Tomás Ryan is associate 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.

Tomás J. Ryan
Associate professor of neuroscience
Trinity College Dublin
From this contributor
What are we talking about? Clarifying the fuzzy concept of representation in neuroscience and beyond
To foster discourse, scientists need to account for all the different ways they use the term “representation.”
Explore more from The Transmitter
Targeting NMDA receptor subunit reverses fragile X traits in mice
The subunit acts as a “volume control” on signaling that shapes the density of dendritic spines, the new work suggests.

Targeting NMDA receptor subunit reverses fragile X traits in mice
The subunit acts as a “volume control” on signaling that shapes the density of dendritic spines, the new work suggests.
Maternal infection’s link to autism may be a mirage
Family-linked factors explain most associations between maternal illness and autism, a study of 1.1 million Danish children finds.

Maternal infection’s link to autism may be a mirage
Family-linked factors explain most associations between maternal illness and autism, a study of 1.1 million Danish children finds.
2025 Brain Prize honors pair of cancer neuroscientists
Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler share the $1.4 million award for their discovery of synapses between brain cancer cells and neurons.

2025 Brain Prize honors pair of cancer neuroscientists
Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler share the $1.4 million award for their discovery of synapses between brain cancer cells and neurons.