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Biography
Dr Tao Zhang graduated with First Class Honours from the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in 2004, achieving a BSc (Hons) in Pharmaceutical Technology and receiving The AGB Award for Excellence. He then obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Quality Improvement from the Department of Statistics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 2006, followed by a PhD in Pharmacy Research from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SoPPS) at TCD in 2009. After completing his PhD, Tao conducted postdoctoral research on the Pharmatrin-Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Programme under Prof Helen Sheridan at SoPPS, TCD, before joining Trino Therapeutics Ltd in 2011. At Trino, he held the positions of Senior Chemist and Principal Scientist, contributing to innovative drug discovery programmes and leading GMP manufacturing campaigns for drug substance, successfully bringing a drug candidate PH46A to European human clinical trials. In 2017, Tao joined APC Ltd as a Team Lead, managing an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and analysts focused on developing and optimising (bio)pharmaceutical processes. In 2018, he was appointed as a Lecturer at the School of Food Science and Environmental Health (SoFSEH) at DIT, now called Technological University (TU) Dublin. He currently lectures across various programmes in the school, ranging from first-year science courses to advanced fourth-year BSc research projects. Tao serves as the Programme Chair of the nationally award-winning programme, Higher Certificate in Science in Pharmacy Technician Studies (TU654|TU657). He holds several internal and external roles, including membership in the TU Dublin Academic Regulations, Policies & Procedures Oversight Committee, TU Dublin Faculty Board (Sciences & Health), Royal Society of Chemistry, Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA), International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST), and the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine (GP-TCM) Research Association. Additionally, he is an PI at NatPro, Trinity Centre for Natural Products Research (TCD), an Associate Research Fellow at SoPPS (TCD), and an Associate Editor of BMC Chemistry.
Tao’s research interests span both educational and scientific domains. In education, he focuses on curriculum design and pedagogical strategies, particularly integrating professional development training to enhance students' learning experiences and effectively cultivate their graduate attributes. Under his leadership, the Pharmacy Technician Programme received the National AHECS Employability Award for “Research Informed Practice (2023) and became a founding member of the European Association of Pharmacy Technicians (EAPT) – Academic Network. In scientific research, Tao specialises in developing novel indane hybrid skeletons with inherent biological activities. His work aims to identify and develop new classes of indane compounds and investigate their interactions with drug targets such as G-protein-coupled receptors, which are crucial in conditions like central nervous system disorders, inflammation, and cancer. Additionally, Tao has a strong interest in ethnopharmacology and natural product research, particularly in isolating, identifying, and characterising bioactive molecules from natural resources and exploring the potential of traditional medicine practices in addressing unmet health and nutritional needs. He has been involved in several research awards and grants, including the Wellcome Trust (Cambridge, UK) Advanced Training Bursary (Practical Aspects of Small Molecule Drug Discovery: At the interface of biology, chemistry and pharmacology), Enterprise Ireland Research Innovation Voucher, Wellcome Trust Strategic Translation Award, and TU Dublin First-Time Supervisor Award, among others. Tao is also collaborating on the €6M IIP-funded project with NatPro (TCD) titled 'Unlocking Nature's Pharmacy from Bogland Species,' which explores the therapeutic and economic potential of Irish bogland plants from both scientific and educational perspectives.