His research is directed towards improving lives of people with common and rare skin disorders and spans basic mechanisms of disease, patient-focused investigational studies, and clinical trials.

He has raised > €28M in PI/Co-PI funding to pursue research on genodermatoses, drug repurposing for rare disease, characterisation of the skin barrier, host: microbiome interactions and drug development for atopic dermatitis.

Alan's discovery, with Irwin McLean, of filaggrin variants in atopic dermatitis demonstrated the centrality of the epithelial barrier in the pathogenesis of atopic/allergic diseases, which affect >1.5 billion people.

He has contributed to > 350 peer reviewed scientific papers and has given Keynote/Plenary Lectures at NIH & Keystone Symposia and the major Dermatology (AAD, EADV, WCD) & Allergy (AAAAI, EAACI) Conferences.

Alan was a Founding Director (current President) of the International Eczema Council, a Founding Director of the Irish Skin Foundation and Founding Chairperson/Director of NISR, a non-profit skin disease registry organisation.

He is Past President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, representing > 95% of Irish Hospital Specialists. He was a co-author of the St James’s proposal for Ireland’s National Children's Hospital and the Smith Report on The Future of Genomic Medicine in Ireland.

Alan's work has been recognised internationally, viz: Paul Gerson Unna Prize (German Derm Soc), Research Project of the Year (Times Higher Education) & prize/named Lectures: MB Sulzberger (AAD), Parkes-Weber (RCP), Watson-Smith (RCPEdin), Dolovich (AAAAI), ESDR Plenary Lecture (EADV), Hurwitz (SPD), Honig (CHOP/U Penn), Goltz (U Minn).

He has been elected to: The Royal Irish Academy, Academia Europaea, Royal Society of Edinburgh & Honorary Membership of the Société Française de Dermatologie.