School of Medicine celebrates several successes in latest round of SFI Frontiers for the Future Programme

62 grants valued at €42 million have been announced to support research across 13 Higher Education Institutions (HEI) through Science Foundation Ireland’s Frontiers for the Future Programme.

Five UCD School of Medicine staff across four projects have been announced as recipients. A fantastic result for the School, and for UCD.

Details are as follows:

Dr Carol Aherne, UCD School of Medicine, for 'Targeting mucin-mediated mechanisms to protect the intestinal barrier.' Dr Aherne said, "I am utterly delighted to receive this support from SFI. It will allow us to make fundamental discoveries into new ways in which we can support the barrier function of the intestine, a barrier which is lost in life-long, debilitating conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.”

Professor Desmond Cox, UCD School of Medicine/Children’s Health Ireland and Carmen Regan, Children's Health Ireland, for 'The impact of E-cigarettes on Childhood Health Outcomes (ECHO) study.' Professor Cox said, “We are delighted to have received SFI funding to examine this important research question on the impact of e-cigarettes during pregnancy on childhood health. We hope that our findings will further our knowledge on this significant public health issue.”

Dr Jan Miletin and Dr Jana Semberova, UCD School of Medicine, for 'Individualized mask for infants requiring nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure – tailored Mask (tMASK) feasibility study.' Dr Miletin and Dr Semberova said, “Our project is looking at creating a custom/bespoke nasal mask for every preterm baby with the usage of highly innovative techniques of portable face scanning and 3D printing. We believe custom masks can be very accurate and fit perfectly and improve preterm babies outcomes.”

Dr Melinda Halasz, UCD School of Medicine, and Cormac Owens, Children's Health Ireland, for 'Understanding and exploiting dysregulated mitochondrial metabolism and epigenetics for the therapy of MYCN-driven neuroblastoma.'

Read more here, where you can also learn about the successful recipients from other UCD Schools.
Congratulations to all.