Dr Feargal Ryan

Senior Research Fellow

College of Medicine and Public Health

feargal.ryan@flinders.edu.au

Health and Medical Research Building

Dr. Feargal J. Ryan is an NHMRC Investigator and head of the Computational Multi-Omics Group at Flinders University. He specializes in systems biology and using molecular data to understand disease. His research spans poorly understood diseases like long COVID, vaccination, cancer, neural development, viral infections and the human microbiome. Dr. Ryan has led large-scale microbiome and transcriptome studies across Europe, North America, and Australia, focusing on early life immune development as well as conditions such as IBD, colorectal cancer, and recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. He has also developed widely used computational tools and reproducible workflows for genomic data analysis.

Dr Ryan has been a CI/AI on over >$7 million of research funding has co-authored over 45 peer reviewed papers (>6,500 citations, h-index = 27, Google Scholar as of August 2026) including in top journals such as Nature and Science.

Dr. Ryan is dedicated advocate for bioinformatics research and building bioinformatics capacity in Australia. As a two-time postdoctoral representative and now Vice-President of the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (ABACBS, >1,000 members), he is actively involved in fostering national initiatives that advance the field

Qualifications

BSc. Hons (University College Cork, 2011)
MSc (University College Cork; 2013)
PhD (University College Cork; 2017)

Honours, awards and grants

2025 Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists
SAHMRI High Impact Publication Award Recognising Ryan et al., Nature, the institute’s highest-impact publication of the year.
2025 People’s Choice Award -Microbiome Virtual International Forum, voted by international conference attendees across the field.
2025 Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Award for Mid-Career Researchers University-wide recognition of research excellence.
2022 APC Microbiome Institute Award for Scientific Excellence.

Topic lecturer

BIOL3771 DNA-to-Genome

MDSC1102 Skills for Medical Scientists 1

Professional engagement

My professional interests centre on strengthening Australia’s bioinformatics, computational biology and microbiology communities, particularly through research leadership, peer review, mentoring and professional service. I am Vice-President of the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (ABACBS), where I contribute to national strategy, conference organisation, awards and advocacy for bioinformatics research infrastructure. I have also led initiatives supporting early- and mid-career researchers, including national seminar programs, career development activities and dedicated postdoctoral events.

I am committed to maintaining a rigorous and constructive research culture through peer review. I regularly review manuscripts for journals including Nature Microbiology, Cell Host & Microbe and Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, and have assessed grants for the NHMRC, ARC and several charitable funding organisations.

I also serve as Chair and South Australian representative of the Australian Society for Microbiology LGBTQIA+ Network, supporting visibility, inclusion and connection across the microbiology community. At Flinders University, I contribute to research governance through the University Compute and Data Governance Committee, internal grant review and mentoring of emerging researchers. More broadly, I am interested in building collaborative, equitable research environments in which bioinformaticians and computational scientists are recognised as scientific partners and leaders.

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