Dr. Eoin Brennan, originally from Ennis, County Clare, is an Assistant Professor at the Conway Institute, University College Dublin (UCD). He graduated from University College Cork in 2004 with an honours degree in Genetics and completed his PhD at Queen's University Belfast in 2008, focusing on the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of diabetic kidney disease. There he developed a keen interest in researching why 30% to 40% of diabetics get kidney disease and if there is an inherent heritability. He collaborated on a project with UCD and was based for a time in San Diego USA. In 2009, he joined the UCD Diabetes Complications Research Centre to study the genetics and signalling pathways implicated in diabetes and its microvascular complications.
In 2014, Dr. Brennan continued his research under a Marie Curie fellowship at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, investigating endogenous lipids and non-coding RNA therapeutics in diabetic complications, particularly targeting vascular lesions in aortas and kidneys. His postdoctoral work there showed that anti-inflammatory synthetic drugs created in UCD were able to suppress kidney disease and reduce the buildup of plaque in arteries. In 2019, he was appointed an Ad Astra Assistant Professor at UCD's School of Medicine and set up his own laboratory with a focus on cardio-vascular disease and blood vessel disease. The problem of blocked arteries is a keen area of focus for his research group and studying the gene and protein changes from taking anti-inflammatory medications, investigating if these provide pathways to prevent blocked arteries and developing novel treatments for atherosclerosis.
Current Research Challenges
Atherosclerosis, a key cause of cardiovascular disease, involves the buildup of fats and inflammation in artery walls. Traditional treatments like statins don't work for everyone. Dr. Brennan's research focuses on non-coding RNAs, previously thought to be "junk sequences", to understand their role in heart disease.
His team studies how these RNAs affect blood vessel cells and explores combining them with statins for better treatment outcomes. His lab uses blood vessel cells, human biopsy tissue and mini blood vessel organoid models to address these questions.
Diabetic nephropathy, a major cause of kidney disease, is influenced by unknown genetic factors. The GENIE Consortium, in which Dr. Brennan is an investigator, uses large-scale genetic studies to identify genes linked to diabetic kidney disease. His research team works with other groups around the world to understand how these genes contribute to the disease and develops methods to test their effects in cell models and animals, aiming to improve prevention and treatment strategies. Dr. Brennan's research lab creates methods to identify and study important genetic signals from large studies comparing people with and without certain conditions.. Collaborating with various groups locally and internationally is an essential part of the progress in his field of research. Dr. Brennan seeks to maintain a unique approach and to remain transparent in his work, thinking outside the box and learning from working across disciplines.
The Researcher
Dr Eoin Brennan is a co-founder of Attenuate Therapeutics with Professor Catherine Godson and Professor Patrick Guiry, a company emerging from research conducted in UCD. The company focuses on developing mimics of naturally occurring lipids that reduce inflammation. They are now working on developing these mimics for clinical use in a range of inflammatory diseases.
Building clinical relationships is key to his work, understanding how the patient is actually impacted by research is hard to quantify but gaining access to specimens to test and work with are essential to shared learnings. He is currently on the committee of the School of Medicine for Equality Diversity and Inclusion and co-chairs the Summer Student Research Award International Committee in the School of Medicine. Eoin enjoys his teaching practice in clinical pharmacology and precision medicine. Actively working with the students and sharing the benefit of his own experience is something he finds deeply rewarding.
Dr Brennan has been awarded several grants for his work on diabetic complications. He received grants from the US Ireland R&D Partnership programme to investigate the genetics of diabetic kidney disease.The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation awarded a grant to study lipoxins as pro-resolution therapeutics in diabetic kidney disease. Additionally, a Marie Curie ELEVATE fellowship to explore exosomal biomarkers and micro-RNA therapeutics at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. Dr Brennan was also funded by the Diabetic Complications Consortium for research on the functional role of candidate genes from GWAS in diabetic nephropathy. Eoin is also funded through several UCD seed awards to initiate collaborations with colleagues across the university to address high impact questions.
Eoin spends quality time with a young family, hill-walking, hiking, running, surfing and enjoys travelling.
Future Research Aspirations
Dr. Brennan is looking forward to continuing his research into cardiovascular disease which is a global health problem. His ambition is to expand his work on RNA-based targets and therapies as the next generation of treatment options for those suffering from heart disease. He strongly advocates for collaboration, bringing together top researchers to address complex questions. His lab is collaborating with colleagues in the University of Melbourne to test anti-inflammatory drugs in diabetes-related heart disease models. Recently, he initiated a pilot project with vascular surgeons at Mater Hospital and St. Vincent’s University Hospital to identify non-coding RNAs from carotid plaques, aiming to find new targets for cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Brennan emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in research. He is collaborating with engineering experts to investigate both the benefits and harms of environmental exposures to a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Additionally, he is working with the UCD Algae Group to explore how lipids from microalgae may have anti-inflammatory effects on blood vessel cells. As a scientist, he believes research findings should guide population-wide prevention strategies and health policies. This is crucial in cardiovascular disease, where increasing rates are driven by factors such as obesity, diabetes, ageing, and environmental exposures like micro and nanoplastics. He plans to investigate the link between these plastic exposures and cardiovascular disease risk, a study with potential implications for Ireland's health policies and its commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and EU environmental directives.
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