITOCHONDRIAL INNER MEMBRANE   MITOCHONDRIAL MATRIX   MITOCHONDRIAL OUTER MEMBRANE   MITOCHONDRIAL RELEASE   MITOCHONDRIAL RESPIRATION   mitophagy   PULMONARY FIBROSIS   PULMONARY-EMPHYSEMA   SERUM FERRITIN
Project Title
 The Ironome of the Lung and Disease Pathogenesis
From
2019
To
2024
Summary
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
Future Research Leaders Award
Project Title
 IRONWARS: The battle for IRON in the alveolar space underlies susceptibility to COPD
From
01-01-2023
To
Summary
COPD is the most prevalent respiratory disease in adults affecting over 170 million people globally and tops all non-communicable respiratory diseases combined in mortality. While COPD is already the third leading cause of death worldwide, death rates from COPD are predicted to rapidly intensify due to a rising and ageing global population, outweighing any potential improvements in care. With little or no advances in therapy in decades, COPD is irreversible and inexorably progressive leading to a severe impairment in quality of life. Given the burden of COPD on human health, new and better personalised therapies are therefore desperately needed.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
Irish Research Council Laureate Award Programme 2021/22 Consolidator

Details Date
Conference Organising Committee Pittsburgh International Lung Conference Dublin 2023
Chair Assembly 3.02, Airway cell biology and immunopathology, European Respiratory Society 2022
Fellowships and Awards Committee- European Respiratory Society 2022
Conference Chair: European Iron Club meeting, Dublin June 2026
Conference Chair, Regenerating the lung - a multidisciplinary approach to combat COPD? - 6-7 NOVEMBER, 2025, Prague, CZ, European Respiratory Society Research Seminar 6-7 November 2025
Programme Committee American Thoracic Society Assembly on Allergy, Immunology, and Inflammation (AII) This assembly is concerned with allergic, immunologic, and inflammatory mechanisms affecting the respiratory system in health and disease. 2023
Associate Editor Respiratory Research 2018
Associate Editor, Scientific Reports 2019
Nominating Committee, RCMB Assembly, American Thoracic Society 2022
CONFERENCE ORGANIZER International Biorion Society Scientific Committee member 2019
CONFERENCE CHAIR/ORGANIZER European Respiratory Society Annual Conference 2019 Scientific Reviewer 2019
CONFERENCE CHAIR/ORGANIZER American Thoracic Society Annual Conference Program Committee 2017
CONFERENCE CHAIR/ORGANIZER American Thoracic Society Annual Conference. Chair: Mitochondrial dysfunction and reprogramming in lung aging and disease. 2018
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
Details Date From Date To
European Respiratory Society 2012 current
American Thoracic Society 2011 current
COPD i Net 2023 current
European Iron Club 2022 current
Bioiron Society 2014 current
Irish Thoracic Society 2022
American Association for Cancer Research 2008 2012
Irish Association for Cancer Research 2007 2012
Zhang WZ, Kim K, Bhatia D, Faherty L, Simmons W, Kallinos E, Carrasco SE, Hoffman KL, Houghton S, Hsu CL, Haber L, Meydan C, Mason CE, Mirchandani AS, Walmsley SR, Goyal P, Chung KP, Ballman KV, Redmond D, Mancias JD, Choi AMK, Schenck EJ, Plataki M, Cloonan SM., Targeting macrophage ferritin heavy chain mitigates ferroptosis and lung injury in experimental acute respiratory distress syndrome., Nature communications, 17, (1), 2026, p8057 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Wugk S, Kenny S, Masood F, Htoo ET, Cloonan SM., Fuelling repair: metabolic regulation of alveolar type 2 cell fate in lung regeneration and disease., Disease models & mechanisms, 19, (9), 2026, pdmm052978 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Polverino F, Benam KH, Cloonan SM, Curtis JL, Gaggar A, Kheradmand F, Lehmann M, Neptune E, Raju SV, Rojas-Quintero J, Sauler M, Tesfaigzi Y, Yildirim AÖ, Zhou AX, Sin DD., Preclinical models of COPD: a state of the art., The European respiratory journal, 2026, p2600289 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Corkish C, O'Shaughnessy S, Lin C, Wugk S, Kenny S, Sinclair L, Cloonan S, Finlay D., Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Exhibit High Transferrin Receptor Expression Without Iron Accumulation., European journal of immunology, 56, (6), 2026, pe70219 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Martinelli AW, Jordan R, Wugk S, Nathan JA, Cloonan SM., Iron in Respiratory Immunity and Infection., QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians, 2026, phcag090 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Keane C, Mayock S, Corkish C, Rogerson E, Favero de Aguiar C, Gao Y, Kenny S, Brennan L, Cloonan SM, Finlay DK., Macrophages tune NK cell IFN" production through direct lipid transfer., Nature communications, 17, (1), 2026, p9527 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Zhang, Yuening and Wei, Huanhuan and Nouws, Jessica and Jiang, Wenhao and Brewster, Reginald M. and Nguyen, Jenny P. and Liang, SiRu and Pass, Samuel M. and Wang, Weiwei and Collin, Florine and Oill, Angela Taravella and Kim, Sang-Hun and Siller, Saul S. and Liu, Jinjiang and Zhao, Amy Y. and Hansbro, Phillip and Dela Cruz, Charles and Britto, Clemente and Gomez, Jose and Cloonan, Suzanne M. and Herzog, Erica L. and Lam, TuKiet T. and Banovich, Nicholas E. and Raredon, Micha Sam B. and Zhang, Xuchen and Mangiola, Stefano and Homer, Robert J. and Kaminski, Naftali and McDonough, John and Polverino, Francesca and Yan, Xiting and Sauler, Maor, Aberrant cellular communities underlying disease heterogeneity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Nature Genetics, 58, (2), 2026, p376 - 391 , Notes: [Cited by: 1; All Open Access; Green Open Access; Hybrid Gold Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Mbaekwe, Ugonna and Kenny, Sarah and Cloonan, Suzanne M. and Kliment, Corrine R., A double-edged sword: iron regulation in alveolar lung epithelial repair, JCI insight, 11, (9), 2026, Notes: [Cited by: 0; All Open Access; Gold Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Healy, Claire and Campbell, Christina and Hoffman, Katherine and Butler, James J. and Opron, Kristopher and Erb-Downward, John R. and Zhang, William Z. and Barjaktarevic, Igor and Han, Meilan K. and Kaner, Robert J. and Curtis, Jeffrey L. and Freeman, Christine M. and Barr, R. Graham and Comellas, Alejandro P. and Doerschuk, Claire and Putcha, Nirupama and Moore, Wendy and Wells, J. Michael and Keane, Ruaidhri and O†beirne, Sarah and Cooper, Christopher B. and Raman, Sanjeev and Hastie, Annette and Paine, Robert and Hansel, Nadia N. and Woodruff, Prescott and Bowler, Russell P. and Ballman, Karla V. and Martinez, Fernando J. and Huang, Yvonne J. and Sulaiman, Imran and Cloonan, Suzanne M., Extracellular iron and the lung microbiome in smoking and COPD, ERJ Open Research, 11, (6), 2025, Notes: [Cited by: 1; All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Sandoval, Tito A. and Salvagno, Camilla and Chae, Chang-Suk and Awasthi, Deepika and Giovanelli, Paolo and Falco, Matias Marin and Hwang, Sung-Min and Teran-Cabanillas, Eli and Suominen, Lasse and Yamazaki, Takahiro and Kuo, Hui-Hsuan and Moyer, Jenna E. and Martin, M. Laura and Manohar, Jyothi and Kim, Kihwan and Sierra, Maria A. and Ramos, Yusibeska and Tan, Chen and Emmanuelli, Alexander and Song, Minkyung and Morales, Diana K. and Zamarin, Dmitriy and Frey, Melissa K. and Cantillo, Evelyn and Chapman-Davis, Eloise and Holcomb, Kevin and Mason, Christopher E. and Galluzzi, Lorenzo and Zhou, Zhen Ni and VÀhÀrautio, Anna and Cloonan, Suzanne M. and Cubillos-Ruiz, Juan R., Iron Chelation Therapy Elicits Innate Immune Control of Metastatic Ovarian Cancer, Cancer Discovery, 14, (10), 2024, p1901 - 1921 , Notes: [Cited by: 26; All Open Access; Bronze Open Access; Green Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Award Date
Irish Research Council Laureate Award 2023
Science Foundation ireland Future Research Leaders Award 2019
Kellen Fellowship for Junior Faculty, Weill Cornell Medicine 2018
Weill Cornell Medicine, Junior Faculty Development Grant 2015
American Thoracic Society Annual Conference Best Abstract Award 2013 and 2014
National Cancer Institute/Health Research Board Ireland Molecular Prevention/Control Scholar 2009
Irish Association for Cancer Research Travel Award 2019