He is actively involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate Immunology teaching, and has graduated 14 PhD students to date. His research discoveries and scholarly activities have significantly contributed to TCD's global reputation as a place of excellence for Immunology teaching and research and in 2017 he was awarded the Irish Society for Immunology Public Lecture Medal for his outstanding contribution to Irish Immunology. He is a global leader in the research fields of innate immunity and viral evasion, and his research occupies a unique space at the interface between virology, immunology and disease pathogenesis. He has raised research funding of >€9m (direct costs to PI) since 2001, from national and international funding agencies including Science Foundation Ireland, the EU and the US National Institutes of Health, and also from private industry. Work in his laboratory has shed light on how pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) recognise pathogens, leading to the induction of interferons and cytokines, which control infection locally as well as coordinating the adaptive immune response. He also investigates how PRRs and other innate immune sensors drive inflammation, and discovered one of the key cellular sensors of DNA in 2010, IFI16, which has subsequently been shown to be critical in understanding viral pathogenesis of diverse viruses including HIV and herpes viruses. He has recently identified novel roles for a number of innate immune proteins in regulating inflammation via cytokine modulation, and is currently exploring their mechanisms of action. His seminal discoveries have redefined our understanding of how pathogens engage with human cells, and he has regularly published research papers, opinion pieces and reviews in leading international journals including Nature Immunology, Immunity, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Nature Reviews Immunology, PNAS, PLoS Pathogens and The EMBO Journal.