Dr. Áine Gorman has a degree in Medicine from NUI Galway. She also holds a master’s degree in clinical education. She is currently a 5th year trainee. Her main research interests include early inflammatory arthritis and pregnancy in patients with rheumatic disease.
Dumitru obtained a B.A in Physiology from Trinity College Dublin in 2020. In his his final year project he investigated the immunomodulatory effects dimethyl fumarate on the glial cells of aged mice. He worked as a research assistant on a project that aimed at the development of a quick and easy to use in the field Sars CoV2 assay. He works between St. Vincent’s University Hospital and Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, coordinating the arthroscopy programme between the two facilities.
Dr Sonia Sundanum graduated from RCSI in 2013. She is a final year specialist registrar. Her main research interests are in early arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, prognostic biomarker discovery and musculoskeletal ultrasound. She is currently undertaking an MD by thesis and an MSc in Clinical Research and Translational medicine.
Phil Gallagher is a Clinical Nurse specialist in Rheumatology SVUH, and is key to the coordination of clinical trials and the establishment of the biologic registries. Phil is critically involved at the interface between the clinical and basic science research teams, in relation to stratification, disease outcomes and potential new treatment strategies.
Phil also coordinates RABRI and ASRI, which are the National Rheumatoid Arthritis and AnkSpon registries. In addition, Phil coordinates the National Arthritis Research coalition (ARC).
Candice Lowe, MD, is a Rheumatology Newman Fellow current undertaking an MD by thesis. Dr lowe has research interests in needle arthroscopy, early arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, prognostic markers, and B-cell targeted therapies.
Research Assistant based at the Clinical Research Centre.
Gene provides essential support for the arthroscopy research programme and the specialised regional arthritis knee clinic. She provides valuable support to the clinical fellows, research nurses and the patients who attend for arthroscopy, follow-up and clinical assessment.
Research Nurse based at the Clinical Research Centre.
Hazel provides essential support for the arthroscopy research programme and the innovative RA clinical registry. She provides valuable support to the clinical fellows, research nurses and the patients who attend for arthroscopy, follow-up and clinical
assessment.
Kieran Murray graduated from UCD Medical School in 2010. He is a fourth year specialist registrar and has previously worked in Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital, Beaumont Hospital and University College Hospital Galway. His main research interest is improving outcomes in inflammatory arthritis, through analysing biomarkers, infection risk and management in pregnancy.
Trudy obtained her BSc in Biomedical Health and Disease from University College Dublin in 2011. In the same year, Trudy was awarded a Molecular Medicine Ireland PhD scholarship for their unique cross-institutional Clinical and Translation Research Scholars Programme (CTRSP). During her PhD, she completed a four month Industry internship with Quintiles Transnational as part of the Global Regulatory Affairs department, providing regulatory ‘Roadmaps’ for large Pharma, advising them on the most efficient strategy to file a new drug application in Europe, South America and Asia. Trudy’s PhD research, entitled ‘Synovial inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis is regulated by Toll-like Receptor 2-activated signalling pathways’, was carried out in St. Vincent’s University Hospital and was completed in November 2015. Since this time, she has worked as a Postdoctoral researcher within the Molecular Rheumatology Group and Center for Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases. At present, Trudy is the UCD Novartis Newman Postdoctoral Fellow and her research focuses on identifying the metabolic and cellular mechanisms that mediate inflammation in the joint. Her work is carried out in close collaboration with Industry partners including Janssen Pharmaceutics and Pfizer. She has received numerous travel grants to present her research within Europe and was awarded best oral presentation at both the MMI and New Horizons in Rheumatology national meetings. Trudy is the current Irish Country Lisiason Officer for EMEUNET (Emerging EULAR Network) and her role is to promote education and collaborative work among young clinicians and researchers in rheumatology and to liaise with other national representatives.
Richard Conway, MB PhD, is a rheumatologist and epidemiologist. He has research interests in rheumatoid arthritis, early arthritis, gout, medication-related adverse events, and in vasculitis, in particular giant cell arteritis. Richard has a particular methodological focus in the performance of systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses.
Monika was awarded a PhD in Endocrinology from Jagiellonian University in 2005. Since 2007 she is a postdoctoral scientist in the Centre for Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases, Dublin Academic Medical Centre in St Vincent’s University. She is also a visiting research fellow in the Department of Molecular Rheumatology, Trinity College Dublin. Her research projects were founded by Health Research Board Ireland and MSD Newman Fellowship. Monika has established a strong scientific track record in the field of inflammatory arthritis, specifically in the area of hypoxia, oxidative damage, mitochondrial dysfunction and angiogenesis. She has developed a number of in-vitro and in-vivo models using primary cell culture and human synovial tissue from patients with inflammatory arthritis. Outputs from her projects have been published in high impact journals and widely presented at international EULAR and ACR conferences.
The Centre for Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases 