Six Trinity researchers recognised as future research leaders in HRB awards

Posted on: 22 November 2024

Five researchers from the Faculty of Health Sciences (HS), and one from the Faculty of STEM (STEM) have been recognised today as future research leaders with awards totalling €5.3 million made under the HRB Research Career Framework. The specific aim of the funding is to provide emerging researchers with opportunities to establish themselves as independent investigators.

The awardees are:

• Dr Alison Keogh, Discipline of Clinical Medicine (HS)
• Dr Gina Leisching, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI) (HS)
• Caoileann Murphy, Department of Physiology (HS)
• Dr Antoinette O'Connor, Discipline of Medical Gerontology (HS)
• Dr Gráinne Sheill, Discipline of Physiotherapy (HS)
• Dr Nicky O'Boyle, Microbiology (STEM)

The awards are part of two HRB schemes that were designed specifically to build a pipeline of future leaders in health and social care research.

Professor Colin P Doherty MD, Head of School of Medicine at Trinity, said:

“We are delighted with both the number and breath of research awards being made by the HRB to early career TCD investigators. The School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin prides itself on being a research intensive school with discovery at the heart of that effort. I’m profoundly optimistic that these young researchers will be making the discoveries that will affect the health outcomes of future generations both here and abroad.”

HRB Chief Executive, Dr Mairéad O'Driscoll, said:

“These awards are part of the HRB’s strategic commitment to build research leadership across academic and clinical environments in Ireland.  They will create a critical mass of collaborative investigators who will respond to current and emerging health research needs and bridge a key gap in career transition between postdoctoral and research independence stages.”

Speaking about the schemes, Dr Anne Cody, Head of Investigator-led Grants, Careers and Enablers at the Health Research Board (HRB) added:

“The 2024 awards were selected via a rigorous application and assessment process, which included a two-stage application process, based on international peer review, public review, and interviews by an international panel of experts for shortlisted candidates. We want to ensure that these awards not only enhance the awardees career development but that they also deliver research with clear pathways to impact.”

 

Details of the 6 Trinity awardees and their research projects

1. Dr Alison Keogh, Clinical Medicine, Tallaght University Hospital

Mobility mapping: Working with people with multiple sclerosis to map real-world walking experiences to digital mobility outcome measures, to improve clinical assessment.

Emerging Investigator Award - Patient Oriented Research
Award Amount: €725,199

Lay summary

Changes to walking, or mobility, as a result of multiple sclerosis (MS) can impact a person’s daily life, influencing many activities and altering people’s sense of independence. These changes are rated as important to people with MS, however, no measures currently exist that accurately monitor people’s mobility outside of a clinic or lab-based setting. This means that we currently rely on brief snapshots in time to understand how people are walking.

Measuring mobility in people’s daily environments would allow researchers and clinicians to better understand the impact of MS on people’s lives. Wearable devices (e.g. sensors, smartwatches, phones etc.), offer us the chance to do this, by creating new outcome measures of mobility from the data captured by them. These digital outcome measures may then be used in clinical trials in the same way that other outcome measures, such as scans, already are. This may provide us with insights into how MS symptoms are impacting a person’s mobility, and, over-time, may also prove to be a valuable measure of treatment effectiveness or disease progression. The first step though is to develop them.

It is critical that a person-centred approach is taken in the development of new outcome measures, to make sure that we select and understand which outcomes are most important for people with MS. We will interview 60 people with MS, from diverse backgrounds, in multiple countries across Europe, to understand (i) how MS impacts their daily lives, and (ii) to map these experiences to the developed digital outcome measures. We will build on the results of these interviews by undertaking a consensus process with healthcare professionals to prioritise outcome measure development. This project will therefore support the development of new, patient-driven outcome measures for clinical trials in MS, by ensuring that new measures are meaningful for people.

2. Dr Gina Leisching, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI), St James’s Hospital

Targeting Thromboinflammation in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Emerging Investigator Award - Patient Oriented Research
Award Amount: €817,086

Lay summary

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease marked by premature atherosclerosis (precursor to heart disease) and thrombotic (clotting) complications. The increased levels of interferon (IFN)α, which is an immune protein, is observed in SLE and worsens cardiovascular and thrombotic risks, creating a cycle of inflammation and clotting.

The long-term goal of this project is to reduce the burden of premature atherosclerosis and thrombosis in SLE. The central hypothesis, based on my preliminary data suggests that IFNα-driven activation of 3 specific immune cells, low-density neutrophils (LDNs), normal-density neutrophils (NDNs), and macrophages lead to premature atherosclerosis and thrombosis through the altered metabolism of these cells. The project's objectives are (1) to identify distinct metabolic and inflammatory profiles in SLE-derived LDNs and macrophages, (2) to evaluate the role of changing metabolism in blood coagulation, and (3) to determine immune pathways linked to clotting in SLE. This study is innovative in its (a)interdisciplinary approach to dissecting metabolic reprogramming, inflammation, and coagulation in SLE and (b)introduces a novel concept that premature atherosclerosis and thrombosis in SLE are intricately linked to metabolic alterations in LDNs, NDNs, and macrophages, which have not yet been investigated. It holds significance in identifying new therapeutic targets and providing a model approach for understanding these processes in SLE, which are potentially applicable to other chronic inflammatory conditions.

This project therefore addresses the urgent need to assess the links between immunity and coagulation, setting a pioneering milestone in this area of SLE research. This study, crafted through collaborative efforts between St James's Hospital in Dublin and a core research team offers the promise of advancing our understanding of SLE pathogenesis and providing novel therapeutic avenues for reducing thrombotic complications in this patient population. This work will therefore contribute to building a robust and impactful research ecosystem on SLE, which is currently lacking in the Republic of Ireland.

 

 

3. Caoileann Murphy, Dietician, Department of Physiology

Enhancing Wellbeing in Residential Care: a focus on Body Composition and Skeletal Muscle Function (RES-FIT)

Emerging Investigator Award - Patient Oriented Research
Award Amount: €818,880

Lay summary

Residential care facilities play a vital role in supporting people who can no longer be cared for at home. As the number of older people in Ireland continues to grow, there is an increasing demand for these essential services. Top priorities within residential care facilities are to maintain residents' independence, ensure a good quality of life, and deliver person-centred care. While studies have identified a rise in obesity among residents, there's limited knowledge on how obesity impacts independence, health, and overall well-being. Another common concern is the development of sarcopenia, a condition resulting from the loss of muscle mass and strength, which can lead to falls, physical disability, and a diminished quality of life. When obesity and sarcopenia occur together, the consequences may be especially harmful.

Currently, there is a lack of data on the prevalence of obesity and sarcopenia in Irish residential care facilities. Our research programme aims to fill this knowledge gap across the entire country. We will investigate how obesity and sarcopenia affect the independence, quality of life and health of residents, using data collected in Ireland and other countries. Additionally, we will track individuals over time following their transition to residential care, observing changes in their bodies and the impact of these changes. We will also gather resident and staff perspectives on these changes and their underlying causes. Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) partners will work alongside our research team, shaping and guiding the project at every stage. The information generated by this collaborative research will help improve the way residential care facilities operate. It will guide decisions about things like food, physical activity, and monitoring. It will also help plan for the right number and types of staff and the design of the facilities to better serve the needs of residents

 

4. Dr Nicky O'Boyle, Discipline of Microbiology

Targeting opportunistic Enterobacteriaceae in ileal Crohn’s disease using D-amino acids

Emerging Investigator Award - Patient Oriented Research
Award Amount: €898,831

Lay summary

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a long-term illness that can result in a wide variety of debilitating symptoms including diarrhoea, abdominal pain, extreme tiredness, unexplained weight loss, joint pain, skin rashes, mouth ulcers and eye irritation. Despite being a widespread problem, there is a limited availability of effective treatment options. In fact, IBD is a lifelong disease that is currently incurable. There is a strong association between flare ups of IBD and changes to gut bacteria, some of which are thought to be harmful and can overgrow and replace “healthy” bacteria. Being able to identify markers for IBD in urine or faeces is highly desirable and it has recently been shown that some forms of IBD are associated with lower levels of faecal D-amino acids (DAAs). My research has shown that these chemicals, primarily produced by bacteria, have a remarkable ability to reduce several harmful effects of E. coli bacteria. In this work, I will assess IBD patients for faecal DAA levels, and signs of microscopic gut damage caused by harmful bacteria. I will grow intestinal cells from IBD patients to create enteroids (a synthetic gut lining that closely resembles the gut of the patient). These will be infected with harmful bacteria from the same patient and treated with DAAs to look at their potential to prevent growth of the bacteria and damage to the gut lining. Additionally, some patients report flare ups of symptoms with certain foods. I will involve a patient group in the project to identify these foods and any effects of fermented foods (shown to contain high levels of DAAs) on flare ups. This work will help us to design tailored dietary interventions or food supplements that target this problematic group of bacteria.

5. Dr Antoinette O'Connor, Discipline of Medical Gerontology

Biomarkers in the identification of Alzheimer’s Disease in people with Down Syndrome (Bio-MinDS)

Emerging Clinician Scientist Award - Clinical Research
Award Amount: €1,340,039.90

Lay summary

Nearly every person with Down syndrome eventually develops Alzheimer’s disease (AD): the hallmark proteins of AD are found in 9 out of 10 people with Down syndrome by the age of 40, and by age 65 nearly all people with Down syndrome have dementia. We are entering a new era in AD treatment– for the first time there are therapies that can slow disease progression. Frustratingly, people with Down syndrome have been routinely excluded from AD drug trials, despite urgent clinical need in this population. Therefore, we do not know if these potentially life altering treatments work in Down syndrome.

Robust clinical trials in Down syndrome will need to track AD-related change – these measures of change are called biomarkers. Biomarker selection in this population is not straight-forward: traditional measures (cerebrospinal fluid sampling and brain scans) are invasive and expensive, while variability in intellectual ability leads to challenges standardising cognitive testing. Blood tests represent an ideal AD biomarker as they are cheap, accessible and repeatable.

Before blood tests can enter routine use a number of important questions must be answered. My research will address some of these, specifically:

• what role does inflammation play in driving AD onset?
• what blood tests are the most promising for the detection of AD in Down syndrome?
• do blood test levels vary from day-to-day and does this variability impact on their ability to diagnose AD and/or track change?
• how long, and how many people, are required to participate in AD clinical trials to show a treatment effect in Down syndrome?

I will answer these questions by reviewing previous blood biomarker studies in Down syndrome and by collecting repeated blood samples from people with Down Syndrome. These blood samples will also allow me to investigate the role of inflammation in AD -potentially identifying new treatment targets.  

6. Dr Gráinne Sheill, Discipline of Physiotherapy

Towards an evidence based and stakeholder informed model of rehabilitation for people with haematological cancer

Emerging Clinician Scientist Awards - Clinical Research
Award Amount: €668,936.72

Lay summary

Many people with haematological (blood and lymphatic) cancer undergo a haematological stem cell transplant (HSCT). HSCT replaces damaged blood cells with healthy ones and often involves high doses of chemotherapy. Patients who receive a HSCT can experience numerous weakening side-effects, such as decreased physical performance, which negatively impact on their quality of life. Rehabilitation is widely promoted in cancer care to enhance outcomes and lessen the negative impact of treatment; however it is unclear how rehabilitation is best provided to support patients receiving intense treatments like HSCT.

This study asks what the impact is of HSCT on physical wellbeing and what are the best rehabilitation approaches to supporting patients to recover after HSCT?

This study involves three work packages. Work Package 1 will combine the results of published studies where patients describe their experience of undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The findings of individual studies will be drawn together to give greater understanding of the rehabilitation needs of patients undergoing HSCT.

Work Package 2 will evaluate the effects of treatment on physical health. Patients will complete tests examining physical performance and questionnaires capturing patient-reported outcomes at regular intervals throughout their treatment journey (from diagnosis up to 1-year after transplant). This study will also explore if patient characteristics (e.g. fitness, age) can affect outcomes (how that person tolerates cancer treatment).

Work Package 3 will use experience-based co-design to develop a rehabilitation intervention that meets the needs of patients undergoing HSCT. Experience-based co-design is a method for helping patients and clinicians work together to improve healthcare services. Patients, carers and staff will be invited to attend interviews and codesign sessions.

Together, this study will determine the impact of treatment on the physical performance of patients undergoing HSCT and develop a rehabilitation programme to address patient’s needs.

 

 

 

 

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