Together with the Global Brain Health Institute and the Discipline of Medical Gerontology (Trinity College Dublin), DRNI are delighted to announce our upcoming symposium, The role of the ageing immune system in the development of delirium and dementia.
This in-person event is taking place on Monday, 16th June 17.00-19.00, in LB11, Lloyd Building, Trinity College Dublin (see below for map and full programme). To register, please click HERE.
The symposium will hear from four speakers, followed by an expert panel discussion and Q&A session:
- Can we improve resilience to delirium? A geroscience approach
Dr Thomas Jackson, University of Birmingham
- Delirium and long-term cognitive impairment: insights from population studies
Professor Daniel Davis, University College London
- Using the humble mouse to unravel inflammation-induced delirium in the frail brain
Dr Colm Cunningham, Trinity College Dublin
- Approaches to mitigating the impact of delirium and dementia on vulnerable hospital populations
Dr Aoife Fallon, Tallaght University Hospital & Trinity College Dublin
This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session chaired by Professor Sean Kennelly, Tallaght University Hospital & Trinity College Dublin.
Dr Thomas Jackson, University of Birmingham
Thomas currently works as an associate professor and honorary consultant in geriatric medicine in the Department of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham. He works clinically in the acute medical unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
His research group focusses on understating the immune-inflammatory basis of clinical expressions of adverse ageing, opposed to healthy ageing. These clinical expressions include delirium, frailty and sarcopenia. He leads a £4.4M research programme funded by Wellcome Leap Dynamic Resilience investigating underlying biological processes that drive older people’s ability to recover after stressor events such as surgery. A recent trial has looked at the effects of food supplements that have effects on underlying biological mechanisms of ageing – so testing the so called ‘geroscience hypothesis’. He is joint PI of the OPTIMising therapies, discovering therapeutic targets and AI assisted clinical management for patients Living with complex multimorbidity study (OPTIMAL). This aims to provide decision support for polypharmacy, as well as insights in multimorbidity trajectories and clusters.
He is also passionate about supporting geriatricians in training to develop careers in research, a clear area in need of capacity building.
Professor Daniel Davis, University College London
Daniel Davis is a Wellcome Trust intermediate clinical fellow and honorary consultant in geriatric medicine. Professor Davis's primary interest is the relationship between delirium and/or acute illness and trajectories of cognitive decline in large population-representative studies. He is the PI of the Delirium and Population Health Informatics Cohort (DELPHIC) study, which tracks cognition before, during and after acute illness in older Camden residents. His academic appointment is as a principal clinical researcher at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL.
Dr Colm Cunningham, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Colm Cunningham is an Associate Professor in Neuroscience, in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and is coordinator for the TCD Neuroscience degree. His main research interest is to develop and study animal models to understand the impact of inflammation, in particular systemic inflammation, on brain function and neurodegeneration.
Colm Cunningham obtained a Ph.D. in Neurochemistry in TCD and did post-doctoral research with Prof. Hugh Perry’s CNS inflammation group in the University of Southampton. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship in 2006 to establish the first animal models of delirium during dementia in Trinity College Dublin and won a WT Senior Fellowship to further pursue inflammatory mechanisms relevant to delirium. The interaction between prior neurodegenerative pathology and superimposed secondary insults in delirium and long-term cognitive decline is now the major focus of his work and his lab is currently supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board.
Dr Aoife Fallon
Dr Aoife Fallon is a Consultant Geriatrician in Tallaght University Hospital working in the Tallaght Institute of Memory and Cognition and with the Integrated Care Team for Older People. She graduated from University Hospital Dublin, completed an MD with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) focusing on older nursing home residents presenting to the emergency department and is currently a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Medical Gerontology, TCD.
Professor Sean Kennelly
Professor Sean Kennelly is a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine in Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin. He is Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition and the Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit in TUH, and clinical director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service in TUH. He is co-lead investigator of Dementia Trials Ireland, a national clinical trials network, and is PI of Dementia Research Network Ireland (DRNI).