Rheumatology Research Seminars

The UCD Centre for Arthritis Research holds monthly rheumatology research meetings at UCD's Conway Institute. The meetings typically take place on the third Friday of each month and cover the latest research, featuring guest speakers from universities and hospitals across Ireland and Europe.

To be added to the meeting mailing list, just email rheumatology@ucd.ie; for info on the next meeting, check our Twitter page.

The seminar is as follows:

  • 3.00 pm: Guest Speaker Research Presentation
  • 3.40 pm: Discussion/Q&A with the speaker

2024-2025 Seminars

  • Dr Yvonne Codd, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy, Trinity College Dublin on "Work-Able Solutions': An Integrated Care Occupational Therapy Vocational Rehabilitation Service Project". View on YouTube.
  • Cathy White, Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist in Paediatric Rheumatology, Children's Health Ireland on "Down Syndrome Associated Arthritis: Impact on Upper Limb Function and Occupation. An Exploratory Study". View on YouTube.
  • Two speakers from the UCD Centre for Translational Pain Research: Caitriona Murphy: "Informing LBP care from the group up: a survey of clinical specialist physiotherapists" and Orla Flynn: "Exploring the scope and burden of migraine at university". View on YouTube.
  • Prof Adewale Adebajo, Professor in Musculoskeletal Health Service Research, University of Sheffield on "Patient and Public Involvement in Research - My PPI Journey". View on YouTube.
  • Prof Ann Rosenthal, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Medical College of Wisconsin on "Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease;  past, present and future". View on YouTube.
  • Prof Oliver Fitzgerald and Prof Stephen Pennington (both Conway Institute, UCD) on "Biomarkers in Psoriatic Arthritis: from discovery to clinical Utility". View on Youtube.
  • Prof Coziana Ciurtin, Professor of Rheumatology, University College London on "Improving outcomes of childhood lupus: from molecular signatures to treat to target strategies and cardiovascular risk management optimisation". View on YouTube.
  • Prof Helen French, Associate Professor of Physiotherapy, RCSI on "A theory-driven approach to optimising GP management of osteoarthritis – the ENACt study". View on YouTube.

2022-2023 Seminar Schedule

Previous Seminars:

  • Dr Philippa Nicolson, Versus Arthritis Foundation Fellow in the University of Oxford, on "Exercise for people with hip/knee osteoarthritis: moving beyond the joint". View on YouTube. 
  • Dr Virginia Minogue on "Patient and Public Involvement: a journey through Research and Development". View on YouTube.
  • Prof Anne Barton, Professor of Rheumatology at the Centre for Genetics and Genomics Versus Arthritis, and Lead at the Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Manchester. The seminar title is "Pharmacogenomics of Psoriatic Arthritis". View on YouTube.
  • Seminar featuring the work of researchers at UCD and the Centre for Arthritis Research. View on YouTube. The speakers and topics for the session were:
    • Dr Kevin Sheridan - “The Role OF  Peptidylglycine alpha-amidating Monooxygenase In Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial Fibroblasts“
    • Dr Olga Baron - "7 @ 1 Blow - How Flies Can Help Us To Learn About Musculoskeletal Pain?“
    • Dr Michelle Hall - “Does Modifying Joint Load Alleviate Symptoms Of Osteoarthritis?"
  • Dr J. Runhaar, PhD Researcher in General Practice; Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Department of General Practice. The seminar title is "There is (No) Glory in Osteoarthritis Prevention". View on YouTube.
  • Assoc Prof Laura Coates who is the Associate Professor, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, UKConsultant Rheumatologist, UHL. The seminar title is "Recent research updates from Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA)". View on YouTube.
  • Derek Stewart, Patient Advocate. The seminar title is "Patients as more than participants in Research" which looks at how patients and the public are actively involved in assisting researchers with studies. View on YouTube.
  • Dr Alwin Sebastien, Consultant Rheumatologist, UHL. The seminar title is "Value of Pretest Probability Score in GCA". View on YouTube 
  • Prof Sinisa Savic, Clinical Associate Professor of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Leeds. The seminar title is "VEXAS syndrome-overview and recent advances ". View on YouTube.

Previous guest speakers include:

  • Prof Jose Scher, New York University, Deciphering Pharmacomicrobiomics in Inflammatory Arthritis
  • Prof Andreas Goebel, University of Liverpool, Autoantibody contribution to chronic primary pains - mystery unravelled?
  • Dr Máire-Bríd Casey, Senior Physiotherapist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Exercise combined with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ExACT) compared to a standalone supervised exercise programme for adults with chronic pain: a randomised controlled trial
  • Prof Christopher Buckley, University of Oxford & University of Birmingham, Targeting Fibroblast Subsets in Inflammatory Arthritis
  • Prof Christian Hedrich, University of Liverpool, Juvenile-onset SLE – Are Children Young Adults?
  • Prof Oliver Fitzgerald, Prof Steve Pennington, Dr Orla Coleman, Dr James Waddington, University College Dublin, Unmet clinical needs in diagnosis and management of Psoriatic Arthritis  
  • Prof Philip Conaghan, University of Leeds, OA: where are we now and where are we heading?
  • Assoc Prof Oran Kennedy, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, Sub-Chondral Bone Damage, Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis... & Skele-Tim
  • Assoc Prof Helen French, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, Exercise for Osteoarthritis: Moving Beyond Mobility & Strength Benefits
  • Assoc Prof Ricardo Segurado, University College Dublin, Should P-Values Be Retired?
  • Prof Emma Teeling, University College Dublin, What Can Human Medicine & Genomics Learn from Bats? 
  • Prof Stephen Pennington, University College Dublin, Protein Markers in Psoriatic Arthritis  
  • Assoc Prof Catherine Darker, Trinity College Dublin, Managing Chronic Disease 
  • Dr Keith Smart, St Vincent's University Hospital, Pain Sensitization in Osteoarthritis
  • Prof Frank Barry, NUI Galway, Stem Cell Therapy for Osteoarthritis: progress and obstacles 
  • Dr David Gibson, University of Ulster, Developing precision medicine approaches for the management of arthritis 
  • Prof Steve Eyre, University of Manchester, Determining the genes that are important in susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis post GWAS 
  • Dr Deborah Cluxton, Trinity College Dublin, The role of metabolism in regulating human T cell subsets in RA 
  • Patricia Minnock, Our Lady's Hospice & Care Services,Steps towards defining a core set of nurse sensitive outcomes in RA 
  • Prof Cormac Taylor, University College Dublin, Into thin air: regulation of inflammatory gene expression by hypoxia 
  • Dr Conor McCarthy, The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Sport and exercise: translation into rheumatology 
  • Prof Dirk Elewaut, University of Ghent, Spondyloarthritis from early disease recognition to extent of disease 
  • Prof Anne Barton, University of Manchester, Thoughts on predicting treatment response in rheumatoid arthritis 
  • Dr Emma Dorris, University College Dublin, Embedding Patient & Public Involvement in RMD Research