Comms, Author at INFANT

HRB invests €1.9 million in UCC research to address emerging health challenges

HRB invests €1.9 million in UCC research to address emerging health challenges

By Comms|2023-10-04T08:12:47+01:00October 4th, 2023|

High blood pressure during pregnancy, strategies for preventing drug overdose and the factors associated with suicide risk in older adults are among the health and social care research projects to receive funding from the Health Research Board’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme.

Five post-doctoral researchers at UCC’s School of Public Health, National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) and the Irish Centre for Maternal & child Health Research (INFANT) have received a total of €1.9 million in funding to investigate and find solutions for public health challenges.

Dr Peter Barrett, based in INFANT and the School of Public Health in UCC, has received €830,000 in research funding for his project investigating the long-term impact of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy on maternal health, and exploration of optimal models of follow-up care for affected women in Ireland.

“This project will focus on high blood pressure during pregnancy, and how we use obstetric information to predict the risk of chronic diseases in later life. We know that risk factors during pregnancy can offer insights into long-term maternal health outcomes. There are huge opportunities to harness this information for the prevention of age-related diseases in later life. I am excited to work on this project with the teams in INFANT, the School of Public Health, and with both academic and health service partners from Ireland and overseas. It is important that we apply the research findings here to affected groups in the community, and to the Irish health service,” said Dr Barrett.

The five funded post-doctoral researchers are:

Dr Susan Calnan: Improving public health through better implementation of alcohol policy: A multimethod study examining and addressing the factors influencing successful implementation. This research will provide evidence to help policymakers and stakeholders to better understand factors that influence the successful implementation of public health alcohol policy and look at ways to improve these factors so that alcohol policies are effectively implemented to help reduce harms from alcohol. Funding amount: €255,013.
Dr Caroline Daly: RESTRICT – REducing intentional overdose: a mixed methods STudy of means RestrICTion interventions. Submitted under the National Suicide Research Foundation – UCC Memorandum of Collaboration, this research aims to prevent intentional overdose by studying the impact of measures to restrict access to drugs. Delivered by a team of individuals from different disciplines including mental health professionals, policy makers, researchers and people with experiences of self-harm, findings from this research will provide a comprehensive understanding of intentional overdose in Ireland and inform future measures to restrict access to drugs and to prevent self-harm and suicide. Funding amount: €284,976.
Dr Fiona Riordan: Identifying social determinants and mapping organisational and personal networks to enhance community support for people living with multimorbidity. With people from disadvantaged communities developing chronic health conditions earlier in life, this project aims to find ways to better support people living with multiple conditions within disadvantaged areas in Ireland, and discuss the findings with a range of stakeholders, including policymakers, healthcare managers and representatives from non-clinical community services. Funding amount: €268,243.
Dr Isabela Troya: Revisiting suicide prevention in later life: human-centred approaches in an ageing Ireland. Annually in Ireland, over 400 people die by suicide and a further 12,000 are hospitalised following self-harm, of which 15% are older adults. The aim of this study is to improve the understanding of factors associated with self-harm and suicide risk in older adults aged >60 and thus co-produce clinical and policy guidance to reduce suicidal behaviour in older adults. Submitted under the National Suicide Research Foundation – UCC Memorandum of Collaboration, this research should help strengthen and inform national suicide prevention strategies. Funding amount: €266,416.
Dr Peter Barrett: An investigation of the long-term impact of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy on maternal health, and exploration of optimal models of follow-up care for affected women in Ireland. This research will answer some of the uncertainties regarding long-term risks following high blood pressure during pregnancy, using existing large-scale datasets of over 2 million mothers in Sweden and follow their progress post pregnancy for up to 48 years. Funding amount: €830,000.

Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll, HRB Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to announce the latest round of funding in these HRB Postdoctoral Fellowship schemes. They are a key pillar in the HRB’s Research Career Framework. This framework provides a coordinated, coherent approach to building the capacity and capability of academic researchers and health and social care practitioners to respond to current and emerging health research needs.”

Congratulating the five award recipients from University College Cork on their awards, Professor John F. Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation said: “Congratulations to these early-career researchers in receiving Health Research Board awards, in key areas which will address critical health and social care challenges. These awards will provide the researchers with an opportunity to enhance their career development and deliver on excellent societal research outcomes.”

IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship and Postgraduate Scholarship Awardees

IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship and Postgraduate Scholarship Awardees

By Comms|2023-09-15T14:13:34+01:00September 14th, 2023|

Three INFANT researchers received IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship and Postgraduate Scholarship Awards.

Minister Simon Harris announced €24.6 million in Irish Research Council funding to support rising researchers and pioneering projects. “I am delighted to announce this investment for a new generation of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers under the Irish Research Council’s Government of Ireland programmes. These awards will support the development of the next generation of excellent researchers in Ireland, as they pursue new knowledge at the cutting edge of a wide range of disciplines”.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardees:

Marita Hennessy is a Postdoctoral Researcher at INFANT (Pregnancy Loss Research Group). During her two-year fellowship, Marita will develop and pilot test a psychosocial intervention for staff in maternity hospitals/units in Ireland under the mentorship of INFANT PI, Professor Keelin O’Donoghue.

Gillian Maher is a Postdoctoral Researcher at INFANT. During her two-year fellowship, Gillian will develop a novel approach to harness Irish maternal and newborn data to improve pregnancy outcomes for mothers and babies.

Postgraduate Scholarship Awardee:

Aoife Gallagher is a Clinical Research Fellow with an interest in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. During her 12-month scholarship she will be working on ARChhIE: A Retrospective Comparison of Irish and Spanish IgE- Medi-ated Egg Allergy Strategies.

Welcoming the announcement, Peter Brown, Director of the Irish Research Council, said: “Early-career researchers represent the future of research and innovation and the funding being announced by the Minister today will support a vibrant knowledge eco-system. This eco-system will benefit and shape the further development of enterprise, public policy and our higher education institutions”.

INFANT PhD student received Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists

INFANT PhD student received Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists

By Comms|2023-09-15T09:48:59+01:00September 12th, 2023|

Huge congratulations to INFANT PhD student Caroline Joyce on receiving her Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists.

Caroline’s PhD work is on the identification of Biomarkers for the Diagnosis, Management and Follow-up of Women with Gestational Trophoblastic Disease. This project aims to identify more sensitive biomarkers for GTD to allow earlier detection of disease recurrence and progression to malignant disease.

🔗 More info: Biomarkers for Gestational Trophoblastic Disease | University College Cork (ucc.ie)

This is a collaborative project between INFANT – Pregnancy Loss Research Group (PLRG) (Prof. Keelin O’Donoghue), the School of Biochemistry & Cell Biology (Prof. Tommie McCarthy) and the National Trophoblastic Disease Centre (Dr John Coulter).

Born Too Soon Airs on Virgin Media One

Born Too Soon Airs on Virgin Media One

By Comms|2023-09-04T09:26:20+01:00September 4th, 2023|

Born Too Soon will give an unprecedented look into lives of the hardworking staff who dedicate their lives to caring for vulnerable newborns at CUH’s neonatal unit.

TV crews have been in the hospital all year filming ‘Born Too Soon,’ following the stories of families and medical teams looking after premature babies born at the busy hospital.

At CUH, preemies are given round-the-clock care, with the new series showing the ups and downs of life looking after frail babies – particularly in a time with strict Covid restrictions.

Viewers will get to see the dedication and love put into giving babies born preterm the best chance possible when Born Too Soon starts at 9 pm Tues 5 September on Virgin Media One.

INFANT Director, Prof Geraldine Boylan wins prestigious award

INFANT Director, Prof Geraldine Boylan wins prestigious award

By Comms|2023-09-05T15:36:11+01:00August 31st, 2023|

Geraldine Boylan, Professor of Neonatal Physiology, Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, University College Cork and Director of the INFANT Research Centre was awarded the 2023 Tom Connor Distinguished Investigator Award from Neuroscience Ireland.

Professor Boylan was presented the prestige award at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) during the annual Neuroscience Ireland conference. This conference brings together an international audience of neuroscience researchers, clinicians, and industrial partners to share knowledge and expertise, fostering the advancement of excellence in neuroscience research within Ireland.

The NSI Distinguished Investigator Award is presented every two years to an exceptional research scientist from Ireland or based on the island of Ireland who has made an exceptional contribution to the field of neuroscience. This award is given in memory of the former President of Neuroscience Ireland, Tom O’ Connor, who passed away in 2013.

Accepting the award, Professor Boylan said: “I am very honoured and humbled to receive the Tom Connor Distinguished Investigator Award from Neuroscience Ireland. This recognition for neonatal neuroscience represents the collective efforts and hard work of the research team at INFANT over many years and I am truly grateful.”

Professor John Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC, and recipient of the award in 2017 said: “Congratulations to Professor Geraldine Boylan on receiving this prestigious award, a testament to her dedication and expertise in neuroscience research. Professor Boylan’s remarkable achievements in neuroscience exemplify the spirit of innovation that drives our institution’s research ambitions. It is also fitting to see someone of Professor Boylan’s calibre hold this award in the name of Professor Tom Connor, one of Ireland’s exceptional scientists who passed away far too soon.”

International Guest Speaker on Knowledge Translation and Patient Engagement in Child Health Research

International Guest Speaker on Knowledge Translation and Patient Engagement in Child Health Research

By Comms|2023-08-24T16:12:14+01:00August 24th, 2023|

INFANT Research Centre are delighted to be hosting a special guest speaker event with Dr. Shannon Scott, Professor and a Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation for Children’s Health from the University of Alberta, Canada on Thursday 7 September from 13.00-14.00 in room 1.02 Brookfield Health Sciences Complex.

In advance of the launch of UCC Futures: Children, and in line with the strategy of UCC to build on our reputation for excellence in the field of children’s health, rights and wellbeing, this talk would be of particular interest to researchers at all stages working in areas of child health research, knowledge translation and patient engagement.

Dr. Shannon Scott is an internationally recognised nurse, scientist, educator and knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization leader. Knowledge translation (KT) is the process of taking information from reliable evidence-based research and putting it into user-friendly form for everyone to understand and use. During this event, Dr. Scott will discuss the growing movement to involve patients in health research and share insights into her research programme “Translating Evidence in Child Health to Enhance Outcomes” (ECHO). This programme aims to develop, evaluate, and disseminate evidence-based knowledge translation (KT) tools with parents to improve health decision-making and outcomes.

She will also talk about their iterative co-development process, discuss the development of parent advisory forums and the progressive research that is focused on cultural adaptation of interventions. These research findings and experience will be of importance to anyone doing co-development research as well as those who actively and authentically involve patients in their research.

If you’re interested in attending, register HERE. Please feel free to share event with colleagues who may also find it of interest.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Shannon Scott is an internationally recognized nurse, scientist, educator and knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization leader. As the Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation for Children’s Health, Dr. Scott has improved health outcomes for children through her interdisciplinary research that merges research and the arts to develop national award-winning knowledge translation tools for Canadian families. She is a founding co-Director of Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK) a national initiative that is game changing for children’s emergency care. She has received more than $58,000,000 (Canadian dollars) of research funding as principal investigator and coinvestigator, published more than 200 publications and delivered more than 550 presentations around the globe.

We Are Hiring! – Post-Doctoral Researcher, INFANT Research Centre

We Are Hiring! – Post-Doctoral Researcher, INFANT Research Centre

By Comms|2023-07-24T10:05:12+01:00July 24th, 2023|

INFANT Research Centre is now accepting applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher on a part time basis to work on COVICAT project which is supported by the North-South HEA programme. The researcher will be responsible for data management and data analysis of data on COVID-19 infection and vaccine in pregnancy in Ireland and Europe. Strong management and quantitative skills are required for the project. Expertise in time-series methods would be an advantage.

The successful candidate should have a PhD in Epidemiology, Public Health or a PhD in another related field but with strong quantitative skills.

Research Assistants with at least 3-4 years’ experience in quantitative research may also apply for this post.

Post Duration: 12 months

Salary: Post-Doctoral Researcher€42,031 – €48,427 p.a. (IUA PD1 Salary Scale), pro rata 0.6 FTE, Research Assistant: €29,275 – €39,158 p.a. (IUA RA Salary Scale), pro rata 0.6 FTE

Project Title: COVICAT: COVID-19 infection and vaccination in pregnancy: An ecological study to assess congenital anomalies

For an information package including further details of the post see: https://t.co/wq1pQJfk3c

Informal enquiries can be made in confidence to Dr Ali Khashan, INFANT Research Centre, Tel: + 353 (0) 21 420 5565; Email: a.khashan@ucc.ie

Applications must be submitted online via the University College Cork vacancy portal (https://ore.ucc.ie/). Queries relating to the online application process should be referred to recruitment@ucc.ie, quoting the job-title and project name.

Candidates should apply, in confidence, before 12 noon (Irish Local Time) on Thursday July 27th 2023.

No late applications will be accepted. Please note that an appointment to posts advertised will be dependent on University approval, together with the terms of the employment control framework for the higher education sector.

UCC is committed to creating and fully embracing an inclusive environment where diversity is celebrated. As a University we strive to create a workplace that reflects the diversity of our student population where people from a wide variety of backgrounds learn from one another, share ideas, and work collaboratively. UCC is committed to being an employer that recognises the value of diversity amongst its staff. We encourage applicants to consult our policies at https://www.ucc.ie/en/edi/policies/ and initiatives at https://www.ucc.ie/en/edi/implementation/ and we welcome applications from everyone, including those who are underrepresented in the protected characteristics set out in our Equal Opportunities & Diversity Policy.

Funded PhD Opportunity, supported by the HRB CRF (Clinical Research Facility) UCC

Funded PhD Opportunity, supported by the HRB CRF (Clinical Research Facility) UCC

By Comms|2023-07-10T15:59:06+01:00July 10th, 2023|

Funded PhD, supported by the HRB CRF (Clinical Research Facility) UCC

Project Title: PPI in clinical trials for vulnerable populations

This HRB CRF (Clinical Research Facility) UCC fully funded PhD involves a multistakeholder collaboration between CRFC, PPI Ignite Network @ UCC and the INFANT Research Centre.

The PhD will address conceptual and implementation aspects of PPI in the context of clinical trials in neonates/children. The work will be embedded within one or more ongoing CRF/UCC trials. The PhD will inform ongoing CRFC best practice implementation of PPI in clinical trials for diverse patient population groups, as well as develop the theoretical and PPI implementation competence of the successful PhD scholar.

Funding arrangement: Full time four years.

Supports: Placement in INFANT.

UCC PhD supports and training.

Supported by PPI Ignite Network @ UCC

Registration: Full time

Stipend: €19,000

The PhD will be supervised by Professor Geraldine Boylan, Professor Patricia Kearney, Site Lead PPI Ignite @ UCC and Dr Emmy Racine, Programme Manager, PPI Ignite @ UCC.

To apply please send a statement of interest (<200 words) and a brief (2 page max) CV to Professor Patricia Kearney, PPI Ignite @ UCC. Email: patricia.kearney@ucc.ie

CLOSING DATE: Thursday July 27^th

CergenX, INFANT spin-out raises €1.2m in funding to develop newborn brain screening

CergenX, INFANT spin-out raises €1.2m in funding to develop newborn brain screening

By Comms|2023-07-10T15:32:25+01:00July 10th, 2023|

Cork-based medtech company CergenX has raised €1.2 million in funding to further develop its technology to screen newborns for brain injury.

CergenX is a spin-out from the Infant Centre in UCC. Founded by chief executive Jason Mowles, chief science officer Professor Geraldine Boylan and chief technology officer Sean Griffin in 2021.
The company is currently developing a system that uses artificial intelligence to screen all newborns for signs of brain injury in less than 15 minutes.

The funding was raised through a private financing round, with participation from high net worth individuals and existing investor Enterprise Ireland. It brings to €2 million the total raised by the company to date.

The money will be used to support the development of the newborn brain screener, expanding its staff with roles in artificial intelligence, product management, and software engineering and accelerating the company’s path to market.

CergenX is a spin-out from the Infant Centre in UCC. Founded by chief executive Jason Mowles, chief science officer Professor Geraldine Boylan and chief technology officer Sean Griffin in 2021, the company is currently developing a system that uses artificial intelligence to screen all newborns for signs of brain injury in less than 15 minutes.

“This latest investment not only validates the immense potential of our newborn brain screener but also demonstrates the confidence our investors have in our vision,” Mr Mowles said. “These funds will enable us to complete the development of the newborn brain screener and launch the product pilots next year. This is incredibly exciting and rewarding work and we have a real opportunity to make a major difference in a vital area of newborn healthcare.”

Electroencephalography monitoring (EEG), the gold standard for assessing brain function in newborns, can be expensive and complex, with a shortage of trained specialists to interpret the results. The CergenX system allows non-specialists to carry out the screening, with algorithms helping to pinpoint potential problems with brain activity.

The company has developed a prototype device, and is targeting a 2025 release after undergoing regulatory approval.

It is estimated that at least five in every 1,000 newborn babies may have a brain injury of some degree, but it is difficult to diagnose until the child is older.

“The device will help answer a very simple but important question for medical staff which is ‘should I be worried about this baby’s brain or not?’ ” said Prof Boylan.

CergenX has identified a considerable market for the newborn brain screener, with the EU, UK, and the US among the initial targets, where there are more than 8 million births a year.

Source: CergenX raises €1.2m in funding to develop newborn brain screening – The Irish Times (Ciara O’Brien)

INFANT PI, Prof Keelin O’Donoghue awarded Distinguished Researcher Award

INFANT PI, Prof Keelin O’Donoghue awarded Distinguished Researcher Award

By Comms|2023-08-01T13:15:38+01:00July 6th, 2023|

INFANT PI, Professor Keelin O’Donoghue was awarded the International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) Distinguished Researcher Award for her contribution or her contribution to research on stillbirth/newborn death. The award was conferred at the closing ceremony of the 2023 conference, hosted at the University of Sheffield from 30 June to 02 July.

Announcing the award, Professor Adrienne Gordon said: “She has been awarded this on the unanimous decision by the Board to reflect her years of significant research around stillbirth, most particularly in Ireland where she is continuing to strive for best practice care for families and high quality evidence, particularly in terms of the national standards, so we thank you Keelin for all that you do.”

Professor O’Donoghue, along with 11 other members of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group, attended the International Stillbirth Alliance (ISA) Conference 2023 at The University of Sheffield from 30 June to 02 July, showcasing a variety of work undertaken by the Group in the areas of:

Source: News and media | University College Cork (ucc.ie)

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