A national leader in the field of Infectious Diseases, and home to the largest medical virology lab and only centre for veterinary education in the country, UCD is uniquely positioned to tackle issues affecting global health. Our experts are working to improve prediction and treatment of disease, and engaging with patients, communities, practitioners and policymakers to enhance health systems and develop technology that can drive progress toward achieving UN SDG 3 priorities.
UCD Discovery HHIT podcastNo. of Policy mentions for UCD publications (2016-2024) tracked to SDG 3 'Good Health and Wellbeing'
UCD Clinical Research Centre (CRC) chairs the Irish Critical Care Clinical Trails Group
AI_PREMie maternity project using AI to save lives named in UN Global Top 100
UCD was national coordinator in EU-wide network to accelerate Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials
UCD leads €16 million Innovative Medicines Initiative 'SOPHIA' Obesity Project with 29 partners across 12 countries
Obesity affects 650 million people worldwide. The Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative led by UCD collects vital data to inform policy and practice across national, EU and WHO efforts to respond to this great challenge. Researchers at the UCD Diabetes Complications Research Centre are key actors in improving our understanding of obesity's biological and societal drivers and communicating their research to medical practitioners, policymakers, patients and the public. Leading the international SOPHIA project, their work is making breakthroughs in developing usable tools to predict obesity complications.
This clinical, cultural and social dialogue funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by UCD and Trinity College Dublin, explored methodological cross-pollination between geriatricians, gerontologists, humanities researchers, social scientists, and practitioners. It has created a valuable academic and professional network and built a suite of engaging multimedia outputs to explore knowledge transfer potential between the humanities, gerontology, healthcare and the social sciences.
The role of health literacy in improving global health outcomes has been widely recognised. An Advisory member of the M-POHL WHO Action Network, Professor Gerardine Doyle was involved in the first and subsequent European Health Literacy Studies. Data from these studies has helped researchers, medical professionals and policymakers to optimise healthcare communication and empower patients and their families across the continent. The WHO is now proposing to implement the unique health literacy measurement instrument used in these studies as part of an extensive study to measure comparative data from around the world.
UCD was National Coordinator in the EU-wide network to accelerate Covid-19 vaccine Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. CEPHR and partners played leading roles in developing and validating new assays to be used in vaccine trials as part of VACCELERATE and provided laboratory capacity to assist with specialist lab and research capacity. With the recent launch of UCD's new Centre for One Health and our leading academic and clinical expertise across the Colleges of UCD Health and Agricultural Sciences, UCD College of Science, and affiliated research centres, institutes and hospitals, we are creating novel interdisciplinary approaches to tackle infectious disease and enable pandemic preparedness.
Healthy living and wellbeing throughout the life course can have a huge impact on individual health and on global health systems. One of the major stumbling blocks in assessing the link between diet and metabolic health or disease is the difficulty in accurately assessing dietary intake. Now, however, metabolomics provides a new strategy for defining biomarkers that reflect dietary exposure. Through the ERC-funded A-DIET project, leading metabolomics expert Prof Lorraine Brennan and her research group have advanced the development and acceptance of the 'nutritype' concept - the expression of dietary intake in a metabolomics profile. The methods and concepts developed in this project move the field of dietary biomarkers beyond the state of the art.
The Lancet
Read journal articleThe Lancet
Read journal articleNature
Read journal articleBMJ Global Health
Read journal article