SFI-IRC award

Big congratulations to Dr Viviana Marzaioli for securing the SFI-IRC award.

This highly competitive four-year funding will allow her to start her own group and build her independent research career. The funding account for postgraduate student who will be primarily supervised by the awardee.

Dr Marzaioli will investigate cellular mechanisms involved in innate immunity, which might account for the differential disease progression and response to therapy in Rheumatoid, and Psoriatic arthritis (RA and PsA) – two inflammatory diseases affecting the joint, leading to disability in around 2% of the Irish population.

Brief summary of the project: Inflammatory Arthritis, such as rheumatoid (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), is a leading cause of disability that affects up to 2% of the Irish population. It is estimated that the cost of treating inflammatory Arthritis patients in Ireland is ~€20,000 per patient/year. Current medicines don’t work for all patients and may cause infection, so new more cost-effective treatments are needed. The current project focuses on identifying the cellular mechanisms that differentiate RA and PsA response and progression. This approach will allow identification of new disease markers and drug-candidates for the treatment of RA, PsA and possibly other autoimmune diseases.

EULAR 2022 – Copenhagen June 2022

Big congratulations to Dr Achilleas Floudas for winning the EULAR abstract award (1 of 12 from ~5000 abstracts).

“Distinct stromal and immune cell interactions shape the pathogenesis of  

Rheumatoid and Psoriatic arthritis” 

HPN Article

For the full article – please follow the link.

EWRR 2022

The EWRR is considered Europe‘s premier meeting for basic and translational research in the field of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases and is particularly aimed at attracting young scientists who are given the opportunity to present their work in an informal and interactive environment. The EWRR has a long tradition and still is a unique event fostering presentation and discussion of novel findings. The programme will contain nine scientific sessions and two keynote lectures. State-of-the-art lectures will be given by some of Europe´s most renowned researchers inside and outside the rheumatology field. In addition, there will be short oral presentations of outstanding abstracts and guided poster tours.

Dr Achilleas, Floudas, Dr Megan Hanlon, and PhD student Orla Tynan presented their research in the Fearon group with their fantastic oral presentations.

Massive Congratulations to Dr Megan Hanlon for being names as the Young Investigator 2022 – the Fearon group are insanely proud!

HPN Article – Loss of balance between protective and pro- inflammatory synovial tissue T-cell polyfunctionality predates clinical onset of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Written by Achilleas Floudas, Declan Sweeney, Tracy Madigan, Maryanne Murphy-Lyons, Ursula Fearon

Full article coming soon (May 2022). Click here to read the full article!

EWRR May 2022

Dr. Achilleas Floudas invited speaker!

Dr Floudas has been invited to present our recent work on T cell polyfunctionality at the pathogenesis of synovial inflammation, research that offers a new perspective on the previous dogma of T cell polirisation to specific subsets and that combines bioinformatic and signle cell RNA sequencing analysis with novel ex vivo approaches.  Congratulations Achilleas!

Meet the expert seminar – Immunology North East – BSI regional group

A monthly seminar programme with presentations from national and international invited speakers on all aspects of immunology.  These seminars are a fantastic opportunity to hear from and meet many renouned immunologists.  Tailored to suit a broad audience, students and staff find them highly informative and educational. 

A meet and greet with our very own Dr Achilleas Floudas – Synovial tissue microenvironment imbalance and polyfunctional T cell responses co-act to drive pathology in Rheumatoid Arthritis  

Ireland’s TikTok scientists describe trolling and misinformation as they took part in Government Covid campaign

The scientists recruited by the Government to spread Covid-19 messaging on TikTok and Instagram have spoken of the level of misinformation and abuse they encountered online. The creators behind the novel communications strategy, which saw the Department of Health dabble in public health messaging across social media, also revealed how difficult the pandemic has been for young people. The SciComm Collective, launched in the first half of last year, was intended to get the Government’s Covid-19 messaging out to young people through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

For the full article, please follow the link!