His research attempts to understand the biology of RNA splicing in critically ill trauma and surgical patients using Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) as a model disease. He uses both human samples and animal models as well as large data sets (GTEx) with computation and molecular biology techniques in his research. Dr. Monaghan has been supported by American College of Surgeons C. James Carrico Faculty Research Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health as a Pilot Project and the Principal Investigator for Project 5 of the CardioPulmonary Vascular Biology Center of Biomedical Research Excellence.