Dementia Research Webinar Series 2024

Our final webinar in this series will take place on January 23rd 2025.

Topic: Harnessing community information and support for people with Young Onset Dementia and their families

Date: 23rd January 2025

Presenters: Dr Caroline Kilty, Lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery University College Cork and Dr Siobhán Fox, Lecturer and Director of the Postgraduate Studies in Dementia programme in the Centre for Gerontology and Rehabilitation at University College Cork.

Drs Fox and Kilty will present some of their research creating a guidance document for community groups who engage with those living with young onset dementia at a local level.

Register for this webinar by clicking HERE. 

Dr Caroline Kilty is a Lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and a member of the Ageing Integrated Research cluster. She qualified as a Mental Health Nurse in 2003, and spent time working in the UK and Ireland. Dr Kilty has completed an MSc in Psychology, and completed PhD and Post doctoral work in the area of dementia and health professions education. Dr Kilty has a keen research interest in the area of mental health, the older person as well as young onset dementia, and has authored peer reviewed literature on this topic. She is currently co-leading on a project to evaluate a future care planning intervention.

Dr Siobhán Fox is and Lecturer and Director of the Postgraduate Studies in Dementia programme, in the Centre for Gerontology and Rehabilitation at University College Cork. She is an active researcher in the field of dementia, with particular focus on young onset dementia, and on palliative care for people living with dementia. She has published 27 peer-reviewed articles, 2 book chapters, and presented at 80+ national and international conferences on these, and related, topics.

Topic: Genetics & Dementia

Date: 5th December 2024

Presenters: Prof Matthew Campbell & Dr Angela Garcia-Gallardo, Trinity Institute of Neurosciences at Trinity College Dublin

Prof Campbell & Dr Garcia-Gallardo shared some of their latest research, with a focus on genetics & dementia.

Matthew Campbell is Professor in Genetics and Head of Department at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin. In 2013, he was awarded Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (PIYRA) which allowed him to establish his own research group in TCD. Since then, he has received numerous additional awards for his research which focuses on understanding the role of the so-called blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood retina barrier (BRB) in healthy and diseased states.

Prof Campbell leads the SFI funded EYE-D programme and is also a PI in the SFI funded Centre Future-Neuro. He is the founder and Director of the Neurovascular Genetics Unit at TCD and has over 20 years of research expertise in the area of blood brain and blood retina barrier biology. He sits on the scientific advisory board of the Moorfields Hospital Charity as well as the UK charity Sight Research UK. 

Dr. Angela Garcia-Gallardo graduated from the School of Medicine at Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, and completed her neurology training at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, Spain. She is currently a Cognitive Neurology Fellow at St. James’s Hospital in Dublin under Professor Siobhan Hutchinson and a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin with Professor Matthew Campbell, where her work focuses on cognitive and blood-brain barrier profiles in conditions such as cataracts and glioblastoma.

The recording of this webinar will be added in due course. 

If you would like further information on their work, Dr. Garcia and Prof Campbell are happy to be contacted further (E: [email protected], [email protected])

This second webinar was brought to you in collaboration with Dementia Research Network Ireland.

Topic: Disease Modifying Therapies

Date: 2nd October 2024

Presenter: Prof Sean Kennelly, Tallaght University Hospital & Trinity College Dublin

Prof Kennelly presented on the some of the most recent research in the area of disease-modifying therapies and updates in the field of dementia research.

Professor Sean Kennelly is a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine in Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin. He is Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition, and the Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit at TUH. Professor Kennelly is also clinical director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service in TUH, co-lead investigator for Dementia Trials Ireland, and is PI and co-chair of Dementia Research Network Ireland (DRNI).

Held on 4th September, part one of the series explored Walking Reminiscence Interventions.

Professor Richard Roche from Maynooth University, presented on his ongoing work in the area of walking reminiscence interventions for people living with dementia and family carers. He discussed the benefits of reminiscence for those living with dementia, and how walking in our local area can help trigger memories, in conjunction with the latest research.

Prof. Richard Roche is Professor and Deputy Head of Department at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, where he has been employed since 2005. His areas of interest are cognitive neuroscience/neuropsychology, particularly memory, ageing, dementia and neuroaesthetics. He has published 39 research articles, over 100 conference posters, several book chapters and three academic books. He has served as President of Neuroscience Ireland and was Founding President of the Irish Brain Council.

Additional Resources:

1. Digital Repository of Ireland – Recall Initiative. Link here.
2. Prof Roche slides are available here.