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Inaugural lecture: Professor Deirdre Murray, CPF Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy

Inaugural lecture: Professor Deirdre Murray, CPF Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy

By Comms|2024-07-02T12:24:31+01:00March 23rd, 2024|

“Early detection of infant brain injury and cerebral palsy and why it matters”.

On Friday 22 March, Professor Deirdre Murray gave her first public lecture as The Cerebral Palsy Foundation Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy at INFANT, UCC at the UCC Medicine and Health’s Inaugural Philanthropic Lecture.

Professor Murray was appointed to the role in October 2023, and she is leading research in brain injury and cerebral palsy at INFANT.

The event commenced with Prof Paula O’Leary, Head of UCC’s School of Medicine and Prof Geraldine Boylan, INFANT Director introducing Professor Deirdre Murray for her first public lecture, titled “Early detection of infant brain injury and cerebral palsy and why it matters”.

Watch back here:

More information about Professor Deirdre Murray’s appointment to Chair

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.

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 Researchers Contribution to PAS 2022 Meeting

INFANT Researchers Contribution to PAS 2022 Meeting

By Comms|2022-04-20T12:04:25+01:00April 20th, 2022|

INFANT is delighted to be involved in the PAS 2022 Meeting in Denver 21-25 April.

Members of the INFANT team will join thousands of physicians, researchers, and Allied health professionals from 60 + specialty areas as they come together to share research, explore new collaboratives, and experience the best the paediatric research community has to offer.

Professor Geraldine Boylan and Professor Deirdre Murray are giving invited talks while other members of the INFANT team will be presenting oral and poster presentations.

See a list of INFANT speakers and schedule of presentations below:

Geraldine B. Boylan, PhD

Professor of Neonatal Physiology
University College Cork

Director of the Infant Research Centre, University College Cork

Presentation(s):

Making the Most of Neonatal Brain Monitoring

Sunday, April 24, 2022
11:35 AM – 11:50 AM US MT

Role of EEG and machine learning algorithms

Sunday, April 24, 2022
1:25 PM – 1:35 PM US MT

Deirdre M. Murray, MB BAO BcH FRCPI FPAEDPhD

Chair of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
University College Cork

Presentation(s):

Clinical importance of long term follow up

Sunday, April 24, 2022
1:15 PM – 1:25 PM US MT

Eugene Dempsey, FRCPI

Horgan Chair in Neonatology
University College Cork

Poster(s):

463 – Early cerebral desaturation events in extremely preterm infants are associated with intraventricular haemorrhage in the first week of life

Sunday, April 24, 2022

3:30 PM – 6:00 PM US MT

Aisling A. Garvey, MB BCh BAO MRCPI

Neonatal Neurology Fellow
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Infant Research Centre, University College Cork

Presentation(s):

Serial MRI facilitates early detection of White Matter Injury in Preterm infants (Poster Board 4)

Sunday, April 24, 2022
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM US MT

Poster(s):

352 – Multi-modal Monitoring of Infants with Hypoxic-Ischaemic Encephalopathy and Prediction of Short-term Outcome.

Monday, April 25, 2022

3:30 PM – 6:00 PM US MT

Roberto Chioma, MD

Clinical Fellow
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Infant Research Centre, University College Cork

Poster(s):

Development of a Lung UltraSound Targeted Recruitment (LUSTR) protocol to improve the outcome in critically-ill neonates undergoing mechanical ventilation (Poster Board 3)

Saturday, April 23, 2022
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM US MT

David B. Healy

Research Fellow
University College Cork

Poster(s):

188 – Agreement of Cardiac Output Estimates between Electrical Cardiometry and Transthoracic Echocardiography in Very Preterm Infants

Saturday, April 23, 2022

3:30 PM – 6:00 PM US MT

219 – Electrical Cardiometry in the transitional Period is not associated with short-term Outcome in Very Preterm Infants

Saturday, April 23, 2022

3:30 PM – 6:00 PM US MT

369 – Thoracic fluid content as measured by bioimpedance is not associated with respiratory outcome or death in very preterm infants

Monday, April 25, 2022

3:30 PM – 6:00 PM US MT

Mark O’Sullivan, PhD

Lead Investigator
Infant Research Centre, University College Cork

Poster(s):

544 – Neurobell: Portable EEG Monitoring with On-Board AI for Neonatal Seizure Detection

Friday, April 22, 2022

6:15 PM – 8:45 PM US MT

Learn more about the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS)

and more about PAS 2022 Meeting

Dr Juan Trujillo’s Research Into Strategies That Help CMPA Patients Reintroduce Milk Into Their Diet

Dr Juan Trujillo’s Research Into Strategies That Help CMPA Patients Reintroduce Milk Into Their Diet

By Comms|2022-04-05T15:03:14+01:00April 5th, 2022|

With the support of the National Dairy Council and Dairy Research Ireland, INFANT’s Dr Juan Trujillo, Senior Lecturer in UCC and Consultant paediatric allergist at Cork University Hospital, is the lead investigator on the COWS project, a study that aims to compare three different strategies that will help milk protein allergy (CMPA) patients reintroduce milk into their diet.

Usually diagnosed before a child reaches their first birthday, CMPA is one of the major complaints in the allergy clinic and impacts the well-being of patients and their caregivers.

Cow’s milk protein allergy is considered one of the major complaints in the allergic clinic.

Usually diagnosed before a child reaches their first birthday, it increases the burden on the patient and their caregivers.

The most common strategy employed in Ireland to treat CMPA is the Milk ladder, which incrementally reintroduces milk over time.

However, in other parts of the world, strict avoidance of cow’s milk is practised, and only reintroduced several years later depending on laboratory allergy parameters.

Alternative methods of treatment, including the administration of a limited amount of pasteurized milk in clinics, with subsequent doses administered at home, are employed in hospitals such as Miguel Servet in Zaragoza, a global leader in CMPA treatment.

As such, Dr Trujillo’s research will examine the three different approaches used to treat CMPA in order to form a greater understanding of how to handle the disease in future. This, he hopes, will also open doors for future research projects that could focus on egg allergy research.

Our research study will compare the three different strategies for the reintroduction of milk in CMPA in two Spanish hospitals, along with Cork University Hospital.

The treatment of allergies is not written in stone, several new approaches to target the way that allergies behave have been released in the last decade.

This study is part of my PhD research, and it has become an important part of my life during the last couple of years.

Dr Trujillo’s team includes medical students and research assistants from Spain and Ireland. Together, they have been working to collect data for much of the last twelve months.

PhD Profile: Tamara Escañuela Sánchez’s Study to Raise Awareness of and Reduce the Risk Factors Connected with Stillbirth

PhD Profile: Tamara Escañuela Sánchez’s Study to Raise Awareness of and Reduce the Risk Factors Connected with Stillbirth

By Comms|2022-03-30T15:09:53+01:00March 30th, 2022|

A graduate of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, INFANT PhD candidate, Tamara Escañuela Sánchez came to University College Cork to study under Professor Keelin O’Donoghue and develop a behaviour change intervention model that will raise awareness of and reduce the risk factors associated with stillbirth in Ireland.

Tamara’s multidisciplinary supervisory team is composed by Dr. Karen Matvienko-Sikar from the School of Public Health in UCC; Dr. Sarah Meaney, from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre; Professor Molly Byrne lead of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology at NUI Galway and Professor Keelin O’Donoghue lead of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group at Cork University Maternity Hospital.

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Tamara’s research, titled The Relevant Study, examines the risk factors connected with stillbirth and ill health in babies such as substance abuse, sleep position, weight management and engagement with antenatal care.

Ultimately, Tamara hopes that her study might one day lead to the introduction of an initiative, similar to the Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle introduced by the NHS in the UK, that targets the modifiable risk factors for stillbirth in Ireland.

I have been looking at various studies that examine the different risk factors associated with still births.

The factors that I’m focussing on are substance abuse, sleep position, weight management and engagement with antenatal care services.

Changing behaviours associated with those factors could have a very real impact for women and their children.

My research looks at ways in which we might change those behaviours, the idea would be that we’d eventually create a care bundle like they have in the UK and Australia.

As part of her study, Tamara also reviewed pregnancy-related websites to assess the reliability of information connecting risk factors to stillbirths or ill health in babies.

Her findings, published in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare, highlighted the scarcity of information online and the need for greater communication so that women can identify the risk factors associated with stillbirths.

We looked at pregnancy related websites in the UK and Ireland and found that only one contained information relevant to the risk factors connected with stillbirths.

We also found that websites hosted by charities were more likely to contain basic information related to stillbirth, whereas commercial sites were more likely to contain information about modifiable risk factors.

It really illustrated the need for reliable sources of information so that women can make informed decisions.

As Tamara comes to the end of her study, she hopes to conclude her PhD research by summarising the challenges facing women who are looking to access relevant information on the risk factors associated with stillbirth.

By developing a list of recommendations, she also hopes that future researchers will be able to build on her study and develop a pilot intervention strategy that allows health authorities to target behaviours that contribute to stillbirth.

Liltoda wins UCC Innovation Award for CogniTOT Application

Liltoda wins UCC Innovation Award for CogniTOT Application

By Comms|2022-03-24T14:58:48+00:00March 24th, 2022|

Liltoda Ltd, the first academic spin out to emanate from the INFANT Research Centre at University College Cork, has been awarded a GatewayUCC Sprint Award by Professor John O’Halloran, President of UCC.

Launched in August 2021, Liltoda aims to develop and market novel technology-based solutions to the cognitive assessment of young children.

Its first product, the CogniTOT application, offers touch-screen based cognitive assessment for children aged 18-30 months.

It was developed through six years of research in the INFANT Centre, funded by both the Health Research Board and Science Foundation Ireland. The CogniTOT app is non-verbal and so suitable to use in children with speech delay or for whom English is not their first language.

Now in its sixth year, GatewayUCC Sprint Awards recognises the UCC researchers and entrepreneurs who establish spin-out start-up companies.

The Sprint Programme has been developed to help spin-out start-up companies overcome challenges they may encounter when starting their businesses.

As part of the programme, pre and early-stage start-ups work with successful business mentors who help to bring businesses from the idea stage through to the eventual commercialisation of the product or service.

Soraia Ventura Presents Her Research at World Sleep Congress

Soraia Ventura Presents Her Research at World Sleep Congress

By Comms|2022-03-23T11:28:24+00:00March 23rd, 2022|

INFANT PhD researcher, Soraia Ventura, presented her research at the World Sleep Congress in Rome on March 14 and 15.

The Congress consistently gathers the best minds in sleep medicine and research for multiple days of scientific sessions and networking. A truly global meeting, 77 countries were represented at World Sleep 2019, the last in-person iteration of the annual event.

This year’s event saw experts gather in Rome to deliver over 300 hours of courses, keynotes, symposia and abstract presentations.

Soraia’s oral presentation, titled, Infant Sleep as a Marker of Neurodevelopment, demonstrated how EEG analysis may be useful for early identification of the risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, allowing early intervention.

Her poster, titled, Effect of a standardized massage routine on sleep EEG in ex-term infants at 4 months of age: A Randomised Control Trial, concluded that routine parent-led massage during the first 4 months of life is associated with distinct changes in brain function that may suggest more advanced brain maturation.

Working under the supervision of Professor Geraldine Boylan and Dr. Sean Mathieson, Soraia is conducting her research as part of the BabySMART project.

INFANT Seminar Series: Dr Mark O’Sullivan to Discuss Neonatal EEG Monitoring – Hardware, AI and Medical Device Design

INFANT Seminar Series: Dr Mark O’Sullivan to Discuss Neonatal EEG Monitoring – Hardware, AI and Medical Device Design

By Comms|2022-03-22T10:34:57+00:00March 22nd, 2022|

Our next INFANT seminar will be this Friday, March 25th at 12pm, when Dr Mark O’Sullivan will present “Neonatal EEG monitoring – hardware, AI and medical device design”.

Dr O’Sullivan will present updates on the Neurobell Project, which aims to develop a portable neonatal EEG monitor with seizure detection, including methodologies for medical device design in a quality and regulatory compliant manner.

Lastly, Dr O’Sullivan will present new research from the Delphi Project on the design of an artefact detection algorithm for neonatal EEG and its impact on automated HIE grading.

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INFANT Seminar Series: Dr Dhanis Lad to Discuss the STOP AD Randomised Controlled Trial

INFANT Seminar Series: Dr Dhanis Lad to Discuss the STOP AD Randomised Controlled Trial

By Comms|2022-03-09T14:31:21+00:00March 9th, 2022|

Presentation title: Early initiation of short-term emollient use for the prevention of atopic dermatitis in high-risk infants – the STOP AD randomised controlled trial

Atopic dermatitis (AD), also known as eczema, is a chronic inflammatory skin condition, characterized by dry, red and itchy skin. AD usually begins in infancy and affects up to one fifth of children. Evidence of its pathogenesis implicates impaired skin barrier function as a significant pathomechanism, along with cutaneous immune dysregulation and microbial disturbances.

Emollients are moisturising treatments applied directly to the skin to soothe and hydrate it. Daily emollient use is a cornerstone of AD management. Recently, the spotlight has been on the potential role of emollients in infancy in preventing AD.

Short-term Topical Application to Prevent Atopic Dermatitis (STOP AD) was a single-centre, two-armed randomized control trial that postnatally recruited newborn infants at high-risk of AD. This study aimed to investigate if daily emollient use from birth to 2 months can reduce the incidence of AD in high-risk infants. Recruitment took place between April 2019 and November 2020 in Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH).

Infants were randomised within 4 days of birth to either twice-daily emollient application for the first 8 weeks of life (intervention) or to standard routine skin care advice (control group). The primary outcome was cumulative incidence of AD at 12 months. Secondary outcomes included AD incidence at 6 months, cumulative incidence of sensitization to food at 12 months and the evolution of TEWL and natural moisturising factor (NMF) between 0-12 months.

INFANT is delighted to be involved in the PAS 2022 Meeting in Denver 21-25 April.

Members of the INFANT team will join thousands of physicians, researchers, and Allied health professionals from 60 + specialty areas as they come together to share research, explore new collaboratives, and experience the best the paediatric research community has to offer.

Professor Geraldine Boylan and Professor Deirdre Murray are giving invited talks while other members of the INFANT team will be presenting oral and poster presentations.

See a list of INFANT speakers and schedule of presentations below:

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