On 4 June, the amazing Jane O’Sullivan ran in the Cork Marathon – all 26 miles and 385 yards of it – in aid of the research in the INFANT Centre.

We are overwhelmed by Jane’s efforts and generosity, and of all the people who donated to her. We are so thankful for your support and generosity.

When asked why she ran the marathon, Jane noted “I decided to fundraise for INFANT because I wanted not only to raise money for a worthwhile cause but also to taise awareness in the public domain about the great work that is undertaken in their research for women and babies. Many people are unaware of the progress that has been made and is continuing to be made, thanks to the tireless efforts of those who work at INFANT. I wanted to help in some way to promote such a worthy cause“.

We thank Jane, and everyone who donated so generously, from the bottom of our hearts. The donations will have a huge impact in our research efforts to combat pregnancy loss.

Professor Louise Kenny wins Guaranteed Irish Science Hero award

Professor Louise Kenny, Director of INFANT, has just been named as the Guaranteed Irish Science Hero for 2017. Prof Kenny was selected for the award following a public nomination process and received the award at the INFANT Research Centre, a world-leading Science Foundation Ireland research centre in University College Cork and Cork University Maternity Hospital, Cork City.

CEO of Guaranteed Irish, Brid O’Connell said: “Professor Kenny is a true ambassador for Ireland so it is with great pleasure that we name her as the very first Guaranteed Irish Science Hero today. Whilst we received hundreds of very strong nominations from the public, Professor Kenny had by far the strongest support and was the clear winner of the Guaranteed Irish Science Hero Award for 2017.”

Pioneer

“Professor Kenny’s research group has pioneered the use of metabolomic technology, helping to reduce infant and mother fatalities. It is because of this commitment to pregnancy research and in developing innovative technologies to improve the treatment and care available to mothers and babies that she has been awarded this accolade. I would like to wish Professor Kenny and all her team at INFANT the very best for their continued research in this area!”

Perinatal and Neonatal Research Growing in Ireland

On receiving the Guaranteed Irish Hero Award for Science, Director of INFANT research center, Professor Louise Kenny, today said: “I am thrilled and honoured to be the named as the Guaranteed Irish Science Hero for 2017. As perinatal and neonatal research continues to grow in Ireland, it is terrific that it is being recognised in this way.

“I am passionate about the importance of our work in INFANT- but our efforts are reflective of a wonderful team- and I’d like to accept this award on behalf of them. Everyone in my team is a hero in my eyes”, continued Professor Kenny.

Professor Kenny is the third of six Guaranteed Irish Heroes to be awarded, with artist Maser and Women’s Rugby Captain, Niamh Briggs named as Guaranteed Irish Heroes for art and sport, respectively. The remaining three Heroes will be awarded across music, technology and food later this year.

About Guaranteed Irish

• Guaranteed Irish (GI) is a business membership organisation that promotes businesses that provide goods and services originating from Ireland, with a long-term commitment to jobs and the community in which they are based.
• Follow Guaranteed Irish on Twitter: @GuaranteedIrl , Instagram: @guaranteed_irish and on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/GuaranteedIrishOfficial. The official campaign hashtag is: #GIhero

The paper is entitled “V2Hz: Music Composition from Wind Turbine Energy using a Finite-State Machine” and will be published on IEEEExplore.

The paper explores the spatial sonification of distributed information sources based on an algorithmic approach to music.

By developing an algorithm that adopts the rules of music theory, it was possible to sonify random information sources in a manner which sounds similar to western music (i.e. the generated music is in a specific key, and forms chord progressions based on the solely on the data of the raw information sources). As test data we used the output voltages of wind turbines. The next stage will be to use this algorithm to sonify more complex EEG voltage signals in real-time.

Advancing Neonatal Care

Infant trial data has shown that Incereb’s Neon EEG device can improve treatment for babies in neonatal care. As a world-renowned pregnancy research centre, Infant played a key role in securing Incereb’s funding and distribution.

Significant Collaboration

Incereb’s CEO Jim Roche called their collaboration with Infant “enormously significant” in attracting US distribution. Clinicians in the United States, Mr. Roche noted, recognised Infant as a leader in the field, proving the marketability of the Neon EEG device.

Life Changing Research

Infant are very proud of their collaboration with Incereb, which shows the power of research to change the lives of mothers and babies worldwide.

To read The Business Post’s full article on Incereb’s success, click here (subscription required). 

At Infant, we are comitted to making science interesting and accessible to young learners. When our Outreach team visits schools, our clever robot friend Cubetto is always eager to join us!

Recently, Cubetto paid a visit to junior and senior classes from St. Patrick’s Infants National School in Cork.

What is Cubetto?

Cubetto is a robot toy which introduces children to the art of coding. Suitable for ages three to seven, Cubetto is an interactive, fun way for children to code without the need for a screen.

Coding is a language, and just like a new language, an early experience with coding open doors for children later in life.

The Worskshops

Our ‘workshops’ include a number of fun activities which teach young learners how to program Cubetto. Using code, Cubetto can draw, navigate obstacles and travel across maps and mazes.

Cubetto’s deceptively simple design shows how we can use search algorithms, functions and loops to solve problems and learn about the world.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Another great activity we brought along to St. Patrick’s Infant NS was Rocket Mouse. Using paper, an empty bottle and a little imagination, learners can see how forces like air and pressure help to move objects.

Rocket Mouse encourages children to design and experiment, so that they can launch their mice into the stars!

Monday 22 May 2017 will mark the first ever World Preeclampsia Day.

Follow the #WorldPreeclampsiaDay hashtag on Twitter and share your story!  Support the Thunderclap campaign to tell the world.

At the INFANT Centre, we are working to combat preeclampsia with our IMPROvED project. Almost 1500 mothers in CUMH have volunteered for the study which aims to develop a predictive test for preeclampsia.

Our INFANT Researchers created this video to mark the day:

Pre-eclampsia is most common in the second half of pregnancy and can still strike up to six weeks after delivery. Women can sometimes be symptomless, but many symptoms are also easy to dismiss. Awareness of the signs is vital.

Our director, and consultant obstetrician at CUMH, Prof Louise Kenny notes that “As healthcare professionals, we never, ever mind seeing someone, reviewing a mother who is worried about herself in pregnancy. We would much rather see 100 women and reassure them that they are fine than miss even one who has signs and symptoms of pre-eclampsia and who has dismissed them or ignored them.”

All maternity units are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There will always be a senior duty midwife available on the phone (whether you are seen publically or privately). If any mother is concerned, call the hospital.

Know the symptoms.

They could save a life (or two).

Partnership Announced Between INFANT & Global Partners to Explore Optimal Nutrition for Premature Infants

PiNPoINT Investigator team – L-R:

Dr Elaine McCarthy, postdoctoral researcher, Dr Brendan Murphy, Consultant Neonatologist, CUMH, Teresa Berkery, Project Manager, Stephen Lane, Software Developer, Aileen Regan, Danone Nutricia, Ana-O’Reilly Marshall, Neonatal Research Dietician, Prof Mairead Kiely, Principal Investigator, Sarah Fenton, Pharmacist, Bairbre Hickie, Fresenius Kabi, Ann-Marie Brennan, Clinical Specialist Neonatal Dietitian, Christian Stafford, Business Development Manager, INFANT, Brian O’Mullane, Creme Global, Conor McGauran, Creme Global, Dr Kevin Walsh, Science Foundation Ireland

(Photo: Paul Sherwood Photography)

On April 5, the INFANT Centre, a leading Science Foundation Ireland research centre at University College Cork, today announced the launch of the Personalised Nutrition for the Preterm Infant (PiNPoINT) Study. The study aims to develop software to aid personalized nutritional management of preterm infants who have a very low birth weight. Science Foundation Ireland will invest more than €1M in the project with further support coming from three leading international partners: Creme Global, Danone Nutricia and Fresenius Kabi.

Why is PiNPoINT Needed?

1 in 16 babies is born prematurely in Ireland, before 37 weeks of pregnancy. The World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledges that premature birth can cause a host of problems for the baby and it is the second leading cause of death for children under 5 worldwide. When born prematurely, a baby’s major organs will not have had enough time to fully develop in utero, and the infant will be born at risk of health problems, especially if they are born prior to 32 weeks.

The earlier a baby is born, the lower her birthweight may be and this too has knock-on effects for health at birth and beyond. Babies under 5.5lbs (2.5kg) are classed as Low Birth Weight babies, but the babies who will be followed in the PiNPoINT study are those who weighed less than 3lbs (1.5kg) at birth. These very low-birthweight babies are more likely to have health problems as a newborn and will need special care in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

What Will PiNPoINT Do?

PiNPoINT will address the lack of knowledge around the nutritional requirements of these small babies to help optimize growth and development, improve functional outcomes and promote long-term health and quality of life. The PiNPoINT project will implement a novel nutritional management strategy for these infants using real-time nutritional data collection and monitoring. The plan will be based on the results of the BabyGrow longitudinal preterm nutritional study that quantified nutrition and growth in a small cohort of preterm infants.

Speaking in Dublin, Prof Mairead Kiely, Principal Investigator on the study, said the ultimate goal of this unique project is to “assist in the nutritional support of these most vulnerable members of society to promote optimal physical and neurological growth and development. We are also conducting research to better define nutritional requirements in these infants throughout the first weeks, and months, of life.”

Director of Programmes for Science Foundation Ireland, Dr Darrin Morrissey, said: “I am delighted to welcome the collaboration between INFANT and its industry partners, as part of the PiNPoINT study. The use of new software technology to enable us to better understand the nutritional needs of preterm babies has enormous potential to positively impact on their lifelong health and well-being. Science Foundation Ireland is delighted to support collaborations such as these, to bring innovation into our health care services.”

Recruitment to the study will begin later in 2017.

This study is funded by Ireland’s European Structural and Investment Funds Programme the European Regional Development Fund, and Science Foundation Ireland. 

Note: The Pinpoint study of preterm infant nutrition includes three industry partners, who are contributing a minor proportion of the funding. Preterm infants are preferentially fed on human milk, either their mother’s expressed milk, or donor milk if Mum’s milk is not available. Each sample of human milk varies from the other. It is important for us, in the Pinpoint study, to know the composition of the milk each baby is receiving. Danone, as a partner in Pinpoint, have donated a human milk analyser to the study. This analyser will provide us with the information we need to tailor each babys nutrition according to their needs, and is the first of its kind to be used in an Irish research study. Our aim is to help the neonatal care teams to provide the best possible nutritional support for vulnerable babies.

William Hutch is a medical researcher from University College Cork. He has a PhD in neuroscience and is involved in the neonatal brain research group at INFANT.

In his TEDxUCC talk, he reveals for the first time the undiscovered phenomenon of how we can now look at and listen to the brain of a preterm infant using EEG. This may allow doctors to detect the early warning signs of any neurological change in such preterm infants. In a sense, the preterm infant is actually telling us when they are not feeling well.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Cork’s Lifelong Learning Festival promotes and celebrates learning of all kinds, whatever your age, interest or ability.

Dr Simon Woodworth, will give a talk on his work as Lead Investigator in the LEANBH project at Blackrock Castle Observatory, in Blackrock, Cork at 20:00 on Friday 7 April.

Learning to Evaluate Blood Pressure at Home (LEANBH) is a study which investigates hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. Find out why this is important and see a demonstration of the equipment used.

More information here: http://www.bco.ie/