The US Department of Health and Human Services has awarded funding totalling $4.25 million to Trinity researchers working in areas such as psychiatric illness, neuroscience and pulmonary disease.
Prof Michael Gill and Prof Aiden Corvin, both professors in the Department of Psychiatry in Trinity, will lead a global research team that will examine the application of genome sequencing in the identification of genes that predispose major mental disorders.
In a press release, Prof Corvin said: “It will be an honour to lead this ambitious programme working with researchers and families from around the world.”
Gill and Corvin have previously been successful as research partners funded by the US National Institutes of Health, for a mental health project led by the University of North Carolina.
Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Anne-Marie Healy, also received funding for two grants from the National Institutes of Health, as a partner in a research project examining carbohydrate-based therapies for those suffering from lung disease.
Professor of Neurology Orla Hardiman has also received funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services for her study of Motor Neuron Disease (MND). The Centre for Disease Control, which aims to secure the health of the US through the prevention of the spread of diseases, has recognised Prof Hardiman’s research into motor neuron disease (MND) and will now fund her research alongside research partners in Italy and Latin America.
In the first instance of the US government providing federal research funding for a project in Cuba, Hardiman will lead a project investigating the prevalence of MND in differing and mixed-race populations by establishing new registers of the incidence, prevalence and risk factors for MND in Cuba, Chile and Uruguay.
Colm Cunningham, Assistant Professor in Neuroscience at Trinity, also received $1.2 million endowment funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, which was announced in October.
These projects have received support from Trinity’s Research Development Office as part of the College’s attempt to widen funding sources from outside the usual national and EU sources.
Tony Flaherty, Research Project Officer at Trinity Research and Innovation, emphasised the importance of such funding in the press release, saying: “This investment of US Government funding is a huge endorsement in the world-leading health research that is ongoing in Trinity, and in the societal impact it is having globally.”
