Thomas M. O'Connell, PhD

Bio

Thomas O’Connell, MD, joined the Indiana University School of Medicine faculty as an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery in July 2016. 

His research is focused on understanding the metabolic drivers of a range of conditions in both health and disease. Using a combination of analytical and computational methods, the O'Connell lab searchs for biochemical mechanisms and biomarkers to inform new therapeutic interventions and diagnostic approaches. His lab is currently working on new approaches to use AI and large language models to integrate and analyze metabolomics literature and databases. He is an investigator in the Indiana Center for Musculoskeletal Health where he studies the interplay between muscle and bone matabolism related to aging and exercise.

In the fall of 2023, he was a Fulbright Specialist at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland where he collaborated on projects related to understanding the metabolic drivers of muscle hypertrophy and muscle memory. 

Dr. O’Connell received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and he conducted post-doctoral research in biophysics at Yale University and the National Institutes of Health.

Prior to joining IU School of Medicine, he was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Pharmacy where he directed the UNC Metabolomics Laboratory. His research there spanned the translational research spectrum from in vitro studies to clinical metabolomics analyses.