Dr. Sabina Brennan
Visiting Research Fellow, ADAPT

Projects

• Title
  • PATHFINdER
• Summary
  • Parental information on Therapeutic Hypothermia FollowIng Neonatal Encephalopathy
• Funding Agency
  • Health Research Baord
• Date From
  • 01/12/2017
• Date To
  • 31/12/2018

• Title
  • PPI-Ignite - Trinity College Dublin
• Funding Agency
  • Health Research Board
• Date From
  • 01/06/2017

• Title
  • No Pressure
• Funding Agency
  • Global Brain Health Institute
• Date From
  • 01/09/2016
• Date To
  • 30/06/2017

• Title
  • Brain Health for MS
• Funding Agency
  • Novartis International
• Date From
  • 01/07/2016
• Date To
  • 30/11/2016

• Title
  • Caring for Carers - DeStress
• Funding Agency
  • Health Research Board
• Date From
  • 01/12/2015
• Date To
  • 30/09/2016

• Title
  • Global Brain Health Institute
• Funding Agency
  • The Atlantic Philanthropies
• Date From
  • 01/10/2015

• Title
  • DemPath
• Funding Agency
  • GENIO
• Date From
  • 2014
• Date To
  • 2017

• Title
  • RelAte - Benefit of relationship-based mealtime intervention in social isolated older adults
• Summary
  • Aim: to determine the benefit of a relationship-based nutritional intervention in older people living alone. Methods: One hundred older people living alone will be recruited through local community services. Participants will be randomised to either i) a relationship-based nutritional intervention delivered by a trained volunteer for approx 180 minutes once a week for eight weeks. Participants will also be given dietary advice and will be made aware of local community based meal-provision services where they can avail of low-cost meals to be consumed in a social setting. or ii) a control intervention where participants will be given dietary advice and will be made aware of local community based meal-provision services where they can avail of low-cost meals to be consumed in a social setting. Endpoints: Participants in the intervention and control groups will be assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks) and at 12-week and 26-week follow-up for changes in: Quality of Life, Cognitive Function, Social connection, Mood, BMI, Walking speed Expected outcomes: Short-term and sustained benefit for the relational nutritional intervention, nutritional advice and information on local social meal service provision over nutritional advice and information on local social meal service provision alone.
• Funding Agency
  • Home Instead Inc
• Date From
  • 01/04/13
• Date To
  • 31/03/15

• Title
  • DeStress:Cognitive function, caregiver stress and cortisol: Mechanisms and implications for prevention of adverse health consequences in spouse dementia caregivers.
• Summary
  • Background: The increased incidence of dementia with advancing age together with demographic ageing give rise to an exponential increase in the need for dementia care. Much of this care is provided by informal caregivers frequently spouses who are usually aged over 60. There is considerable evidence that dementia caregiving leads to a number of negative health outcomes including anxiety, depression, physical illness, hospital admissions and even premature death. Caring for a progressively dementing spouse is a prototypic chronic stressor. Chronic psychosocial stress has been implicated in age-related cognitive decline. Elevated cortisol levels indicate stress and may be a risk factor for cognitive decline. Despite an extensive literature on the effects of age, chronic stress, anxiety and depression on cognitive function research examining cognitive function in caregivers and in particular caregivers of people with dementia, is sparse. Aims: The main aim of this study is to clarify the relationship between cognitive function and the stress associated with caring for a spouse with dementia. Dementia caregivers may be a population at risk for cognitive impairment and possibly dementia. Ireland's heavy reliance on informal caregiving in dementia will only remain feasible if the determinants of the health of caregivers are understood and optimised. The ultimate goal of this study is to inform policy, future research and the development of targeted interventions in order to improve caregiver health and make care in the community a viable option, not only for the individual with dementia, but also for their caregiver.
• Funding Agency
  • Medical Research Charities Group and Health Research Board
• Date From
  • 01/04/13
• Date To
  • 31/03/16

• Title
  • FreeDem
• Summary
  • The Goal: Improve cognitive health behaviours in older adults. The Idea: develop and evaluate a series of online films that provide practical information, grounded in science, on maintaining cognitive health The Problem: The stigma of dementia prevents open discussion, and the false belief that nothing can be done for people with dementia and their families. A lack of understanding and all too frequent misinformation mean that people often misconstrue the memory loss of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) as 'normal' for older people and don't bring family members in for assessment. In addition, people mistakenly accept that cognitive decline as an inevitable consequence of normal ageing and fail to seek medical opinion. By providing cognitive health advice and by providing clear scientific information that shows the difference between normal and abnormal memory functioning (e.g. memory loss of AD is different to the memory loss that you would find with ageing) and make people aware that memory problems can be a consequence of other diseases or disorders (e.g. diabetes) that require medical attention. The films will encourage people to be proactive and take responsibility for their cognitive health, make important lifestyle changes that reduce risk factors, learn strategies that support declining abilities, seek medical advice in order to facilitate early intervention and diagnosis and advance directives. The Audience: The public generally and adults aged 50+ specifically The Approach: TCD will use its scientific expertise in the field of cognitive ageing and dementia to collate and coordinate beneficial information from a wide range of cognitive ageing research programs and translate it into useable, interpretable and engaging health and well-being short films that can be delivered directly to the public online or via workshops facilitated by a cognitive coach. This educational content will enable and empower Irish citizens in a way that will promote active and healthy ageing and raise awareness that cognitive decline with age is not inevitable. The scientific content will be shaped by user-input and reframed so that all content is both engaging (to enable education and sharing) and accurate (delivering impact and inspiring action). The films will be produced by 360Productions and will use an attention-grabbing combination of clever cutting-edge graphics and sharp scripts, each film will deliver a key message in one entertaining bite-sized chunk. The Cognitive Coaching film modules are designed to deliver the projects key aims: to make the science of brain aging known to the wider population; so they retain key knowledge, and develop the understanding that will allow them to use their new knowledge to take practical steps to improve their lifestyles and the lifestyles of those they care for leading ultimately to less stigma, less distress, and earlier diagnosis, not just of dementia, but also of other conditions that impair cognitive function and ultimately lead to a healthier Irish population.
• Funding Agency
  • GENIO
• Date From
  • 01/12/12
• Date To
  • 31/11/15

• Title
  • Early Intervention Coordination
• Summary
  • NEIL in collaboration with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland in the appointment of an Early Intervention Coordinator. The purpose of this collaboration is to research, develop and deliver a system of interventions that are responsive to the needs of people with early-stage dementia. This work will be carried out by Dr. Michelle Kelly under the direction of Principle Investigator Sabina Brennan and the rest of the NEIL team, working directly with the Alzheimer Society and with people living with dementia and their families.
• Funding Agency
  • Dept. of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht
• Date From
  • 2012
• Date To
  • 2014

• Title
  • NEIL NeuroEnhancement for Independent Lives
• Summary
  • Vision:To develop, evaluate, and deliver neuroenhancement to older people world-wide The Problem:Failing cognitive function prevents millions of older adults globally from living independently. The Goal: Enable independent living and improve quality of life by: conducting research aimed at dementia prevention and cognitive enhancement; transforming this knowledge into empirically grounded interventions; using this knowledge to educate and empower older adults to maintain their cognitive function for as long as possible NEIL (Neuro-Enhancement for Independent Lives) was established, with philanthropic funding from Atlantic Philanthrpies, to create a research infrastructure to accelerate the development of methods to delay dementia. The NIEL programme for cognitive enhancement and dementia prevention comprises both research and intervention initiatives and aims for a broad integration between basic science mechanisms of cognitive decline and scalable interventions to delay dementia. The NIEL programme coordinates research in a way that would not be possible through the more traditional funding of individual research projects or teams. NEIL brings coherence and focus to dementia and cognitive ageing research by adopting an approach that is interdisciplinary (e.g. neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, bioengineering, social), collaborative (researchers, clinicians and industry) and international. In the absence of innovative and ambitious coordination and support programmes like NIEL progress can stall and research can become fragmented and inefficient. The research conducted under the NEIL umbrella straddles two major research programmes identified in TCD's strategic plan: Ageing and Independent Living and Neuroscience. NEIL benefits hugely from working within the Institute of Neuroscience, a recognised centre of excellence in ageing research.
• Funding Agency
  • Atlantic Philanthropies
• Date From
  • 2010
• Date To
  • 2016

• Title
  • NEIL Memory Research Unit
• Summary
  • The NEIL Memory Research Unit uses a comprehensive assessment protocol to collect detailed data on memory and related cognitive processes, and a range of factors that may impact on these processes as we age. This rich database will allow us to conduct extensive research, to investigate a range of hypotheses related to cognitive ageing. We are currently recruiting research volunteers aged 50+ to participate in assessment sessions at this Unit. For more information see https://www.tcd.ie/Neuroscience/neil/research/memory/
• Date From
  • 2011

• Title
  • ASAPS
• Summary
  • Mission: to increase the visibility and the societal impact of health research. Aim: to communicate the benefits of European health research to Europeans. Goals: Promote health research and healthy ageing. Problem: Over the last 5 years the EU has invested more than 5 billion euro in health research. Unfortunately, the benefit of this superb research is rarely communicated to the general public. In fact, despite the fact that 70% of Europeans are interested in medical and health research less than 10% of researchers dissemination activities are aimed at the general public. Solution: If you conduct publicly funded research then you know that this has to change. ASAPS can help increase the impact of your research and you turn your dissemination obligation into an opportunity Funding: 1,000,000 Project Coordinator: Sabina Brennan Principle Investigator: Sabina Brennan See project website asaps-sharingage.eu
• Funding Agency
  • European Commission
• Date From
  • 01/10/2012
• Date To
  • 30/09/2014

• Title
  • Frailty, Cognitive Function and Caregiver Stress
• Summary
  • Role: Co-Supervisor PhD Candidate: Michael O'Sullivan Aims: To increase the understanding of the relationship between frailty and caregiver stress. To develop markers that predict cognitive decline. Objective: To characterise the cognitive, emotional and physical health staus in a cohort of dementia caregivers and to examine the relationship between frailty, inflammatory markers, stress, pupillometry, resting EEG and cognitive function at baseline (Time 1) and after 18 months follow-up (Time 2).
• Funding Agency
  • Irish Research Council - Enterprise Scheme
• Date From
  • 19/03/13
• Date To
  • 18/03/16

• Title
  • An Investigation of the Protective Effect of Cognitive Reserve against Cognitive Impairment
• Summary
  • Role: PhD Co-Supervisor Candidate: Caoimhe Hannigan Aim: Increase understanding of cognitive ageing and the social and psychological variables that mediate and moderate cognitive function in later life. Objectives:Elucidate cognitive reserve by a) developing a model of the factors that influence it; and b) using this model to test the hypothesis that cognitive reserve is mediated by noradrenergic function.
• Funding Agency
  • Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences
• Date From
  • 2012
• Date To
  • 2015

• Title
  • Identifying early inflammatory changes in monocyte-derived macrophages from a population with IQ-discrepant episodic memory
• Summary
  • This study which builds on work conducted in Sabina Brennan's PhD examines blood samples for cellular markers of inflammation. If successful, it could offer a major opening for early screening and hence early prevention.
• Date From
  • 2011

• Title
  • Neurocognitive and Electrophysiological Indices of Cognitive Performance in Ageing
• Summary
  • This project explored individual differences in cognitive performance in healthy elderly and aimed to identify neurocognitive and electrophysiological markers that index cognitive decline.
• Funding Agency
  • Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology
• Date From
  • 2007
• Date To
  • 2010

• Title
  • TCIN-GSK Neurodegeneration Program
• Summary
  • As part of the TCIN-GSK Neurodegeneration Program this research project, Study 1.1 aimed to identifyi novel cognitive, electrophysiological and behavioural endpoints in human participants that offer greater sensitivity to age-induced cognitive changes than previous endpoints.
• Funding Agency
  • Glaxo-Smith Klein, IDA
• Date From
  • 2007
• Date To
  • 2010

• Title
  • VSL
• Funding Agency
  • CD Investments SRL
• Date From
  • 2014
• Date To
  • 2015