Dr. Cliona Ni Cheallaigh
Associate Professor Consultant, Clinical Medicine
- Research Institute:
Department of Clinical Medicine, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI)
- Contact e-mail:
- Research Area(s):
Addiction and substance abuse; Age related diseases; Ageing, memory and other cognitive processes; Gerontology; Host, Pathogen interactions; Identification and quantification of health care needs; Innate immunology; Intra and intercellular signalling; Patterns of health; Sociological influences on health.
Research Description:
Dr. Clíona Ní Cheallaigh’s research seeks to look at the effect of socio-economic status/ psychosocial stress on ageing. She hypothesizes that this is through stress causing chronic low grade activation of the innate immune system. Her cellular biology work is informed by her doctorate studies in the Department of Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, culminating in the Immunity publication of findings on a novel role for the signaling adaptor protein, Mal. Her immunological interests lie within innate immunity – particularly autophagy – and with examining the mechanisms through which psychosocial stress causes immune activation and through which low-grade chronic inflammation affects brain health and aging.
