Emma Caroline Teeling
is an Irish
zoologist
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
,
geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...
and
genomicist, who specialises in the
phylogenetics
In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...
and genomics of
bats
Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...
. Her work includes understanding of the bat
genome
A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
and study of how insights from other mammals such as bats might contribute to better understanding and management of ageing and a number of conditions, including deafness and blindness, in humans. She is the co-founder of the
Bat1K project to map the genomes of all species of bat. She is also concerned with understanding of the places of bats in the environment and how to conserve their ecosystem.
Teeling is a full professor at
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
, where she has founded two scientific centres: the Laboratory of Molecular Evolution and Mammalian Phylogenetics (also known as the "BatLab"), and the Dublin part of the Centre for Irish Bat Research.
Teeling is widely cited in her areas of study and is an elected member of Ireland's national academy, the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
.
Early life
Emma Teeling was born to
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
and Deirdre Teeling. Her father is an academic, and serial entrepreneur in the mining,
Irish whiskey
Irish whiskey ( or ''uisce beatha'') is whiskey made on the island of Ireland. The word 'whiskey' (or whisky) comes from the Irish , meaning ''water of life''. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world, though a long period of ...
and other sectors, while her mother is an academic in the area of education; they married in 1971. She has two younger brothers, Jack and Stephen, and she and her siblings grew up in
Clontarf, where her father has his head office for multiple companies,
and with her mother working in a school in nearby
Coolock
Coolock () is a large suburban area, centred on a village, on Dublin city's Northside in Ireland. Coolock is crossed by the Santry River, a prominent feature in the middle of the district, with a linear park and ponds. The Coolock suburban a ...
,
another northern suburb of
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
.
She played Dublin-level
camogie
Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities.
A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...
for Fairview.
She attended
Holy Faith Secondary School, Clontarf
Holy Faith Secondary School, Clontarf is a girls' voluntary second level school in Clontarf on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Founded by the Holy Faith Sisters in 1890, and originally providing both primary (mixed sex) and secondary educat ...
,
and was the author of one of a set of short articles about late 1980s Moscow for a ''Soviet Supplement'' in the
Irish Independent
The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...
, after a school trip to the
USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
Higher education
From 1991 to 1995, Teeling took a B.Sc. in
Zoology
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
at
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
(UCD), which included study of deer in Dublin's
Phoenix Park
The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...
.
She further studied at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
, for an M.Sc. in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, from 1995, including working with
swift fox
The swift fox (''Vulpes velox'') is a small light orange-tan fox around the size of a domestic cat found in the western grasslands of North America, such as Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It also lives in southern M ...
es
at the Cochrane Ecological Institute in Canada.
She then saw an advertisement for PhD studies relating to bats,
and pursued this from 1997 at
Queen's University, Belfast
The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...
and the
University of California at Riverside
The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in ...
.
She filed her thesis on ''A molecular perspective on chiropteran systematics'' in December 2001, and received her PhD in molecular phylogenetics from Queen's.
Career
Teeling worked as a postdoctoral research fellow from 2002 to 2004 at the US
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
. In 2005, she returned to Ireland to take a role as lecturer in Evolution and Genetics in the School of Biology and Environmental Science at UCD, securing tenure in 2006. She founded the Laboratory of Molecular Evolution and Mammalian Phylogenetics (known as the "BatLab" even in official materials)
at UCD in 2005, and the Centre for Irish Bat Research at UCD in 2008; she remains one of the four Principal Investigators of this cross-border project, and its director.
The Laboratory of Molecular Evolution and Mammalian Phylogenetics conducts a large amount of field work in
Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
, working with a conservation organisation, Bretagne Vivante.
Teeling is also concerned with understanding of bat populations and their broader ecosystems, and bat conservation.
Teeling was promoted to associate professor (in Evolution and Genetics) in 2012,
and later to full professor. She is also Head of Zoology.
In addition to her research work, she teaches or coordinates a number of courses, and supervises PhD studies.
As of 2020, she is also Deputy Director of UCD's Earth Institute.
Research and funding
Over the first 15 years since doctoral qualification, Teeling secured more than 4.4 million euro in research funding for her projects and laboratories.
She was one of three applicants selected for a
Science Foundation Ireland
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI; ) was a statutory body in Ireland. It was an agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, with responsibility for funding oriented basic and applied research in th ...
(SFI) President of Ireland Award in 2006,
providing committed funding of over 1.2 million euro over its duration from October 2006 to March 2012 for comparative genomic studies in mammals.
She also secured Science Foundation Ireland funding of over 200,000 euro for a study of the population dynamics and conservation status of a small bat, and a small grant for work around ecology and evolution with reference to bats.
Teeling secured an award from the
European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...
, for a Starting Investigator work (2013-2018),
supported by further SFI commitments.
This resulted in the ''Ageless'' project, considering how bats weighing as little as 7g can live for over 40 years, possibly due to optimised telomere management.
Noting that the ''
Myotis
The mouse-eared bats or myotises are a diverse and widespread genus (''Myotis'') of bats within the family Vespertilionidae. The noun "''myotis''" itself is a Neo-Latin construction, from the Greek "''muós'' (meaning "mouse") and "''oûs''" ( ...
'' genus of bats don't appear to die from old age as such, Teeling commented "Studying wild bats in an ageing context may provide exciting new solutions to slow down the ageing process and ultimately extend human health-spans."
Teeling co-founded the
Bat1K project to sequence the genomes of all living bat species.
A report from this project, looking at the genomes of six bat species and mentioning Teeling and a colleague, was featured on the front cover of
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
magazine in 2020;
this recognition was highlighted by the official University College Dublin Facebook page as "Congratulations to UCD's resident Batlady Prof Emma Teeling on making the cover of this month's @Nature with her newest genomic research."
Recognition
Teeling was elected to the highest academic honour in Ireland, membership of the national academy, the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
, in 2016.
In 2017, For her scientific work, she was awarded the rank of Chevalier in the
Ordre des Palmes académiques
A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...
; this award, known as "the purple", is the oldest civilian decoration in France, established by Napoleon.
Her husband was also made a Chevalier at the time, for his work in astrophysics.
Teeling attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos, Switzerland in 2020 as a top level academic/think tank advisor. She was invited to present her work on ageing at the Forum,
where she delivered a presentation entitled ''Bats and the Secret of Everlasting Youth'' in a closed session in January 2020.
After Davos, in late February 2020, Prof Teeling was invited as one of the speakers at the week-long Genomics Winter School within the Future Biotech Winter Retreat in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia,
and to the leading genetic and cytological research facility of the Russian Federation, where she presented, and performed a "Q&A" session, on bats and longevity.
Publication
Teeling has written and co-written many articles, papers and chapters, some of which are widely cited. Extant are more than 100 documents, with a citation level, per Scopus, of 6424 applications across 4751 citing documents, and a h-index of 31 ("very good").
Papers which Teeling has authored or to which she has contributed include:
* A molecular phylogeny for bats illuminates biogeography and the fossil record / Teeling, Emma C., Science, vol. 307, issue 5709, 28 January 2005, pp. 580–4
* Longitudinal comparative transcriptomics reveals unique mechanisms underlying extended healthspan in bats / Huang et al, Nature Ecology & Evolution, vol. 3, issue 7, July 2019, pp. 1110–1120
* The evolution of echolocation in bats / Jones, Gareth and Teeling, Emma C., Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 21, issue 3, March 2006, pp. 149–156
* Hear, hear: the convergent evolution of echolocation in bats? / Teeling, Emma C., Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 24, issue 7, July 2009, pp. 351–4
* How and why should we implement genomics into conservation? / McMahon, Barry J., Teeling, Emma C., Hoglund, Jacob, Evolutionary Applications, vol. 7, issue 9, Nov. 2014, pp. 999–1007
* Mammal madness: is the mammal tree of life not yet resolved? / Foley, Nicole M., Springer, Mark S., Teeling, Emma C., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 371, issue 1699, 19 July 2016
* Integrated fossil and molecular data reconstruct bat echolocation / Springer M.S. et al, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 98, issue 11, 22 May 2001, pp. 6241–6246
* Parallel signatures of sequence evolution among hearing genes in echolocating mammals: an emerging model of genetic convergence / Davies et al, Heredity, vol. 108, issue 5, May 2012, pp. 480–9
* The adequacy of morphology for reconstructing the early history of placental mammals / Springer et al, Systematic Biology, vol. 56, issue 4, August 2007, pp. 673–684
* The evolution of color vision in nocturnal mammals / Zhao et al, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 106, issue 22, 2 June 2009, pp. 8980–8985
* Ecological adaptation determines functional mammalian olfactory subgenomes / Hayden et al, Genome Research, vol. 20, issue 1, Jan. 2010, pp. 1–9
* Microbat paraphyly and the convergent evolution of a key innovation in Old World rhinolophoid microbats / Teeling et al, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 99, issue 3, 5 February 2002, pp. 1431–1436
while chapters contributed include:
*Bats (Chiroptera) in ''The Timetree of Life'' (Hedges, Kumar, eds)
*Phylogeny, Genes, and Hearing: Implications for the Evolution of Echolocation in Bats in ''Bat Bioacoustics'' (Fenton et al., eds)
Governance and voluntary roles
Teeling is a member of the
Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) is a scientific and academic organization founded in 1982 to support academic research in the field of molecular evolution. The society hosts an annual meeting, typically in June or July. It al ...
and was a member of the society's 2012 Annual Meeting Committee, which managed the event in Dublin, Ireland
and later a member of the society's governing council.
She is also on the editorial board of one of the society's two journals, the Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
She is also a member of the editorial board of
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
's open-access journal ''Giga Science''.
Teeling was appointed to the board of the
Irish Research Council
The Irish Research Council () was an associate agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, under the aegis of the Higher Education Authority.
In November 2023, Simon Harris, the Minister for Fu ...
.
She was elected as one of the professorial members of the Governing Authority of UCD in 2019, for a five-year term.
Popular media
Teeling has presented a TEDx talk, on the genome of bats, which has been viewed, as of 16 June 2022, more than 565,000 times.
University College Dublin has also uploaded one of her lectures, 'Bats: secrets of extended lifespan', to YouTube.
She has been interviewed and featured on radio - on one occasion in episode 2 of a series, 'Bright Sparks', which also interviewed her astronomer husband, in episode 8, about his work -
and television. On one occasion programme-makers accompanied her team when it was locating bats in old churches in Brittany.
Following the release of the first six bat genomes by the Bat1K consortium, Teeling was interviewed by the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and commented on how bats' unique immune systems may help them defend against viruses, including
COVID
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
.
Personal life
Teeling is married to astrophysicist
Peter Gallagher
Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19, 1955) is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series '' The O.C.'' from 2003 to 2007, and ...
, a senior professor at the
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) () is a statutory independent research institute in Dublin, Ireland. It was established, under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act 1940, by the government of the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Vale ...
and adjunct professor at
Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
, at the latter of which he worked for many years. They both came from Clontarf in Dublin but only met in first year Science in UCD. They lived near Washington D.C. for part of their time in the US during advanced studies, before moving back to Ireland together when Teeling received a job offer from UCD.
They have two sons.
Teeling invested in the first round of funding for her brothers' whiskey distillery company, the Teeling Whiskey Company, operating the
Teeling Distillery
Teeling Distillery is an Irish whiskey distillery established in Dublin in 2015 by the Teeling Whiskey Company and owned by Bacardi Limited.
It is the first new whiskey distillery to have opened in Dublin, once a world whiskey distilling capit ...
, the first new distillery in Dublin for 125 years.
References
External links
Official staff and research profile at University College DublinTEDx talk - Secrets of the Bat Genome
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teeling, Emma
Year of birth unknown
People from Clontarf, Dublin
Alumni of University College Dublin
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
20th-century Irish women scientists
Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
Academics of University College Dublin
21st-century Irish women scientists
20th-century Irish zoologists
Women zoologists
Irish geneticists
Women geneticists
Women evolutionary biologists
Evolutionary biologists
Members of the Royal Irish Academy
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century Irish zoologists
Scientists from County Dublin