Headshot of Tomás J. Ryan.

Tomás J. Ryan

Professor of neuroscience
Trinity College Dublin

Tomás Ryan is professor of neuroscience in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and a principal investigator at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He holds a joint faculty position at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the University of Melbourne in Australia. His research group aims to understand how memory engrams change over development and how they interact with innate representations. His primary research is supported by the European Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, the Jacobs Foundation and the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, among other sources. Ryan is a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. With Francis Fallon, he co-founded and co-directs the project Representation: Past, Present, and Future, supported by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund as part of Trinity College Dublin’s Neurohumanities program.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Speech bubbles progress from light- to dark- colored.

Amid funding uncertainty, neuroscientists report a mix of cynicism, persistence

Two years into one of the most tumultuous tenures in U.S. federal funding, researchers outline how they are coping with ongoing changes and reflect on the impact these changes are having on the system more broadly.

By Emily Singer
28 August 2026 | 5 min read
Stages of neurodegeneration: Neurofibrillary tangles at different stages of neurodegeneration are labeled with phosphorylated tau antibodies (green and blue).

Reimagining Mexico’s brain bank

Since Alzheimer’s disease researcher José Luna-Muñoz assumed leadership of the facility—Latin America’s oldest—in 2011, he has been acquiring additional tissue types and is working to expand donor recruitment to rural areas.

By Alejandra Manjarrez
28 August 2026 | 7 min read

Revealing how crabs make their escape

Houdini-like Neohelice granulata offers a rare opportunity to record intracellularly from awake, behaving animals.

By Natalia Mesa
28 August 2026 | 0 min watch