SIC Seminar with Associate Professor Niamh O’Boyle

Lipids in Skin Allergy – Central Contributors or Collateral Damage?

Lipids are a complex class of biomolecules. They play key roles in skin, inhibiting excessive water loss, preventing entry of microbes, allergens and other xenobiotics, and providing structural support. They are extremely diverse, and lipid sub-classes include ceramides, cholesterol esters, and non-esterified fatty acids. For example, 1,327 unbound ceramides and 254 protein-bound ceramides were reported in human stratum corneum [1].

This makes analysis challenging, but lipid changes are characterised in many skin disorders including psoriasis and have been underexplored in the context of skin allergy. We have investigated the effect of exposing lipids to skin allergens in several systems, including in vitro in keratinocytes and ex vivo skin biopsies. This talk will discuss the story behind our studies on metal and fragrance allergens on skin lipids [2,3], as well as recent unpublished work.

Selected references:

[1] Suzuki, Madoka et al. (2022) Whole picture of human stratum corneum ceramides, including the chain-length diversity of long-chain bases, Journal of Lipid Research, Volume 63, Issue 7, 100235

[2] Moore AI, Moreira ASP, Guerra IMS, et al (2025). A lipidomic approach towards identifying the effects of fragrance hydroperoxides on keratinocytes. Contact Dermatitis. 2025; 92(3): 176-186. doi:10.1111/cod.14711

[3] Knox S, Hagvall L, Malmberg P and O'Boyle NM (2022) Topical Application of Metal Allergens Induces Changes to Lipid Composition of Human Skin. Front. Toxicol. 4:867163. doi: 10.3389/ftox.2022.867163

Biography

Dr. Niamh O'Boyle is a pharmacist and an Associate Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland.

Trinity is the oldest university in Ireland established in 1592. After completing her PhD, she had postdoctoral scholarships at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) working with Prof. Ann-Therese Karlberg and later at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology (TCD), Prof. Daniela Zisterer.

Niamh is fascinated by the interaction of chemicals, both drugs and toxins, with the body. This inspires her research investigating underlying mechanisms of skin allergy. She runs several diverse research projects and is currently supported by Panoz Pharmaceutical Innovation PhD Scholarships, Trinity Research Doctorate Awards, Irish Research Council, EU MSCA-RISE (EVEREST), Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (eRaDicate), and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

She was awarded a Fellowship of TCD in 2023 and Fellowship of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland in 2024. Amongst other representations, she is the Associate Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at TCD, and secretary of the Royal Irish Academy Physical, Chemical & Mathematical Sciences multidisciplinary committee.