Ruairí graduated from Dublin City University in 2011 with a first class honours BSc in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, where he completed a dissertation on the generation of hydrophilic polypeptide-siloxane conjugates ring-opening polymerisation of N-carboxyanhydrides under the supervision of Prof. Heise and Dr. Paul Thornton. Afterwards Ruairí undertook a PhD in the Dove group at the University of Warwick funded by Lubrizol Ltd. focusing on the development of novel biodegradable elastomeric materials for medical applications. After completion of his PhD studies in 2015, Ruairí completed a short research assistant position funded by Critical Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in the fabrication of degradable polycarbonate microparticles through supercritical CO2 spray drying before embarking on a Leverhulme Trust funded postdoctoral research position at the University of Reading. Under the supervision of Prof Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy, Ruairí worked on the development of novel mucoadhesive formulations for ocular drug delivery.

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Ruairí joined the Heise group in 2016 as part of the TREND materials group, before being awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions individual fellowship (MSCA-IF) in the synthesis of polyester-peptide hybrid materials. Ruairí’s current research is focused on the development of polypeptide-based materials as gene delivery vectors.