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Professor Joanna Mcgouran

Associate Professor (Chemistry)
BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE
      
Profile Photo

Professor Joanna Mcgouran

Associate Professor (Chemistry)
BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE

 jmcgoura@tcd.ie

 3531896 1422


Joanna obtained a 1st class MChem Degree from the University of Oxford. Following this she completed her D.Phil. entitled "Probing sugar-plant-soil signaling" at the University of Oxford with Professor Ben Davis. Joanna then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Benedikt Kessler in the Department of Medicine, where she created novel ubiquitin-based covalent capture probes and developed inhibitor screening assays. She returned to chemistry department at the University of Oxford in 2014 to work with Professor Tom Brown where her research focused on the study of DNA cross-link repair enzymes, developing assays to study their selectivity and for inhibitor screening. In 2016, Joanna moved to Trinity College Dublin to take up the position of Schuler Assistant Professor in Translational Organic Chemistry.
  Activity-Based protein profiling   Biochemistry, Nucleic Acid   Bioconjugation   BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY   Cellular Biology   Epigenetics   Mass Spectrometry   Organic chemistry   Proteins, enzymology and protein engineering   Proteomes, proteomics
Project Title
 Disulfide modification for enhanced stability and selective delivery
From
09/2020
To
09/2024
Summary
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
SSPC
Project Type
PhD project
Person Months
48
Project Title
 A New Approach to Inhibiting Nucleotide Excision Repair Using Cyclic Peptides
From
10/2019
To
10/2023
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish research Council
Programme
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
Project Type
PhD fellowship
Person Months
48
Project Title
 Activity based probes for DNA processing enzymes based on modified Cytosine
From
10/2019
To
10/2023
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish research Council
Programme
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
Project Type
PhD fellowship
Person Months
48
Project Title
 New Probes for active enzymes
From
01/2020
To
01/2024
Summary
Funding Agency
Trinity College Dublin
Programme
Provosts PhD award
Project Type
PhD project
Person Months
48
Project Title
 Oligonucleotide probes to study the 5' exonuclease SNM1A and its function in DNA damage repair
From
10/2017
To
10/2021
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish research Council
Programme
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
Project Type
PhD fellowship
Person Months
48

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Details Date
Member of the Early Career Advisory Board for the American Chemical Society's new journal ACS Bio & Med Chem Au 2022
Reviewer of ERC grants including Synergy and Consolidator grants 2024
Referent for the Spinoza and Stevin Prizes. Nominated as one of at least four peers of high standing, as a top expert in a closely related field. 2026
External Examiner, PhD thesis: University of Oxford (Medicine, 2026), Keele University (Chemistry, 2026) University College Cork (Chemistry, 2026), University of Leeds (Chemistry, 2026), University of Copenhagen (Chemistry, 2025), Queens University Belfast (Pharmacy, 2024), Queens University Belfast (Medicine, 2024), University of Oxford (Chemistry, 2022), University of Glasgow (Chemistry, 2019). Masters thesis: University College Dublin, Keele University. 2019-2026
Reviewer for several international chemistry journals including publications from the American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley, Elsevier, MDPI and Sage 2019
Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group Committee. 2021
Reviewer for UKRI grants including EPSRC and MRC 2020
Swiss National Foundation evaluation committee of the SNSF special call on coronaviruses 2020
Details Date From Date To
Visiting Professor, University College Dublin, School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering 2022 Present
Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland 2023 Present
Royal Society of Chemistry 2015 Present
The Irish Mass Spectrometry Society 2019 Present
American Chemical Society 2021 Present
Flood M.E., Kurusamy S., Berney M., Smales C.M., Topp E.M., McGouran J.F., Ferguson S., Glutathione-Responsive Acyl-Modifications for Targeted RNA Decaging and Prolonged Protein Synthesis, Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
O'Leary, C. J., Corbezzolo, S., Newton, A., Benny, A., Scanlan, E. M., Kolodziejczak, K., Monaghan, M. G., & McGouran, J. F, Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of a ß-galactosidase-activated glycopeptide analogue of somatostatin, RSC Advance, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Williams C., Raabe K., Tully D., Windisch D., O'Brien J., Trujillo C., McGouran J.F., Muttenthaler M., Scanlan E.M., Synthesis of Macrocyclic Peptides via Photochemical Radical Thiol-yne Reaction, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 148, (31), 2026, p33399 - 33410, p33399-33410 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Campanico A., Sommer D., Batchelor-McAuley C., McGouran J.F., Electrochemically-generated ferricyanide enables thiol-ene capture of protein-protein binding, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 24, (1), 2026, p87 - 92, p87-92 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Cataldi V., Ostrovitsa N., Cao F., Tate E.W., Scanlan E.M., McGouran J.F., Peptidic Probes to Capture Enzyme Activity Using Novel Solid Phase Compatible Warheads, ACS Chemical Biology, 21, (1), 2026, p141 - 150, p141-150 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
CampaniÒ«o, André and Baran, Marcin and Bowie, Andrew G. and Longley, Daniel B. and Harrison, Timothy and McGouran, Joanna F., Chemical- and photo-activation of protein-protein thiol-ene coupling for protein profiling, Communications Chemistry, 8, (1), 2025, Notes: [Cited by: 0; All Open Access, Gold Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Berney M., Ferguson S., McGouran J.F., Function and inhibition of the DNA repair enzyme SNM1A, Bioorganic Chemistry, 156, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Mark Berney, Steven Ferguson, Joanna McGouran, 'A novel RNA/DNA backbone consisting of phosphonate esters in place of phosphodiesters.', 2025, 5 June 2026, Patent, SUBMITTED
McKenna, S.M. and Florea, B.I. and Zisterer, D.M. and van Kasteren, S.I. and McGouran, J.F., Probing the metalloproteome: an 8-mercaptoquinoline motif enriches minichromosome maintenance complex components as significant metalloprotein targets in live cells, RSC Chemical Biology, 5, (8), 2024, p776-786 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Calvert, S.H. and Pawlak, T. and Hessman, G. and McGouran, J.F., Rapid diazotransfer for selective lysine labelling, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Joanna McGouran, Profiling Deubiquitinating Enzymes", Invited Research Seminar, University of Oxord, Nuffield Department of Medicine, 12/05/2026, 2026, Benedikt Kessler, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Joanna McGouran, Nucleoside, nucleotide and nucleic acid probes to study DNA damage repair ", RSC Organic Chemistry Community Ireland Regional Meeting 2026, University College Cork, 12/06/2026, 2026, David Jones, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Joanna McGouran, Profiling Deubiquitinating Enzymes", Invited Research Seminar, University of Glasgow, 04/03/2026, 2026, Andrew Jamieson, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Calvert, S.H. and McGouran, J.F., Rapid capture of small peptide binders, Nature Reviews Chemistry, 7, (8), 2023, p534-535 , Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Joanna McGouran, Proteins and DNA-New Tools through Chemical Modification, Research seminar, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Target Discovery Institute, 28/02, 2020, Dr Nicola Ternette, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Joanna McGouran & Neil Taylor, 'Protein Labelling', Barker Brettell LLP, 2020, 1 November 2022, Patent, SUBMITTED
Joanna McGouran, Latent probes for the covalent capture of active enzymes, RSC Ireland Regional Meeting , UCD, Ireland, 7th June, 2019, Prof. Pat Guiry, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Joanna McGouran, Activatable probes targeting deubiquitinating enzymes, Activity-Based Protein Profiling 2019, Leuven, Belgium, 27th March, 2019, Prof. Martin Witte & Prof. Steven Verhelst, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Joanna McGouran, DNA modification to examine 5' exonuclease activity, The 18th RSC Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group (CBBG) Firbush conference, Edinburgh, UK, 6-8th September, 2019, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
Joanna McGouran, Chemical proteomics: Protein modification to unravel biological function, RSC Organic Symposium , TCD, Ireland, 18th May, 2018, Prof. Eoin Scanlan, Invited Talk, PRESENTED

  


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Award Date
Fellowship 2024
MA University of Oxford 2009
Scholarship, University of Oxford 2002-5