Lisa obtained her BSc in Biological Sciences at The University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, in 1994. In 1999 she was awarded a PhD in Biological Sciences specialising in cancer research, multiple drug resistance and immunodiagnostics at Dublin City University, Ireland. In 2000 Lisa took up a postdoctoral research position at the Veterinary Sciences Department of Queen’s University Belfast where she worked on a number of projects concerned with developing and applying new technologies for the detection of harmful contaminants in food. In 2006 she was appointed as Lecturer of Food Toxin Safety within The Institute of Global Food Security where she is currently leading a vital research programme focusing on endocrine disrupting environmental and food based toxins resulting from modern day industrial, agricultural or natural sources and assessing the effects that these contaminants may have on human health. Dr Connolly and her team primarily utilise in vitro bioassays for the screening of endocrine disruptors in food and feed and assessing their adverse biological effects. This work also covers horizon scanning for emerging endocrine disruptors, assessing their mode of action and mixture effects. The overall aim of this research is to identify risk and provide information to aid exposure prevention.

She has been involved in many projects involving complementary national and international expertise including a project to identify levels of hormone contamination in sport supplements available to the consumer on the island of Ireland as part of the Safe and Healthy Foods project (direct link to project website). Further information on this story is published in the SafeFood eNewsletter. Dr Connolly is participating in an international collaborative project, Mycotoxin contamination in Norwegian food and feed,investigating the endocrine disrupting effects of mycotoxins and their real-life mixtures. She is an active collaborator in the project Stress POPs which aims to assess the effects of environmental factors and contaminants on reproductive health. She is also an active member of The Environmental Reproductive Toxicology (ERT) network coordinated by Prof Erik Ropstad, The Norwegian Veterinary School, Oslo.

Administrative Responsibilities

Manager of mammalian cell culture facility

Module Co-ordinator BIO3301 Food Supply Chain Safety and Security

Modules

BIO1302 Food Biochemistry and Human Physiology

BIO3301 Food Supply Chain Safety and Security

BIO3302 Project

BIO3308 Advances in Crop and Animal Science and Technology

ALU8001 Food Safety, Health and Disease

ALU8002 Advanced Food Bioanalysis

FSN Seminar Series Organiser

Member, School Differentiation Panel

IGFS Cell Culture Facility Manager