Ryan O’Neill

Staff Scientist (2024 – present)

email: ryan.o’neill@nih.gov
phone: (301)827-1114

 

HISTORY

2003 – 2007 – B.S., University of New Brunswick (Biology)

2009 – 2016 – Ph.D., University of New Brunswick (advisor: Dr. Denise Clark)

2016 – 2023 – Postdoctoral Fellow (advisor: Dr. Nasser Rusan)–

RESEARCH

  • High-Throughput Screening for Rare Disease Research in Drosophila:
    • Designing, building, and operating high-throughput recording platforms and AI-based analysis pipelines for high-throughput rare disease research
    • Generating and characterizing Drosophila models of human rare diseases including direct modeling of patient mutations
  • Mechanisms Controlling Neuron Number in Microcephaly Diseases:
    • Established a Drosophila model of TRAIP microcephaly, showing that Traip suppresses mitotic DNA bridges to prevent neural stem cell loss
    • Identified genetic and drug suppressors of traip- microcephalic fly brains
  • Centrosome Gene Duplication and Evolution:
    • Characterized cell type-specific functional diversification of centrosome genes that arose via gene duplication in the Drosophila lineage

PUBLICATIONS

6. O’Neill RS, Sodeinde AK, Welsh FC, Fagerstrom CJ, Galletta BJ and Rusan NM. Spd-2 Gene Duplication Reveals Cell-Type Specific Assembly Mechanisms of Pericentriolar Material.
Current Biology. Jul 24;33(14):3031-3040.e6

5. O’Neill RS and Rusan NM. (2022) Traip Controls Mushroom Body Size By Suppressing Mitotic Defects. Development. 149(7):dev199987.

4. O’Neill RS, Schoborg TA, Rusan NM. (2018) Same but different: pleiotropy in centrosome-related microcephaly. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 29(3):241-246

3. O’Neill RS, Clark DV. (2016) Partial Functional Diversification of Drosophila melanogaster Septin Genes Sep2 and Sep5. G3 (Bethesda). Jul 7;6(7):1947-57.

2. O’Neill RS, Clark DV. (2013) The Drosophila melanogaster septin gene Sep2 has a redundant function with the retrogene Sep5 in imaginal cell proliferation but is essential for oogenesis. Genome. Dec;56(12):753-8. 

1. O’Neill RS, Clark DV. (2013) Evolution of three parent genes and their retrogene copies in Drosophila species. Int J Evol Biol. 2013:693085–

INVITED TALKS

2026 – 67th Annual Drosophila Research Conference

2025 – NIH Bioinformatics Community Fair, Bethesda MD

2022 – Cell Bio 2022 ASCB/EMBO Meeting.

2022 – 63rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference.

2021 – CanFly XVI – Canadian Drosophila Research Conference.

2021  – Society for Developmental Biology – 1st Annual Ethyl Browne Harvey Postdoctoral Seminar Series.

2020 – Cell Bio Virtual 2020 ASCB/EMBO Meeting – Minisymposium.

2019  – 59th Annual ASCB/EMBO Meeting – Microsymposium.

2015 – CANFLY XIII – McGill University. Montreal, QC.

2011  – CANFLY XI, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON.–

OF NOTE

2024 – Current – NIH Artificial Intelligence Interest Group, Chair

2024 – Current – NIH Artificial Intelligence Symposium, Lead Organizer

2024 – Current – NIH Artificial Intelligence Club Seminar Series, Organizer

2021 – The Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE)

2020 – The Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE)

2019 – NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE)

2017 – Travel Award for ASCB/EMBO Meeting

2015 – Best Oral Presentation (UNB Graduate Research Conference)

2014 – Poster Award (Northeast Regional Meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology)