Aaron Liew MPH, MRCPI, PhD

Professor Aaron Liew is a Consultant Physician in Diabetes, Endocrinology, and General Internal Medicine at Portiuncula University Hospital and Galway University Hospital since 2015. He is also the Associate Professor in Diabetes and Endocrinology at the National University of Galway (NUIG), Dean of Ballinasloe Medical Academy, and the Academy Clinical Simulation Lead (ACSL) for NUIG. He is the clinical supervisor for Medical internship, Basic Specialist Training (General Internal Medicine), and GP Senior House Officer (SHO) schemes at Portiuncula University Hospital.

Professor Liew graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 2000 and completed his Higher Specialist Training (HST) in Diabetes and Endocrinology with General Internal Medicine in 2010. During his Higher Specialist Training in Ireland, Professor Liew was awarded the Clinical Research Training Fellowship from the Health Research Board and completed a Ph.D., in the Regenerative Medicine Institute, NUIG in 2008 under the supervision of Professor Timothy O’Brien. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled ‘Diabetes related dysfunction of endothelial progenitor and mature endothelial cells.

Following his HST in 2010, he continued his research in cell therapy in critical limb ischemia as a post-doctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor O'Brien at NUIG. He obtained the Ulysses Grant which allowed him to learn the novel electrogene transfer method for human mesenchymal stromal cells in Gustave Roussy, Laboratoire de Vectorologie et Therapeutiques Anticancereuses, Villejuif, France in 2011. He was involved in the first clinical trial conducted in Ireland to examine the safety and feasibility of autologous intramuscular transplantation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells as a novel therapy for people with no-option critical limb ischemia (EudraCT number: 2013-003447-37).

In 2014, Professor Liew was appointed as the Principal Research Associate at the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, and Institute of Transplantation, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. His research included the Diabetes UK-funded Project, entitled ‘Biomedical and Psychosocial Outcomes of Islet Transplantation’, led by Professor James Shaw. He was also involved in the first phase 3, a double-blind, randomized controlled trial which evaluates the efficacy of an investigational anti-inflammatory small molecule (repairing) in preventing graft dysfunction following pancreatic islet transplantation in people with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.