About the PI

About the PI

Thomas McWilliams, PhD, Docent

Tom obtained his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland, Galway, before undertaking a Wellcome Trust PhD in Integrative Neuroscience at Cardiff University under the supervision of Alun M. Davies FMedSci FRSE FRS and Stephen B. Dunnett DSc FMedSci.

Tom was subsequently recruited to the MRC Protein Phosphorylation & Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee for postdoctoral research, where he worked with Ian G. Ganley FRSE, and Miratul Muqit FRSE FMedSci on mitochondrial pathomechanisms of neurodegeneration.

Tom established his independent laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki in 2018 as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Mitochondrial Medicine and Academy of Finland Research Fellow, and was subsequenty promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. His laboratory investigates organelle quality control, metabolism and selective autophagy in the nervous system, with direct relevance to human neurological disease.

Tom is the recipient of the 2025 Anders Jahre Award for Medical Research (Young Researchers) and was elected as a Scholar of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence in 2021. Outside the lab, he enjoys cooking, sport, and music.