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Host Institution
Atlantic Technological University DCU Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine Dublin City University Dublin Dental University Hospital Dublin Institute of Technology Economic and Social Research Institute Family Carers Ireland Fondazione Telethon Fraunhofer ITMP Health Information and Quality Authority Health Research Charities Ireland HSE - St. Luke's Hospital (Rathgar) Institute of Technology Sligo IPPOSI Irish Blood Transfusion Service, National Blood Centre Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group Ltd Irish Platform for Patients Organisations Science and Industry Irish Platform for Patients' Organisations, Science and Industry Ltd Irish Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science and Industry Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Limerick Institute of Technology Maynooth University Medical Research Charities Group Ltd National University of Ireland Galway National University of Ireland, Galway Our Lady's Hospice Queen’s University Belfast RCSI Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland TCD Teagasc Technological University Dublin The Alzheimer Society of Ireland The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Trinity College Dublin UCD University College Cork University College Dublin University Hospitals Leuven & KU Leuven University of Auckland University of California San Francisco University of Cambridge University of Galway University of Limerick University of Oxford UPMC Whitfield
Funding Awarded
149 awards
Defining how innate immune function is impacted long term in people who have had active Tuberculosis
The Problem:
Tuberculosis (TB) is a complex disease caused by a bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and claims the lives of 1.4 million people annually. When a person is exposed to Mtb, their immune response may clear the infection asymptomatically, contain it in a dormant state (called latent TB)...
Developing the IL-36 receptor antagonist as a therapy for colon cancer
The immune system is rapidly emerging as a key player in the development and progression of cancer. Whilst the body’s immune system is designed to detect and destroy cancer cells, tumours are known to produce proteins that suppress the immune response. A better understanding of the relationship between tumours and the immune system...
Interrogation of novel Glioblastoma Subtypes towards an improved Precision Medicine Approach for Brain Tumour Patients
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent and aggressive adult brain tumour. Sadly, 85% of patients die within two years, despite surgery and chemo/radiotherapy. Treatment resistance is related to cell types that make up the tumour (“tumour microenvironment” or “TME”). Specifically, the behaviour of TME cells such as blood vessel and...
Exploring the risk factors and consequences of cannabis use in adolescence using population-based data: the "CANNARISK" study
Over the past decade there has been an increase in the number of adolescents using cannabis worldwide. This is concerning because cannabis is increasing in strength with more serious long term effects on health such as psychosis and depression. The adverse effects of using cannabis are particularly pronounced in those who start to use...
‘Investigating the relationship between the Complement Pathway and outcomes in Psychosis; from Clinical High Risk to First Episode Psychosis’
Schizophrenia is amongst the most expensive disorders in terms of quality of life and societal cost. Based on current treatments more than 30% of schizophrenia subjects do not respond to treatments, including antipsychotic medications. While early intervention is known to be associated with improved outcome, we cannot tell in advance...
Study of rolE of PlateletS In Sepsis (SEPSIS)
Sepsis is a severe illness caused by a bloodstream infection and is the primary cause of death in-hospital. While antibiotics are the primary treatment for sepsis the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria along with the inability to culture bacteria from blood in many cases makes treating sepsis challenging. The...
A probiotic strategy for antipsychotic-induced metabolic dysfunction
Schizophrenia is a mental illness associated with psychosis and is treated with antipsychotic medication. These medications are very effective; however, they cause side-effects that impact people’s physical health. Substantial body weight gain occurs in up to half of people during long-term antipsychotic treatment. Antipsychotics can...
ExamIning the diagnostic and functional role of a novel DNA meThylation signaturE in predicting ColoRectAl Cancer meTastasis - “INTERACT”
Ongoing scientific/clinical efforts have drastically improved survival rates (60-80%) of patients with early stage bowel (Colorectal) cancer. However, only 14% of advanced (stage 4) bowel cancer patients survive post-5 years of diagnosis. Currently, there are no effective approaches that can predict if a patient’s bowel cancer will...
Stromal cell subtypes define distinct pathogenesis in RA and PsA
Arthritis is a leading cause of disability affecting up to 15% of the Irish population. 2% suffer from inflammatory arthritis (IA) such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The cost of treating patients with IA in Ireland is ~€20,000/patient/year.
Activation of our immune cells is a key mechanism by which...
Altered histone protein acetylation is associated with dysregulated NK cell metabolism in different cancer types
Fixing broken immune cells in a range of cancers.
Finding a way to stop cancer spreading (known as metastasis) remains a holy grail of scientific research. We know that we can use the immune system in anti-cancer therapies and this has opened up the possibility that patients can be cured using combinations of...
Hepato-Flame: Studying the interaction of diet, obesity, microbial translocation and inflammatory pathways in hepatobiliary cancer development: A European prospective cohort study
In many world regions including Ireland, the incidence of liver cancer and nearby cancers of the biliary tract (together termed hepatobiliary cancers) is rising steadily, and these deadly cancers have limited available treatments. Increasing rates may be linked to obesity and other components of unhealthy lifestyles which cause...
Analyzing the therapeutic potential of anti-inflammatory drugs in brain development, neuronal activity and long-term outcomes after birth asphyxia
Birth asphyxia or neonatal hypoxia is a medical condition resulting from deprivation of oxygen to a newborn infant that lasts long enough to cause harm, usually to the brain. It remains a serious condition which causes significant mortality and morbidity. Neonatal hypoxia is a global insult, which can damage all organs, but the brain...
Neutrophil Plasticity in Infection and Inflammation
Neutrophils make up 40-60% of all white blood cells. They arrive as the first cell type wherever viral, bacterial, or fungal infections occur, or when tissue damage and injury happen. In severe and longer lasting incidents neutrophil numbers go up due to increased release from the bone marrow. Neutrophils detect, swallow up and destroy...
A translational investigation of the anti-inflammatory and antidepressant effects of Psychedelics in Depression
There has been a renewed interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. These substances (e.g. psilocybin, D-lysergic acid diethylamide, dimethyltryptamine) when given under psychiatric supervision and with psychological support have been shown to have therapeutic benefits for a range of disorders with restricted or maladaptive...
Addressing the economic and human cost of hospital acquired and nurse-sensitive adverse events in older patients through optimal use of routine discharge data and measurement of missed nursing care
Older patients make up the largest patient group in acute hospitals in Ireland. Common hospital acquired complications in this group contribute to higher healthcare costs, lower quality care, and less satisfactory patient experiences overall. Pneumonia, delirium, urinary tract infections and pressure injuries are four commonly acquired...
Interrogating Steroid Non-responsiveness in the Irish Eosinophilic Oesophagitis Population
Eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) is a rare, increasingly recognised disease where an immune cell (eosinophil) builds up in the oesophagus in response to allergens including foods. This damage can lead to vomiting, abdominal pain, difficulty swallowing, blockage, and with time scaring which may need surgery. EoE is a serious affliction...
IMPRINT: Defining pathogen-specific IMmune PRedictors of bloodstream INfecTion outcomes
The past 20 months has provided a front row seat to the ravaging effects of a virus on the global population. During this time, scientists have responded with a momentous research effort, which has yielded unprecedented levels of understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19 disease and importantly how our immune system responds to...
STARFISH: Sustained inflammaTion in preterm infAnts and multioRgan dysFunctIon correlateS witH long term outcomes
Preterm birth describes babies born before 37 weeks an is the world's leading cause of death in children less than 5 years old. Babies born before 32 weeks have higher risks of injury to their brain, kidneys, lungs, heart and more infections. Although clinical care of these issues in the neonatal period is well defined there are few...
Effective Subsets of Fine-Grained Network-based Neurophysiological Biomarkers for Early Stratification in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Motor Neurone Disease (MND)/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a terminal neurological condition in which the neurons (neural cells) that control movement degenerate. The exiting drugs have very limited effects on the disease progression and those affected only survive for about 3-4 years after the symptoms begin.
More than...
Mental Health and Wellbeing during the Transition from Childhood to Young Adulthood
While positive mental health and wellbeing is important for children and young people in its own right, mental ill-health in early life can also have lasting impacts on later-life outcomes. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of mental health difficulties was increasing among children and young people in Ireland, and there...
Identifying and Addressing the Barriers to Home Haemodialysis (DREAM)
Kidney disease is becoming more common. This means that more people require kidney transplants and haemodialysis. Haemodialysis is a way of replacing the functions of failing kidneys by using an external machine to clean the blood. Haemodialysis is usually carried out in a hospital. However, after training, many patients and their...
A realist process evaluation of an intervention to promote competencies in interprofessional collaboration among interdisciplinary integrated care teams for older people
Government policy in Ireland recognises the importance for older people to live well in their homes and their communities. This means that the right healthcare is available for older people and their family carers in their communities as and when they need it. The government have a plan to develop healthcare teams called Integrated...
SocialPaths: Sex-specific socioeconomic pathways to cardiovascular disease risk across the life course
Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally in both females and males. After decades of research, we know what causes heart disease but prevention remains challenging. Much of what we know about heart disease and how we go about preventing it today is based on research in males. Future prevention strategies require research...
Planning and design for quality of life and resilience in residential long-term care settings for older people in Ireland: Research and Universal Design Guidelines for new-build, adaption and retrofit
In Ireland, the provision of Residential Care Settings (RCS) for Older People is currently inadequate; putting pressure on the health system and undermining the care of many older people. As the population increases and ages, the number of people requiring RCS will increase. This is recognised by the Irish government in health...
The design and psychometric evaluation of a health-related quality-of-life outcome measure (QoLTEN) for adults with Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN)
Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN) are devastating conditions with a sudden onset. Patients are catapulted into a rapid and unexpected form of acute skin failure with a significant risk to their life. They become critically ill within a short period of time and are treated as a medical emergency with the...
Increased Thrombotic Risk in Patients with Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: Linking Inflammation, Metabolism and Hypercoagulability - the CLIMB study
Blood clotting is an important defence mechanism that prevents blood loss after injury, but when this process is not controlled, it can block blood vessels and cause life-threatening thrombosis. Individuals with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) generate excessive numbers of all blood cells, including white cells, which predisposes...
Development of a Core Outcome Set for research studies with older adults in the Emergency Department
The number of people over the age of 65 is increasing. This change in the population will continue to put pressure on healthcare services including Emergency Services into the coming decades as older adults are most frequent Emergency Department (ED) attendees.
Older adults are at risk of health decline and functional decline...
The development of an intervention to improve the use of point-of-care diagnostics in the management of respiratory tract infections in primary care: a mixed methods study
Using antimicrobial medicines (e.g. antibiotics) too often, especially when they are not needed, is associated with increased antimicrobial resistance (AmR). AmR can weaken the effects of antimicrobials, which threatens our already vulnerable health systems. Sometimes, antibiotics (which kill bacteria) are used to treat viral...
Development, validation and dissemination of the PRECIS-3 tool to support the design of pragmatic randomised controlled trials: Towards making clinical trials part of routine clinical care
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have been proven to be the best means of acquiring clinical data for the provision of a wide variety of healthcare solutions. Conventional (explanatory) RCTs, however, are normally performed under ideal conditions in a scenario that is divorced from the clinical care of the participants. They are...
Comprehensive characterisation of resistance mechanisms for the accurate detection of Helicobacter pylori antimicrobial resistance
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a public health issue. It remains one of the most common infections in adults in Ireland and is associated with significant disease as the main cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancers. Despite significant work resulting in a better understanding of this bacterium (germ) and how it...
PRedicting Onset, Variation and Effect of treatment in Rheumatoid Arthritis (PROVE-RA)
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common, autoimmune disease affecting synovial joints that may result in cartilage damage, joint destruction, and disability. Treatments available for patients with RA have improved a lot over the last two decades with the result that many patients will go into remission. However, a significant number of...
Investigation of hospital sanitary ware as reservoirs of persistent antimicrobial resistant pathogens and links to bloodstream infections: Implications for infection prevention and control
Infections caused by bacteria lengthen patient stays in hospital and increase the complexity of treating the patient. These bacteria are frequently antibiotic resistant superbugs, like MRSA or CPE. Once the bacteria is in a patient it is a danger to the patients' health. These bacteria can survive and live outside the human body in...
Discovering and modulating mechanisms by which Peptidylglycine alpha-Amidating Monooxygenase (PAM) influences the risk of genetically inherited tissue damage in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease in which the immune system attacks the body and affects around 50,000 people in Ireland. This results in swollen and painful joints, which can be severely debilitating. The underlying cause is a mixture of nature (genetics) and nurture (environment). The genetic site rs26232 has been found to be...
Examining the interplay of the immune system with brain cells in Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease occurs when nerve cells that produce the chemical dopamine are lost from the brain. This causes a person to have many symptoms including a tremor of their hands and slowness of movement. There have been a lot of studies trying to determine why these dopamine nerve cells die.
There is growing evidence that the...
The Test of Complex Syntax: final development phase, standardization and diagnostic accuracy with respect to children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and those at risk of language disorder.
This project aims to develop an online interactive tool which will allow us to identify children who find it more difficult to understand language than their peers and to individually tailor support to help them to overcome these difficulties. Difficulties understanding spoken language are often hidden and children's problems may go...
A new cell free DNA liquid biopsy assay to predict bevacizumab outcome in metastatic colorectal cancer patients
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in Europe with an estimated 420,000 new cases diagnosed and 230,000 related deaths anticipated in 2018. CRC is the 2nd most common and 2nd most fatal cancer in Ireland. Currently standard chemotherapy (FOLFOX) and bevacizumab [(BVZ); avastin] a drug which inhibits tumour blood...
Tracking Trajectories of Psychopathology from Infancy to Young Adulthood: an Irish national longitudinal cohort study
Approximately 30-50% of people will experience a mental disorder over the course of their life and the majority of mental disorders begin in adolescence. Despite a shift toward 'early intervention' strategies in many medical specialities, psychiatry lags behind in this regard. There is a pressing need to identify the early life...
An investigation of the prevalence and molecular epidemiology of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in Irish hospitals using whole-genome sequencing
Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) is an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that causes serious infections among patients in hospitals. Ireland has the highest level of VREfm causing life-threatening bloodstream infections (BSIs) in Europe but little is known about how it has emerged and spread here or the genetic...
The identification of plasma protein markers of antipsychotic drug treatment response in first episode psychosis; a proteomic analysis of baseline plasma samples from the OPTiMiSE and PSYSCAN studies.
Schizophrenia is amongst the most expensive disorders in terms of quality of life and societal cost. While early intervention is known to be associated with improved outcome there is little information on predictors of patient outcome following antipsychotic drug (APD) treatment. We seek to identify, for the first time, discriminative...
3D collagen-based scaffolds as gene delivery platforms for the treatment of human breast cancer
Gene therapy has recently become a potential method for the targeted treatment of cancer but successful delivery remains a real problem that hinders its use in the clinic. The aim of this study is to create and define three-dimensional (3D) lab-based models of breast cancer to mimic primary and secondary tumours, and to assess the...
To identify molecular signatures that can predict disease onset in 'at-risk ACPA+' individuals and disease progression in RA patients
Inflammation is a critical process in fighting infection. However, if uncontrolled, it can contribute to the development of autoimmune disease, including inflammatory forms of arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which causes joint destruction and disability. Targeted therapies have advanced the treatment of RA, however a...
Evaluation of the clinical, psychological and economic effects of the Cystic Fibrosis Newborn Screening Programme: the Irish Comparative Outcomes Study of CF (ICOS) Part 2
This is a national programme of research which addresses key outcomes in the recently established Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Newborn Screening programme (NBS). Ireland has the highest prevalence of CF worldwide. NBS for CF was introduced in 2011. The Irish Comparative Outcome Study (ICOS) Part I was conducted in 2013-2017 and studied...
Development of a Model of Care for Osteoarthritis in Primary Care in Ireland- A mixed methods study
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in Ireland. It is a condition of the joints that can cause pain and reduced mobility. It is more common in people over the age of 50 and often affects the knee and hip joints. This project aims to improve the care of people with osteoarthritis who attend their general practitioner...
Switching on the light: Reprogramming T cell metabolism for novel HIV Cure interventions
With 37 millions people currently living with HIV and 2.6 million people newly infected worldwide, the AIDS pandemic is a global health crisis. In Ireland, the HSE and the HSPC have made HIV/AIDS "a notifiable disease and a major public health importance". 30 years of intense HIV/AIDS research have provided efficient antiretroviral...
Molecular evolution of metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer
Approximately 20% of all breast cancers (BCs) are HER2-positive and this type of BC is particularly aggressive. Drugs that target HER2, such as trastuzumab (Herceptin), have improved our ability to treat HER2-positive BC. However, many women with HER2-positive BC are not cured following treatment, and more than 25% of women go on to...
Immunometabolic manipulation of pulmonary immunity - towards TB host directed therapy
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health emergency, with over one and a half million people dying per year, despite being a curable disease. Drug-resistant TB is a new aspect of the epidemic meaning this disease has now become more difficult to treat with antibiotics. Consequently there is urgent need to generate better treatments,...
Prediction of radiation toxicity in prostate cancer patients using Raman spectroscopy
There are no tests currently available to predict an individual patient's response to radiotherapy. Some patients experience severe long term side effects months and even years after their treatment has finished and these effects can be permanent. For example, some prostate cancer patients develop life-changing bowel and urinary...
FIREFLY: Followup of Inflammatory Responses and multiorgan outcomes FoLlowing neonatal brain injurY
Babies who have brain injury also frequently have involvement of their kideys, lung and heart. Although clinical care in the neonatal period is well defined there are few guidelines and evidence for developmental, heart and kidney followup in childhood. We aim to develop and implement guidelines for health care workers and families on...
Analysis of the oral metagenome for markers of malignant transformation of oral leukoplakia
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) accounts for 90% of oral cancers. According to the National Cancer Registry, the rate of OSCC in Ireland is increasing annually by 3.3% and early diagnosis and treatment is crucial if patients are to survive beyond 5 years. OSCCs can arise de novo or from preneoplasis such as Oral Leukoplakia (OLK)....
Sláintemedicines - a roadmap to essential medicines entitlement for universal health coverage
According to the World Health Organisation, universal health coverage is an important goal for health systems. Ireland does not currently have universal coverage as some individual have to pay for services such as visiting their GP. Sláintecare is a plan to implement universal coverage in Ireland over a 10 year period. However, this...
Study of the impact of dedicated recurrent miscarriage clinics in the Republic of Ireland
Spontaneous miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy. While improvements in the quality of care provided during pregnancy have led to substantial reductions in many adverse pregnancy outcomes, there has been little effect on miscarriage which still occurs in between 20% to 30% of pregnancies, in the first trimester....
Bile Acids as a host trigger of Chronic infecting Pathogens in Respiratory Disease
This study will investigate the unexplained link between bile aspiration and the chronic infection/inflammation characteristic of severe respiratory disease in patients. Despite advances in the clinical management of respiratory disease, patients continue to develop lung damage even from an early age. We know that harmful bacteria...
Using guanine to re-sensitise MRSA to methicillin: Is purine nucleotide homeostasis the Achilles' heel of MRSA antibiotic resistance?
The threat of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections to hospital patients and the wider society continues to escalate. The discovery of antibiotics in the 1940's and 1950's represented one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in history. However since then the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has gradually erooded...
Wound infections: biofilms and the search for novel antimicrobial agents
Wound infections are one of the most common bacterial infections that are seen both in the community and in the healthcare setting. Wounds may occur acutely or if they fail to heal within a timely reparative process of three months are considered to be chronic wounds. The most common bacteria that cause wound infections is...
NK cell RESTORE - Can GLP-1 therapy restore tumour immunity in severely obese patients?
Obesity has recently over taken smoking as the number one cause of preventable deaths worldwide. This is because obesity causes many serious diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Recent reports suggest that up to 50% of all cancers are now due to obesity. Obesity is linked to cancer through many avenues from inflammation, hormonal...
Optimizing 40 Hz sensory stimulation protocols for Alzheimer's disease treatment
Clinical dementia, the majority of cases being caused by Alzheimer's disease, seriously impairs the lives of over 50 million people worldwide currently. There are approximately 55,000 people with dementia and as many dementia carers in Ireland. At present the lifetime risk of developing dementia is about 10% but this is increasing...
Transitions of Care in Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease
Patients who suffer from advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at risk of progressing to kidney failure which is associated with a shortened life span and significant disability. The transition from advanced CKD to kidney failure requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) [dialysis, kidney transplantation or conservative therapy] is...
Vaccination: Knowledge is power
Over 3 million global deaths are avoided annually due to the existence of vaccines. In Ireland the state funded immunization program protects against 14 infectious diseases including HPV. However, we face a number of challenges with immunization. Alarmingly, in recent years uptake of vaccines has been waning. Perhaps due to complacency...
Health and social inequalities in the Mid-West
As there are many disadvantaged areas in the Mid-West, health and social inequalities are important issues locally. This is because deprivation is linked with poor health and poor access to healthcare. Under the Healthy Ireland Framework, taking actions to address health inequalities is a key priority. In the Mid-West, many...
Self-Harm and Suicide AwaREness ? SHARE
SHARE is based on outcomes of the HRB funded research programme: Improving Prediction and Risk Assessment of Suicide and Self-Harm (IMPRESS). The IMPRESS study aims to improve the knowledge base on predictive risk factors associated with repeated self-harm and suicide among high-risk groups of self-harm patients in Ireland. During the...
Postnatal Mental Health PARTNERship
It is estimated that 10-25% of mothers will experience a mental health problem following the birth of their baby. With approximately 63,900 births in Ireland each year (6), conservative figures would suggest that over 6390 mothers will experience a mental health problem in the postnatal period. For many mothers, their partner plays a...
Towards Recovery After Childbirth, through Knowledge: (ON TRACK)
The Maternal health And Maternal Morbidity in Ireland (MAMMI) study identified problems women had postpartum. We have provided information for women on physical problems, such as incontinence, and will now address other important issues. For example, 15% of women have anxiety during pregnancy, and 44% have pain during sex at 3 months...
Developing an on-line course for first-time mothers: ?Pathway to Birth?
Concern has been expressed globally at rising caesarean section (CS) rates with no evidence of any decrease in associated health problems for mothers and babies, indicating that many CSs are unnecessary, and can be harmful. We are at present running a pilot trial called "REDUCE"to see if a new intervention, based on research evidence,...
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is the story of diabetes in pregnancy in Ireland. In a weekly, serialized, online graphic novel, we will follow the lives of women attending a Breakfast Club for women who have received a diagnosis of diabetes during their pregnancy. We will explore their experiences, from having a Glucose Tolerance Test, to meeting...
Medtrack KEDS
"Health professionals are the lifeblood of the health system"(President M Robinson), yet our junior doctors (NCHD-trainees) continue to report that responses for improving their working conditions have had "little tangible change or impact on their day-to-day working lives and training experience?. The RCSI research team has...
Development of a Teaching Programme for the Junior Cycle Mental health and Mental Ill-Health Module
Great progress has been made nationally on destigmatising mental health but it has not yet become a topic that people are universally comfortable with. A major change in the Junior Cycle in 2018 is the introduction of Wellbeing which directly addresses youth mental health through Strand 4 in the new Social Personal and Health Education...
Development of Book About Mental Health Problems For Children and Adolescents
There has been steady improvements in the quality of information available to people about mental health issues but a challenge remains to communicate this fully to children and adolescents. Much of the existing information is text heavy and can be off-putting for this age group. Presenting this information so that it is accessible...
Citizen Science: The People's Trial
Randomised trials are instrumental in providing reliable and robust evidence on the benefits, harms and costs of health care, so that people can make informed choices. However, the general public?s understanding of randomised trials can be limited and ensuring public support for and participation in trials remains challenging. The...
Delivering a Reduction in the Development of Maternal Prenatal Stress: DIRECTMAPS
Pregnancy can be a stressful time during which many expectant mothers experience understandable worries and concerns. High levels of prenatal maternal stress are linked to several unfavourable conditions which can affect the health of the child at birth. Normal development of the central nervous system is also at risk during the early...
Piloting the Community Engaged Scholars Program in Ireland
Public and patient involvement in health research is not embedded in Irish Universities. As part of the PPI Ignite Awards scheme the HRB have funded 5 Irish Universities to demonstrate the value of PPI and champion this approach in Ireland. PPI involves public/patients working in partnership with researchers in setting research...
Promoting Education and Research Knowledge (PERK)
THE PROBLEM Cancer of the oesophagus (food pipe) is an aggressive type of cancer, and has a low survival rate. It is usually diagnosed at a late stage, often due to a lack of knowledge of underlying symptoms which can be mild, including heartburn, bloating and problems swallowing. Oesophageal cancer is not as well known as some other...
Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Awareness INitiative (RA-PAIN)
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune condition that causes disability for patient's day-to-day tasks. New medications that target bad molecules or cells improve outcomes, however responses may be limited or side effects may occur. Who will develop RA, get severe disease or respond to current treatments is not known. Studies...
Using photovoice to enhance knowledge exchange and dissemination
The EOLAS programmes are information and learning programmes for people with experience of psychosis and their family members. The programmes have been co-produced and are co-delivered by peer and clinician facilitators in partnership with mental health clinicians. Such service user and family member involvement in the design and...
CHErIsH- KEDS
This CHErIsH-KEDS application has two aims: to increase capacity in translation of research into practice in Ireland and to develop a knowledge exchange strategy for the future roll out of CHErIsH across different settings in primary care. This application builds on the existing study, the CHErIsH study. The CHErIsH study is funded...
How to Use TILDA Data - Webinar, Seminar and Workshop Series
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) was established in 2006 with baseline data collection commencing in 2009. TILDA collects data in a series of data collection waves. The data is collected through a computer-assisted personal interview and a self-completion questionnaire once every two years with a comprehensive health...
Co-Designing, Pre-Testing and Refining an Intervention Programme to Support Parent-Adolescent Communication about Shared Self-Management Responsibilities in Type I Diabetes
This knowledge exchange activity aims to work together with young people with Type 1 Diabetes (TID), parents of young people with TID, professionals (from a range of disciplines e.g. diabetes nurse specialists, psychologists, consultant paediatric endocrinologists) and community advocates (e.g. Diabetes Ireland) to codesign, pre-test...
Collecting and using data about ethnicity in healthcare -a drama
Ireland has a long history of emigration. More recently, we have inward migration. Census 2016 found that 17% of the population were born outside Ireland. This means that there are different minority ethnic groups in our country, in addition the Irish Travellers. The Health Service Executive wants to gather information on the ethnic...
The APART Study Public Participation Initiative for Knowledge Exchange
The APART Study is exploring an important, low-cost intervention that may limit bone loss associated with initiation of antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV. Results from this trial may have significant implications for how HIV is managed both in Ireland and internationally. We will use this KEDS award to develop a research partnership...
Real Talk with Real Mums
?Real Talk with Real Mums? is a 10-episode podcast series looking at the issues of everyday pregnancy with medical professionals and the real women who have gone through the pregnancy journey. Each episode of c.30 minutes will tackle a different topic, from exercise in pregnancy (with a Physiotherapist), to mental health issues in...
TeamTalk: Interactive Resource Hub for Healthcare Teams
Healthcare teams who are interested in improving how they work together to deliver better patient care often struggle to find the time to learn and implement new practices. Teams rarely have the opportunity to attend training courses or other learning events together. This makes it difficult to transfer their newly acquired knowledge...
Working with the Research Community: Training and a Toolkit for Patients & Members of the Public
The PPI Ignite Programme at Trinity College Dublin is focused on building capacity for public and patient involvement in health research, with a particular emphasis on improving the quality of approaches. One of 10 Ignite Partners, the Medical Research Charities Group (MRCG), hosts a Public Patient Involvement (PPI) Shared Learning...
Disseminating, Engaging, and Sharing Knowledge (DESK):patient informed resource for understanding our research
Based on the findings of the research conducted during our HRB Research Leader's Award, the aim of the proposed KEDS project is to effectively disseminate the finding of our research to chronic pain patients and the general public. Sharing research findings with the general public is very important but can be difficult to get right; we...
A Patient Education Programme in Health Research & Innovation
Well informed patients and carers have a key role to play in the design and implementation of person-centered healthcare and research. Whilst patients are eager to have better and safer health products and innovations, they are often unaware of the complex nature of how new health innovations are researched, developed and made...
The patient is part of the answer - don't leave us out in the cold!
This application aims to produce a documentary that explains public and patient involvement in health research to the general public and encourages more people to become involved with researchers. Known as PPI, public and patient involvement means that people who are likely to be affected by research results are directly involved in...
Promoting National Awareness of Thrombosis in Pregnancy.
Women who are pregnant have a higher chance of developing blood clots (thrombosis) that can cause serious ill-health and can be fatal. Therefore, it is incredibly important that women who are pregnant, women of childbearing age and their families are aware of their risk factors for thrombosis in pregnancy. In the HRB-funded "HIGHLOW"...
Maximising collaboration to expedite positive change in the assessment process that determines physiotherapy students' readiness for independent practice
Assessment of student physiotherapists in the clinical environment is a critical part of their education which determines their readiness for independent clinical practice once qualified. Therefore it has significant implications for patient safety and quality of service delivery. Yet, research and experience highlight many challenges...
LoVIC-Kids: Improving public awareness of abnormal bleeding symptoms
Congenital bleeding disorders (CBD) may result in increased bleeding at times of injury, surgery, childbirth or with periods (menstrual bleeding). Although an estimated 1-2% of the population are affected by CBD, most people are unaware that their bleeding symptoms are abnormal. In addition, there is limited awareness amongst many...
"Let's Talk About" Series
Researchers in dementia at NUI Galway are producing important research insights into many aspects of dementia care in Ireland, specifically: resource allocation decision-making; support structures for family carers; and how people with dementia are treated within the care system. The focus is now turning to sharing the results...
Using visual media to communicate complex information
Services in Ireland for people with dementia are poorly developed. The main partnership award aims to (i) describe current dementia services across all sectors and (ii) ask people with dementia, carers, health workers and managers about the ideal level and type of service provision for people with dementia who have different needs and...
Factors influencing decision-making for caesarean section
The rising rate of caesarean section (CS) has become a growing concern worldwide, with limited justification of the rising trend. Understanding the factors that influence the rise in CS is important because obstetricians and midwives are directly involved in the decision to perform a CS and are the key drivers to achieving the remedial...
Enhancing ?The Model for Dementia Palliative Care Project? by targeting potential model users with innovative Knowledge, Transfer and Exchange activities.
This KEDS application will further enhance Knowledge, Transfer and Exchange (KTE) activities arising from 'The Model for Dementia Palliative Care Project', by supporting new connections with key groups, through novel activities and outputs. The active project will develop a new service delivery model for palliative care for people...
What the Researcher and the Dentist want to share, supporting knowledge dissemination
Research is ongoing to monitor the oral health of the Irish population, the uptake of dental services, and targeting of services to specific groups most in need. Results of such research inform policy makers in the Department of Health with respect to issues such as community water fluoridation and recommendations on the use of...
Label free monitoring of fibrinogen levels in human blood plasma using asymmetric imides
The project aims to develop new methodologies for analysis of blood plasma samples using vibration spectroscopy (infrared and Raman spectroscopy) as alternative to the time consuming, costly and poorly reliable Clauss assay, commonly used in hospitals. Two different aspects will be addressed, (i) requirement for optimisation of...
Communicating and promoting SAFE medicines use in Ireland
The likelihood of side effects of medicines, drug interactions and potentially inappropriate prescribing increase with the increasing number of medicines people take. Taking multiple medicines at the same time is common in people age 65 year olds or older with six in every ten in this age group. Also, around one in ten of those aged 65...
Interact for Health: Increasing integrated knowledge translation capacity for impact
Although the Health Behaviour Change Research Group (HBCRG) has engaged with the HSE Health and Wellbeing (H&W) Division as health partners on a number of activities to date, we believe there is significant potential for enhanced knowledge exchange between these two groups. Additionally, integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT)...
The biology of mood: What brain imaging and genetic studies tell us about Bipolar Disorder
This project aims to translate the known biology of bipolar disorder, enhance the accessibility of the latest discoveries and interpret the meaning and relevance to individuals with bipolar disorder, their families, carers and health professionals that are not research active. To complement the current emphasis on clinical aspects of...
The youth mental health animation creation project
This KEDS award will be used to create animations about young people's mental health that will be embedded into the youth mental health website, ReachOut.com.
This project will involve crafting key messages from this study into short narratives using direct quotes from the research interviews conducted for this...Brain superheroes and villains
We are a group of neuroscientists, funded by the HRB, who aim to test and develop novel drugs for brain related illnesses. We are excited about disseminating the value of work like ours and, in 2012, were delighted to be awarded our first HRB Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination Scheme (KEDS), which consisted of three activities...
Learning about trials - for children, by children
This project will consist of the development of new resources for teaching primary school children (aged 10-12) about why we need trials and how trials work, with a view to being more widely used throughout the trial community. These resources will align with the START (Schools Teaching Awareness of Randomised Trials) Competition,...
Family carer knowledge exchange project
We are interested in how family carers of people with dementia develop and maintain resilience in the care giving role and we are designing a project to help family carers to be more resilient and to better cope with the demands of care giving. As a team of researchers, we have reviewed studies of family carers'experiences in other...
Community exercise
It is recognised that exercise benefits people living with chronic disease. The CRF at St James's Hospital exercise physiology suite is used by research studies examining the role of exercise training for patients with chronic disease. These exercise trials support patients to exercise during structured supervised exercise classes and...
Driving policy with data: A longterm sustainable specialist service for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
The JPND-funded project ALS-CarE is coordinated by the Irish partner, and has collected detailed information across 5 different countries about the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patient and caregiver journey from ALS diagnosis through to end of life. In Ireland, we have collected extensive quantitiative and qualitative...
The StrokeCog partnership: effective intervention through collaboration
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and will increase considerably in coming decades as people live for longer. Many people are aware of physical disabilities after stroke, but are less aware of cognitive problems. These include difficulties with memory, concentration and abstract thinking, often experienced as...
Non-motor symptoms in dystonia and musician's dystonia
Our multidisciplinary Irish Dystonia Research Group, combining the expertise of Bioengineers in Trinity College Dublin and a network of Clinical Neurologists, has been working to determine the cause of a disabling movement disorder, adult onset dystonia, characterised by abnormal postures and excessive muscle activity. The causes of...
Evidence to Support Prevention Implementation and Translation - Knowledge Translation (ESPRIT-KT)
This application adds to a larger HRB Research Leader Award about improving care for people with diabetes in Ireland. The goal of the KEDS project is to connect people who do research with people who make decisions about our national health policy so they can learn from each other and work together to improve the health of the...
Developing a website for public awareness about computer use in aphasia rehabilitation
Aphasia is a language disorder which occurs in 1 in 3 people after stroke. It can impact on a person's ability to produce and understand spoken and written language. People with aphasia have had limited opportunities to have their voices heard within Irish stroke research.
This research project has already engaged...The Art of Pregnancy
The Art of Pregnancy is an exciting and ambitious public outreach exhibition and programme supported by the HRB Mother and Baby CTN togther with the Science Gallery Dublin as a key partner.
For this project we want to commission (via an open call process) a group of artists to create works inspired by the wide ranging areas of...Speaking Up About Safety (SUAS)
Speaking up about safety concerns is an important aspect of a healthcare professional's role. Our research has shown that in comparison to nurses, junior doctors are particularly poor at speaking up and tend not to report incidents and adverse events, in many cases because they believe it is not their responsibility to do so. Yet, a...
Our voices, our impact
Wave 3 KEDS will build on previous success by recruiting actors with ID to develop DVD and on-line resources comprising scenes that illustrate key IDS-TILDA wave 3 findings. Feedback from wave 3 indicates that participants would like to receive the findings in DVD format and IDS-TILDA wishes to respond to the specific dissemination...
Brain, mind and psychosis: Engaging young people in learning about research
Great progress has been made over the past few years in "destigmatising" mental illness and this has been particularly successful for conditions such as depression and anxiety. However there still remains a great lack of knowledge about psychosis. This lack of knowledge can lead to stigma and fear and can prevent young people coming...
The LinKT (Linking into Knowledge Translation) project: connecting, integrating and translating evidence to make a difference for families
Increasing evidence highlights the effectiveness of early intervention and prevention parenting interventions for improving the mental health and wellbeing of parents and children in the earliest years. However, these are often complex, difficult to implement effectively and fail to reach the most vulnerable families. Accessible,...
Development of an online cancer genetics educational resource for undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare learners
Genetic testing is becoming cheaper and easier to perform. As such, it is being performed more and more frequently; to help explain why people have developed cancer, or to try to identify genetic changes in their tumours to which novel drugs can be targeted. Genetic testing may also help identify individuals at risk of cancer,...
Pathfinder: Parental information on therapeutic hypothermia followIng neonatal encephalopathy
Neonatal brain injury can have devastating outcomes for the baby and their family and may result in longterm disability. The only treatment available is whole body cooling started within a few hours of birth. Babies also require intensive care to support their lungs, heart and kidneys. We will develop an educational toolkit including...
Let's talk - and act - about adherence in multimorbidity - a teaching and learning resource for general practice
More than half of those over the age of 65 live with more than one chronic condition. This is known as multimorbidity (MM). The prevalence of MM increases with age and is more common in less well off patients. Using muliple medications i.e. polypharmacy, is the norm in MM and many do not take their medications as prescribed i.e....
Cracking the mysteries of cancer immunotherapies - e.courses for oncology healthcare professionals
The new therapies for cancer that target the immune system have revolutionised cancer care in recent times. The treatment of melanoma, leukaemia and other malignancies has been transformed by these immune modulating drugs. However, few oncology clinicians or oncology specialist nurses have backgrounds in immunology or immune...
The stressed brain & depression
Understanding depression is challenging both for professionals and for the public. It is complex and poorly conceptualized. Clinical depression involves biological, psychological and social causes that all contribute to the expression of depression in each individual sufferer. Trauma, especially early in life when body systems are...
CERVIVA: The HPV educate project
The goal of this CERVIVA HPV Educate Project is to provide accurate and reliable information relating to HPV and HPV associated diseases, to create awareness and educate the public, health care professionals and healthcare providers on public health issues related to HPV associated diseases and on the specific research programmes...
Overweight & obesity in Ireland: Translating policy into action
The launch in 2016 of "A healthy weight for Ireland", the Government's National Obesity Policy and Action Plan, 2016-2025 represents an important milestone in Ireland's response to ongoing epidemic of overweight and obesity in children and adults. Researchers in the HRB Centre for Health & Diet (CHDR) generated key evidence which...
Listening to the newborn brain
This outreach programme will provide dedicated public information and education resources on the neonatal brain stethoscope device, which aims to facilitate interrogation of the neonatal brain and improve the quality and accuracy of the diagnosis brain injuries, reduce the stress of parents with babies in the NICU and establish the...
Expert forum to advance the potential of IL-1 family members as novel therapeutics in IBD
Current treatment strategies for Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are ineffective in a large number of patients. Although the reasons for this are not fully understood, it seems likely to reflect the complex nature of chronic intestinal inflammation. Recent advances in our understanding...
Supporting individuals and organisations involved in implementation of community water fluoridation
The Fluoride And Caring for Children's Teeth (FACCT) study was initiated to determine the effect of the change in water fluoridation policy (2007) on dental caries (tooth decay) and enamel fluorosis (marks on tooth enamel which are associated with fluoride) in Irish children, while also considering the change in policy on the use of...
Using genetics and CRISPR to personalise new targeted treatments for patients with familial breast cancer
This research project is focused on the genetics of breast cancer. We know that cancer can be caused by errors in certain genes, called mutations. We also know that these mutations run in some families, and therefore some women unfortunately inherit a risk of developing breast cancer. Landmark studies on these families led to the...
Exercising control over runaway kynurenine pathway metabolism: Towards improved treatment outcomes in major depression
We all know someone who suffers from depression, the difficulties they experience before being diagnosed and the hardship endured before an effective medication that improves their symptoms is finally found. Often, despite multiple trials of different medications, the symptoms of depression persist. In addition to the personal and...
The relationship of medication adherence and environmental factors to exacerbations in patients with severe asthma
Some patients with asthma suffer attacks, termed exacerbations, these periods of loss of control and heightened symptoms both significantly reduce quality of life and increase healthcare costs, as they are a cause of disability, hospitalisation and death. Predicting when an exacerbation may occur involves knowledge of the person's...
Biomarker discovery in ultra high risk for psychosis: Towards prediction of psychotic disorder, non-psychotic mental disorders and recovery
Mental disorders such as schizophrenia and major depression are among the most expensive disorders in terms of quality of life and societal cost. Early identification and intervention is associated with improved outcome and is facilitated by targeting those at ultra-high-risk-for-psychosis (UHR) as up to 25-30% subsequently develop...
The impact of stress on maternal gastrointestinal permeability during pregnancy: Implications for maternal immunology and infant neurodevelopment
Pregnancy can be a stressful time during which many expectant mothers experience understandable worries and concerns. Unusually high levels of prenatal maternal stress are associated with a number of behavioural and cognitive problems for the child in later life. Normal development of the central nervous system is also at risk during...
Alpha melanocyte stimulatory hormone and improvements in glucose tolerance in humans: Role of enhanced skeletal muscle glucose uptake and utilisation
Patients with diabetes show significant impairements in the control of blood levels of nutrients such as sugars and fats after eating. This causes excessive levels of nutrient to circulate (e.g. high blood sugar-hyperglycaemia) and over time this phenomenon can injure cells and tissues of the body resulting in complications such as...
The heme oxygenase system as a therapeutic intervention for inflammatory bowel disease
Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD) are major chronic inflammatory bowel diseases affecting approximately 20,000 people in Ireland and an estimated 2.2 million individuals in Europe. Treatment with infliximab, corticosteroids and aminosalicylate-based compounds has been shown to suppress the generation of pathogenic immune...
Assessment of the predictive value of immune and histological parameters in oesophageal adenocarcinoma using digital pathology
Cancer of the oesophagus, or food pipe, is an aggressive type of cancer, with poor survival rates. The number of people affected is increasing and is set to double in Ireland within the next 20 years. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are used to treat patients with oesophageal cancer, but these therapies only work for a small number of...
Phenotypic and functional characterisation of immune cell populations in ACPA+ vs ACPA- RA patients: Implications for treatment strategies
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory arthritis affecting 1-2% of the population, with potentially debilitating effects impacting on quality of life and function. Targeted therapies inhibiting TNF have advanced RA treatment, however these treatments are expensive, placing further strain on an already overstretched...
Targeting HIV persistent reservoirs: Evaluation of new classes of latency reversing agent as part of novel strategies for HIV cure approaches
With 37 millions people currently living with HIV and 2.6 million people newly infected worldwide, the AIDS pandemic is a global health crisis. In Ireland, the HSE and the HSPC have made HIV/AIDS "a notifiable disease and a major public health importance". 30 years of intense HIV/AIDS research have provided efficient antiretroviral...
IRISH-1: A retrospective cohort study of PD-L1 by RNA ISH (RISH) as a potentially superior companion biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitors in NSCLC
The role of the immune system to fight illness is well known, but it can in fact also fight cancer. Indeed, most potential cancer causing cells are detected and removed from our bodies by our immune system in process called "immune surveillance". However, at some point, tumors manage to evade our immune system by producing molecules...
Gastric cancer risk: The influence of selenium status and selenoprotein genetic variation
Dietary and lifestyle factors and infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori play important roles in the development of different types of stomach (gastric) cancer (GC), one of the top ten most serious cancers in Europe. Selenium is a micronutrient needed in small amounts for important proteins, called selenoproteins, countering...
Do we die as we live? Age, socioeconomic status, healthcare utilisation and pathways to death in Ireland
It has long been understood that illness and healthcare needs increase as a person approaches the end of life, and that much of what appears to be higher costs with ageing is mainly the costs of dying. Age at death is closely linked to socioeconomic status, but little is known about how patterns of illness and use of services vary...
Prospective validation of the complement system as a novel treatment stratification tool in oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients
Cancer of the oesophagus (food-pipe) is rapidly increasing in incidence in Ireland and worldwide and has one of the worst survival rates of all cancers. In Ireland, oesophageal cancer patients are currently treated with chemoradiation therapy (CRT), which is a combination of drugs (chemotherapy) and radiation (radiation therapy),...
Skin in Parkinson's disease - a potential biomarker?
Parkinsonism is characterized by slowness, stiffness, tremor and poor balance. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive, incurable neurological disease and the most common cause of Parkinsonism. PD is caused by a reduced level of a chemical (dopamine) in an area of the brain responsible for automatic movement control. Current...
Elucidating the pathological role of obesity, inflammation and immunity in cancer related sarcopenia in upper gastrointestinal cancers
Cancer is a devastating disease affecting the majority of us at some point in our lives. Cachexia is a common debilitating consequence of cancer, which is responsible for the deaths of nearly 20% of all cancer patients. It is thought to be driven by inflammation and leads to an involuntary loss of muscle (sarcopenia) and fat. This has...
CERVIVA-Vax: Monitoring the impact of HPV vaccination in Ireland
Infection with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) can lead to development of cervical cancer. For this reason HPV now plays an important role in cervical cancer prevention. For example, HPV vaccination programmes are established in several countries worldwide, including Ireland, where a national school based HPV vaccination programme began in...
A population-based, longitudinal investigation of changes in multisensory integration with ageing and its causal role in the incidence of falls and cognitive decline in older adults
Our sensory systems are constantly bombarded by information, yet we are able to maintain a coherent perception that allows us to efficiently interact with our world. Recent research in neuroscience has led to important breakthroughs in our understanding of how multisensory interactions occur in the brain. However, the ageing process...
Advanced scaffold-based therapeutics for regeneration of large volume, vascularised bone defects
Although bone has a natural capacity to repair itself following fracture, problems arise when large critical-size bone defects do not spontaneously heal and therefore require surgical intervention to repair completely. As many drawbacks exist with traditional repair approaches, the field of bone tissue engineering - which combines...
The Low Von Willebrand factor Ireland Cohort of Kids (LoVIC-K) study
Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a large plasma protein essential for maintaining normal blood coagulation. Approximately 1% of the children and adults inherit low levels of his blood clotting protein, and consequently have a lifelong bleeding disorder known as von Willebrand disease (or VWD). Children with VWD often demonstrate easy...
Sex matters! Identification of novel therapeutic targets to mitigate the increased prevalence of depression in women versus men.
Stress, particularly early life, is a major risk factor for several psychiatric disorders including depression. The prevalence of depression is twice as high in women compared with men. Thus in addition to stress, biological sex is an important contributor of depression susceptibility. The neurobiology underlying increased...
Monoclonal xIL-6R antibodies as a treatment for memory dysfunction in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that affects ~ 1 in every 3,600 live male births. This disease is characterised by progressive muscle weakness, disability, immobility and premature death, often due to respiratory failure. Symptom manifestation is due to a genetic mutation in the dystrophin gene, which protects...
Development of a nebulised cell based therapy for acute respiratory distress syndrome
Acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) constitute a spectrum of severe acute respiratory failure. Mortality rates over 60% have been reported and ARDS is the leading cause of death in the critically ill. ARDS develops most commonly in the context of severe sepsis, particularly infection with gram-negative...
The microbiome as a risk factor and biomarker of oesophageal cancer
Oesophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide (19th most common in Europe) with nearly 456,000 new cases diagnosed in 2012. It is well established that microbes can cause cancer. For example, H. pylori infection can lead to stomach cancer. For other cancers, such as colon cancer, there is a change in the population of...
Multimodal cardiovascular modelling for predicting and preventing disability in TILDA
Increasing proportions of older adults will lead to an increased prevalence of age-related health problems, and long-term care systems. The issues are numerous and complex. In response to these challenges, 'ageing' has become a research priority both nationally and internationally. TILDA aims to improve population health by providing...
A mixed methods research study to develop an acceptable, evidence and practice based model for palliative care for people with dementia in the community
People are living longer, which means that more of us will get age-related illnesses such as dementia. Palliative Care aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families who are facing an incurable, life-limiting illness, such as dementia. Palliative care involves actively looking for symptoms of any kind- physical,...
Epigenetics in the pathogenesis of pseudoexfoliation glaucoma
Glaucoma is a common cause of blindness, which affects approximately 60 million people worldwide. There are many causes and risk factors for developing this disease but pseudoexfoliation (PXF) syndrome is currently the single most important identifiable risk factor for developing glaucoma (PXFG). A build up of certain proteins...
Alternative approaches to achieving universal healthcare -potential costs, outcomes and challenges
For the first time in Ireland there is cross-party political interest in achieving universal healthcare (UHC); however there is little clarity about the meaning of universality or how best to transition from the current Irish system to one of universality. In Ireland, most people currently pay relatively high fees to visit general...