Message from the Director
Thank you, for making TCIN a thriving institute! I’d like to reflect on a few of the successes of 2023 and give you a few updates on what’s to come in 2024.
You published 376 papers in 2023 and some are on their way to being citation classics (Scopus). Many of these were collaborations across disciplines, demonstrating how the institute works to bring people together. There were some great meetings organised by TCIN members, including the first MEG UKI meeting in Ireland, the Computational Psychiatry conference, a Lifespan Brain Health meeting, and one on Engineering the Future of Tinnitus.
Congratulations to everyone that applied for funding this year. And here are some of the successes this year:
- Tamara Boto, Neural substrates of salience: Implications in perception and cognition, Wellcome Trust Career Development Award, €1.8 million
- Sarah Doyle, Exploring Natural Immunity in Retinal Neovascular Disease, ERC Consolidator, €2 million
- Fiona Newell, Sensory and predictive coding in tactile object perception and memory, IRC Advanced Laureate Award, €1 million
- Iracema Leroi, EMERALD-Lewy: Improving the diagnosis, management, and lived experience of overlooked dementias in Ireland, Health Research Board Applied Programme Awards, €2.5 million.
- Mani Ramaswami, Molecular tuning of thresholds for translational control and long-term memory, IRC Advanced Laureate Award, €1 million
- Rob Whelan, Accelerated Computing for Lifespan Brain Health, SFI Infrastructure, €1.7 million.
- Eleanor Molloy, PLATYPus project: Preterm infant immunomoduLAtion to Treat sepsis and brain injurY Prevention, SFI Frontiers for the Future, €483,964
- Áine Dineen, Deep Learning for Motion Robust Infant fMRI, Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar
- Eike Buabang, Understanding the mechanisms of habits and compulsivity: A neural decoding approach, Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar
- Vanessa Teckentrup, From correlation to causation – Using digital health technology to uncover the temporal dynamics of mental health, Government of Postdoctoral Fellows
- Cian McLoughlin, Beginner’s Mind - Infant Cognition and Childlike Visions, SFI Discover
Sonia Bishop, Colm Cunningham, Eric Downer, Claire Gillan, Lorina Naci, and Roman Romero were elected Fellows of the College. Maeve Caldwell and Clare Kelly received Provost teaching awards
One of the goals of TCIN is to ensure our scientists have state-of-the-art infrastructure. The installation process for the new OPM MEG machine is progressing, and it should be operational early in 2025. And we were successful in obtaining funding for a new accelerated computing (GPU) cluster for lifespan brain health, with 2 petabytes of secure storage. Thanks to Rob Whelan and Ciaran Conneely for their contributions to this, and to the 50 enthusiastic potential users! Hopefully, this will be operational by the end of 2024.
At GBHI, a fantastic eighth cohort of Atlantic Fellows arrived from countries across the globe, bringing expertise from many professions. Creative Brain Week was held again in March and was a great success, engaging the public and scientists alike in a thriving programme of talks and events.
Thanks as ever to TCIN’s core team – Ciaran Conneely, Barbara Hewitt, Elaine Cristina-Oliveira, and Aisling Hume, without whom everything would quickly fall apart. And, to Sojo Josephs and Christian Kerskens in the MRI.
Finally, I’d like to highlight a couple of upcoming events. Engaging with the public is an important part of what we do, and I’m excited to have the artist Cian McLoughlin joining us for a year as artist-in-residence. We’ll have a lunch event in the next couple of weeks, to give you a chance to see some of Cian’s work, and to chat to him. Please come along!
Second, on March 5 there will be a Neuroscience Research Day, with talks and posters, and lots of chance to interact. A call to participate, programme and schedule of events will follow soon.
I wish you the very best start to 2024! If you would like to do something for TCIN, or there things you would like us to do, please do send me an email or just drop by (Room 3.21).
Rhodri Cusack,
Director TCIN
19 January, 2024