UCD SVHG Translational Medicine Symposium

The UCD SVHG Translational Medicine Symposium emphasises the
overall scope of the research programme being delivered here in St.
Vincent’s Healthcare Group. The Symposium is a platform for
showcasing the excellence in science happening right here on our
campus.

Over 85 clinical, scientific and multidisciplinary staff attended – in
person and online on the day – as well as patients/interest groups who logged in for the public information session.

Research Breakthrough May Predict Rheumatoid Arthritis

Collaboration between Molecular Rheumatology, Trinity Biomedical Science Institute and St. Vincent’s University Hospital seeks to identify people at risk of developing the disease

May 31, 2021Immunology, New Research, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Currently, it is impossible to predict who will develop the disease or respond to treatment. The treatments are expensive, so a ‘trial and error’ approach is not cost-effective. Then there is the time from disease onset to diagnosis: Even when people go to their doctors complaining of aches and pains, they may show no signs of inflammation or swelling, and, therefore, no clinical evidence of arthritis. “What we need are markers in the blood that correlate with what is going on in the joint”, says Veale. “This will enable us to predict which patients are more likely to get severe disease and target them more aggressively at an earlier stage”.

Finding such markers is one of the goals of a collaboration developed by Fearon between her lab at TBSI, Veale’s research group at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and Arthritis Ireland—bench scientists at the forefront of research, clinicians on the front lines of treatment, and patients and patient advocates without whom this research would be impossible.

For the full article, please click on the link!

Collaboration is Key in Rheumatology Research – HPN Article

Professor Fearon alongside colleague Dr Achilleas Floudas, discovered a new cell population that is especially troublesome in people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They also learned how these cells accumulate in the joints. Hospital Professional News spoke exclusively with Professor Fearon on the work of TCD’s Molecular Rheumatology Group and new developments in the pipeline.

Please click here to read the full article!

CYTEK User Group Meeting 2021

Expert meeting, “High dimensionality flow cytometric analysis of rheumatoid arthritis patient synovial biopsies” CYTEK, Dr. Achilleas Floudas – invited speaker.

Excellent presentation from Dr Achilleas Floudas on the optimization of patient sample barcoding that allows for the simultaneous analysis of multiple patient samples all pooled in the same sample and therefore treated and analysed under identical conditions, therefore minimizing batch to batch variability and technical sources of variation when performing high dimentionality flow cytometric analysis (27+ parameters) using the novel Aurora sytem by CYTEK. 

Irish Society for Rheumatology 2021

Congrats to TCD Rheumatology researchers Dr Achilleas Floudas and Dr Colm Kirby (Tallaght University Hospital) on their best scientific and clinical presentations at the Irish Society for Rheumatology meeting 2021.

Achilleas presentation title: Loss of Balance Between Protective and Pro-inflammatory Synovial Tissue T Cell Polyfunctionality Predates Clinical Onset of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

This is a novel recently published study at Annals of Rheumatic Diseases (the top journal in the field of rheumatology) that highlights loss of T cell regulation and pathogenic polyfunctional T cell responses are present at the synovial tissue of at -risk individuals prior to the development of clinical manifestations of synovial inflamation.

ISI “Take a Cell-fie” Photo Competition winners

Congratulations to Dr. Clare Cunningham and Dr. Viviana Marzaioli of the Molecular Rheumatology research group, TCD for winning the Irish Society for Immunology’s photo competition! Check out their winning submissions below.