Cahalane, Rachel M.E.
Dr Rachel Cahalane obtained her Bachelor of Engineering in 2016 from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Prof Michael Walsh, where she was a recipient of the Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship. Her research focused on the characterisation of calcified atherosclerotic tissue. She used different clinical imaging techniques, with a focus on computed tomography, blood-based biomarkers and nanoindentation techniques. Her doctoral thesis was shortlisted for the Engineers Ireland Biomedical Research Medal. She then went on to secure a postdoctoral research position at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, under the mentorship of Dr Frank Gijsen. Her project focused on optically guided endovascular treatment for patients with large-vessel ischemic stroke, specifically the relationship between clinical imaging characteristics and thrombus mechanics.
She joined CICS in 2022 as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow between CICS and the Mechanobiology and Medical Devices Research Group at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research at CICS will investigate the role of inflammatory cells in the fibro-calcific remodelling of bioprosthetic leaflets. She will apply histological, ultrastructural, multi-omics and network analyses to constitute an integrated multi-omics map of human bioprosthetic leaflet degeneration.