12 Trinity Research Projects Receive €3.8 million in funding from HRB

Posted on: 18 November 2014

The Health Research Board (HRB) and Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar recently announced €13.5 million for research into cancer, antibiotics and other vital treatments with awards given to research projects in academic institutions across Ireland.

12 research projects from the School of Medicine in Trinity received a total of €3.8 million in funding with the projects spanning diverse areas across the School including ageing, health insurance, depression, cancer, problem drinking, rheumatoid arthritis, blood disorders, Alzheimer’s, psoriasis, stomach infections and Galactosaemia. Some of the projects will take place over three years while others will be completed in five.

According to the HRB, the outcomes from the projects will be assessed, using an international framework, in terms of short and medium terms outcomes like new knowledge, research capacity building, and informing policy. The HRB will also look at the longer term impact of each project such as new innovations including devices, new diagnostics, approaches to care; changes in policy or practice; or economic and commercial activity such as patents and spin-offs.

Speaking at the launch of the awards, Graham Love, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board said: “The HRB focuses on driving more research into policy and practice. This is illustrated by today’s investments. Innovation can help bridge the gap between demand for health services and the resources to pay for them. That innovation comes from implementing top class research, which is our raison d'être at the HRB.”

The following projects in the School of Medicine, Trinity have received funding from this HRB award programme:

Dr Juliette Hussey, Vice President of Global Relations and Associate Professor in Physiotherapy, will assess the effect of a diet and exercise rehabilitation plan aimed at helping patients recovering from surgery for cancer of the oesophagus to return to pre-cancer levels of activity and performance and improve their quality of life. This study will be the first to measure the impact that treatments for oesophageal cancer has on the ability of patients to complete normal activities. It will also show for the first time how a rehabilitation programme involving exercise and diet advice may help patient recovery in the early period following treatment.

Dr Steve Thomas, Associate Professor in Health Services Management, will look at mapping a pathway to universal health care in Ireland. The current Irish Government has committed itself to achieving universal access to health care, free at the point of delivery, by 2016. This research adapts and applies to Ireland new international methods for assessing the progress made towards universal access to health care and measuring the gap with universalisation. It also appraises options for getting there and identifies the implementation challenges likely to be faced. This evidence will help inform decision making and progress Ireland towards universal access, free at the point of delivery, for all the population.

Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Principal Investigator of TILDA, the Longitudinal Study on Ageing, will investigate hypotension, vasoreactivity and white matter intensities in the ageing brain. TILDA will study the role of both high and low blood pressure in brain ageing by conduct MRI scans in 600 over 65’s and correlating the scan information with unique measures of blood pressure, health and cognitive performance. A follow up every two years will demonstrate the long term health and mental function consequences of these brain changes. TILDA will find out which blood pressure problems cause most brain damage and will be able to recommend what treatments should be given in order to help prevent dementia.

Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Professor of Integrated Neuroimaging Thomas Frodl will investigate functional and structural brain connectivity and epigenetic changes in major depressive disorder associated with remission and persistence of symptoms over a five year course. Less than one third of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) achieve remission with an adequate trial of a standard antidepressant after 10–14 weeks of treatment. This project will clinically and with the use of novel neuroimaging techniques and established epigenetics follow-up participants of our previous depression study after 5 years try to understand the clinical course and in particular neuroplastic structural, functional and diffusion changes in the brain associated with clinical outcome. This will provide a crucial part of the research required for the development of more effective therapy strategies and for understanding the backgrounds for achieving remission from depression.

George Gabriel Stokes Professor of Haematology, James O’Donnell will establish the Low Von Willebrand factor Ireland Cohort (LoVIC) study to conduct longitudinal research with patients with low VWF levels, a large plasma protein that plays an essential role in normal blood coagulation. Inherited VWF deficiency is responsible for the commonest inherited bleeding disorder (von Willebrand disease or VWD) that affects up to 1% of the general population. The mechanisms that are responsible for causing VWD remain poorly understood. The team will investigate the relationship between low VWF levels and bleeding symptoms. The findings from this study will be of direct relevance in terms of managing this cohort of individual and because VWD is so common in the general population, the results will also have significant public health implications.

Research Professor of Psychiatry, Declan McLoughlin will conduct research into ketamine for depression relapse prevention following electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Depression affects up to 20% of people in their lifetime and can be a severe debilitating illness. ECT continues to be the most powerful treatment for severe, often life threatening, depression. Despite that, Professor Mcloughlin's team have recently reported relapse in nearly 40% of such responders within six months of completing a course of ECT. There is thus an urgent need for better treatments to prevent relapse and one such possibility is an old drug called ketamine. Professor Mc Loughlin’s team will seek to evaluate ketamine as a way to reduce relapse rates in people who have just been treated successfully with ECT for severe depression.

Clinical Professor of Paediatrics, Eileen Treacy will be working on translating novel monitoring approaches into improved clinical practice for Galactosaemia, an inherited condition caused by a lack of an enzyme (catalyst) which normally breaks down galactose – the sugar found in milk products. Galactosaemia affects 1:16,000 births annually in Ireland, the highest incidence worldwide, and is screened for by the National Newborn Screening Programme. In this research Professor Treacy’s team plan to expand from earlier studies to see if they can match specific biomarkers, genes and glycosylation pathways which could be modified with new treatments and provide improved monitoring options for this condition. Professor Treacy believes that these studies will greatly improve the understanding of Galactosaemia, future treatment options and improve patient outcomes.

Clinical Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, Dr Conor Farren will conduct a trial of supportive text messages for patients with alcohol use disorder and a comorbid depression. Most patients who present with problem drinking also present with mood problems. Dr Farren’s team is seeking to develop a new, enhanced, efficient, innovative and cost effective treatment strategy using supportive text messages. It is aimed at reducing the burden that these co-occurring conditions impose on the suffers and their families as well as the community and health systems. Dr Farren anticipates that patients receiving supportive text messages would report significantly greater alcohol free days as well as significantly less relapses, hospitalisations and mood symptoms than those not receiving such messages.

Clinical Senior Lecturer in Rheumatology Dr Ronan Mullan will examine disease modification in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) using AMPK directed therapies. RA is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting 1-2% of the population which causes joint destruction, chronic pain and lifelong disability. Despite the fact that there is a wide body of evidence that existing and experimental medical therapies can switch off inflammation by activating a cellular enzyme called AMPK, this has still not been tested in inflammatory diseases like RA. Dr Mullan’s research team will directly test AMPK activating compounds to prove that they can be used in medicine to stop inflammation in RA. Dr Mullen believes that results from this study will lead directly to new AMPK directed therapies with better long-term disease outcomes for patients with RA and other inflammatory diseases.

Associate Professor in Clinical Medicine Deirdre McNamara will research an antimicrobial susceptibility testing-based approach for Helicobacter pylori eradication. Her work will examine whether tailored therapy will overcome the increasing failure of standard empirical therapy. Helicobacter pylori infection remains one of the most common infections in adults in Ireland (22%) and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality as the primary cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancers. Primary resistance to commonly employed antibiotics is increasing at an alarming rate. Professor McNamara’s team aims to assess the prevalence of local H. pylori antibiotic resistance by analysing stomach samples of a representative cohort of patients who have not undergone eradication therapy previously. They will assess the impact of tailoring therapy based on antibiotic resistance data with a view to improving H. pylori eradication rates.

Professor in Neuroscience Kumlesh K. Dev’s research will examine the effects of S1P receptor drugs in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD represents one of the major brain illnesses facing society with limited treatments available. Recently, a new S1PR drug called ‘fingolimod’ has been shown to be beneficial in animal models of AD, providing some hope. This drug is already approved as the first oral medicine for use in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) making its use in patients with AD a real possibility. New, more selective S1PR drugs have now been developed and in this project, Professor Dev’s team will test if these new S1PR drugs provide neuroprotection in animal models of AD. If these selective S1PR drugs prove to limit brain damage in animal models of AD, this will pave the way for development of a new class of S1PR drugs for the treatment of AD.

Ussher Assistant Professor in Neuroinflammation, Dr Aisling Dunne is conducting research into the Heme Oxygenase System as a Therapeutic Intervention for Psoriasis. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Dr Dunne’s team and others have found that they can block the production of pro-inflammatory molecules by turning on a pathway which leads to the production of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant molecules called linear tetrapyrroles (LTPs). Interestingly, these molecules are also produced in large quantities by blue-green algae such as Spirulina platensis (also known as Spirulina, a commonly consumed dietary supplement). Dr Dunne’s team have developed a method to extract LTPs from native Irish algae and propose to test these molecules along with their synthetic commercially available counterparts in human blood cells and skin cells from healthy individuals and those suffering from psoriasis.