Dr Rachelle Irwin is a Lecturer in Genomic Medicine and a Principal Investigator (PI) at the Centre for Genomic Medicine in the School of Biomedical Science, Ulster University. Dr Irwin’s research is focused on epigenetic epidemiology, with interest in understanding the role of epigenetics in human health and disease.

Dr Irwin graduated from Ulster University with BSc Hons Biomedical Science (1^st Class), proceeding to undertake her PhD in the Transcriptional Regulation and Epigenetics research group which examined maternal programming of neural gene methylation and transcription. Following her PhD, Dr Irwin was appointed as a BBRSC/ERSC-funded Research Associate in the Genomic Medicine Research Group at Ulster University. During this period, she worked on an interdisciplinary project relating to a longitudinal randomized controlled trial investigating the epigenetic effects of folic acid supplementation on children's psychosocial development in the second and third trimester of pregnancy.

Dr Irwin was appointed as a Lecturer at Ulster University in 2019 where she assumed the role of Course Director for the BSc Hons Biology degree, which she led through recent successful accreditation by the Royal Society of Biology. She teaches on a range of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In addition to her teaching endeavours, Dr Irwin is actively involved in supervising postgraduate students and outreach activity.

To date, Dr. Irwin has published more than 17 scientific papers in top-ranked scientific journals across a range of disciplines. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the Royal Society of Biology and a member of the Genetics Society. Dr Irwin is an editorial board member for Frontiers in Genetics, Frontiers in Endocrinology and the Journal of Childhood and Adolescent Trauma.