Acknowledgements
My first and biggest thanks go to my family. The most important thank-you of all. To my wife Gail and my children Charlotte and Matthew: I love you all so much. Thank you for the encouragement to start to write this and the patience to let me finish. I am sorry I miss too much of our lives together with work. It tears my heart. I hope some of the sacrifice and expanse of lost time was worth it.
Thank you to everyone at Cambridge University Press and to Anna Whiting who cornered me a few years ago and suggested a book. Many thanks also to those colleagues who read parts of the book and gave me useful feedback: Marian Brennan, John Waddington, Eva Jimenez-Mateos, Gary Brennan, Jochen Prehn, Tembi Fashina and Norman Delanty.
This section is an opportunity for me to show my gratitude to colleagues and I have a lot of people to thank. If I miss anyone, I apologise. Since this is my first and perhaps only book, I’m going to take a step back and use the space to thank people who have influenced my research and career.
Let me start with lab members. I have been lucky to find some very smart people who were willing to work for me. Since this is a book about microRNAs, it seems appropriate to begin with some of the people who worked with me in the early days. So thank you to Eva, Tobias and Ray Stallings and his team from whom we borrowed and with whom we shared so much in the early years. Thank you to those who led the microRNA work in the second wave – Cristina, Suzanne, Catherine, Rana, Omar and Mona.
To other past and present lab members at RCSI, whether you work on microRNAs or not, thank you. This is in a sort of chronological order: Brona, Helena, Niamh, Mark, Carmen, Maura, Ross, Seiji, Aurelien, Zuzanna, Genshin, Katsuhiro, Suzanne, Takanori, Gary, Guillaume, Jaime, James, Massimo, Alba, Claire M., Natalia, Amaya, Mairead, Elena, Naoki, Aasia, Sean, Teresa, Luiz, Lizzie, Aoife, Tom, Gareth, Ngoc, Joana, Kelvin, Rogerio, Karen, Rafael and Albert.
Now to those who mentored, guided and inspired me over the years, whom I will list chronologically. Bristol/the undergraduate years: Alan Hudson, who took me on as a summer student in Bristol after I finished my second year. This was my first ‘research’ job (and thank you to Robert Meller – see also later – who got the placement originally but then picked Pfizer, giving me his slot). Alan’s grace, humility and kindness formed my conceptions of what working scientists can (should?) be like. Graeme Henderson, who let me do my final year research placement in his electrophysiology team. What a brilliant experience. You are the person who most convinced me that I could actually do ‘science’ for a living. Eamon Kelly – my personal tutor – thank you. When I had a mediocre middle year in pharmacology at Bristol, you kicked me in the ass for it and I needed that.
Edinburgh/the PhD years. John Sharkey, my PhD supervisor at Edinburgh. You taught me many lessons. The importance of getting really good at a few techniques that people would value – how to be an ‘expert’ at something, and the importance of time and hard work in the lab. I should have thanked you more then and since. I carried your work ethic with me to the USA where you told me I should go if I wanted to get on.
USA/the postdoctoral years. Roger Simon took a big risk hiring me at a time when I had nothing published. Giving me the chance to come to work in Pittsburgh was the making of me. You gave me incredible freedom, to start my own small group so early on. I realized later how few people get treated so generously. Thank you also for welcoming me into your home in those early days when I missed my family. It kept me going. And thank you for helping Gail when she visited me. Do you remember teaching her to drive on the right? Anytime I feel too busy to help someone, I remind myself that you, a head of department at a major university, took time out of your day to help the girlfriend of a lab member learn to drive. That is someone very special.
Many others at Pittsburgh deserve a mention. In no particular order: Jun and his crew, Bob, Anne, Jen, Manibu, Tetsuya, Dexi, Lan.
Portland/Legacy. Dave Bonislawski – the first person I ever hired. I look back and am still amazed at what we achieved together in a couple of years. Other people to thank: Shana, Tomohiro, Zhigang, Sachiko, Julie, An, Norman So, Akitaka. Clara – you had big shoes to fill but you fitted them in every way. Many thanks to everyone else at Legacy Research.
Robert Meller. We met on the first day of university at Bristol. You are a great friend and someone I have been fortunate enough to know for more than half my life. That weekend trip to Edinburgh in 1992 probably sealed where I went for my PhD, which of course led to everything else, so thank you. I am glad I encouraged you to come over to Portland and you came. Love to Camie and the kids.
Bob Sloviter – it was your spring hippocampal conference that first made me feel I had entered the epilepsy research community. You inspired me and gave me the advice to understand our model better. You have also made me laugh more than any other scientist.
Tallie Baram. Thank you for your support and advice in the early years at Portland and for taking the time for a chat at epilepsy congresses.
Dublin/from 2004 to now. I have been extremely lucky to work at RCSI. It is a wonderful institute that balances a rich history with a brilliant future-facing culture. My biggest thanks go to Jochen Prehn. You hired me and have looked after my career in so many ways, sheltering me from too much teaching to concentrate on research, reading and advising on grants. You are an inspiration to me and many others.
At the risk of missing people, I will call out others at RCSI who deserve a special mention: Norman, Donncha, Hany, Michael, Ronan, everyone in neurology and neurosurgery at Beaumont, Bridget, Karina, Seamus, Fergal O., Derek, Gianpiero and FutureNeuro operations, Ina and everyone in physiology, everyone in pathology (Jane, Francesca, Alan), colleagues in PBS, psychiatry. Everyone else who has made my life that bit easier – colleagues in the research office who keep working up to the last minute for grants they know I won’t get (as well as a few that I did). Finance, comms, travel. Cathal Kelly – CEO.
Miscellaneous. I have been lucky enough to work with people around the world over the last twenty years or so. Thank you to everyone involved in the EpimiRNA project – Felix, Jorgen, Morten, Jeroen, Stephanie, Hajo, Peter, Jens, Gerhard and Kai. Thank you to my extended ‘family’ in the FutureNeuro centre – all the researchers and colleagues in companies who have worked with us on microRNAs as drugs and biomarkers. Everyone at the funding agencies who paid for our work, as well as the reviewers who read the applications or reviewed my papers.
To my friends – Chris M., Andrew and Jillian, Dave and Tanya, Emma and Jon, Simon and Hannah, Andy, Chris O., Jen and Brian, Josh. See you soon, I hope.
To my parents – Terry and Janet. Thank you for being there (and still being there). Thank you for helping me with the decision to study science and to choose the right university. To my sister Liz – you’re a fab sister and I don’t deserve you.
Finally, to the authors and books that inspire(d) me. I want to take the chance to thank some of the people who wrote books that I love or pushed me to write this one. Kevin Mitchell, from whom I have a signed copy of Innate, thank you for encouraging me and being such an inspirational supporter of science. And thank you to the authors of some of my favourite ‘popular science’ books on evolution, palaeontology and the planet: Jerry Coyne for Why Evolution Is True and Fact vs. Faith, Neil Shubin for Your Inner Fish, Richard Dawkins (too many to list), Merlin Sheldrake for Entangled Life, Stephen Gould’s Wonderful Life (a thank-you here to the school winter fundraiser where I got my copy), Steve Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of Mammals (and thanks for answering my email), Trilobite by Richard Fortey and Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction.
