Dr Matthew Whelan, PhD

Dr. Matthew (Matt) Whelan completed a Irish Research Council funded PhD in Infection Biology in University College Dublin, Ireland. During his PhD, Matt developed High Content Screening Microscopy approaches to investigate biofilm formation and manipulation of host cell factors by the gastrointestinal bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. Matt moved to London in 2020 to undertake  a postdoc to setup an infection imaging core and research on intracellular survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in macrophage. The pandemic provided him a life-changing opportunity to pivot his research interests into virology research. Throughout his postdoc He specialised in understanding how SARS-CoV-2 manipulates the nuclear import of proinflammatory transcription factors. Having become fascinated with viral manipulation of nucleocytoplasmic trafficking and the nucleus. He pivoted his research focus to understand how pathogens manipulate nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, nuclear pore complexes and nuclear integrity to evade detection and facilitate their lifecycles. In 2023, he was awarded a Wellcome Early Career award to develop live cell, super-resolution imaging approaches to investigate HIV1 nuclear import and manipulation of host nucleocytoplasmic trafficking and the nuclear pore complex in primary T cells. In 2025, he moved to QMUL to establish his own group in the Blizard. He is also the Academic Lead for the Blizard Advanced Light Microscopy (BALM) facility.