Cathal Ryan is a PhD student in the Department of Biology, Maynooth University. He began his PhD in October 2021 with a John and Pat Hume Scholarship soon after completing his BSc. in Biotechnology in Maynooth. His research investigates how the fundamental process of mRNA translation is altered in the cell during viral infection. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will travel to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he will perform a variety of next-generation RNA sequencing studies such as PAR-CLIP and Ribo-seq with project collaborator Dr. Markus Hafner (NIH National institute of Musculoskeletal and Arthritis and Skin Diseases). He will use this sequencing data to explore how a particular RNA-binding protein regulates mRNA translation during viral infection, and the consequences this has within the infected cell.