Neuroscience Ireland Conference

The NSI conference is a premier biennial meeting of neuroscience researchers, clinicians, and industrial partners from across Ireland, Europe, and the international community. This year’s conference will be the first-in person meeting since 2019 and we anticipate 150-200 attending delegates spanning the full spectrum of career experiences. Opportunities for oral and poster presentations. This year we are also partnering with the Dementia Research Network Ireland (DNRI) to host a Patient & Public Involvement Session. The conference will be hosted in the historic RCSI St. Stephen’s Green campus, located in the heart of DublinonAugust 29th-30th.

Review the Programme

Confirmed Speakers

Dr Patrick Waters, Oxford University, UK 

Dr Waters BSc PhD CSci FIBMS FRCPath is the co-director of the autoimmune neurology diagnostic laboratory. His research focuses on antibody-mediated central nervous system diseases. He is interested in the discovery of new antibody targets, the optimisation of assays to detect antibodies in a patient’s serum and cerebrospinal fluid, and understanding the mechanism through which the antibodies cause disease. Specifically, the autoimmune neurology diagnostic laboratory is principally focused on the detection of neurological autoantibodies in patients, and developing a better understanding of their causes and treatment. The main disease categories which they study are the many forms of Autoimmune Epilepsy / Encephalitis and Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) with a focus on developing new autoantibody tests, understanding the mechanism of patient autoantibodies, appreciating which cells produce autoantibodies and how these cells are best targeted with medications. In addition, the Group has established a national referral diagnostic service 25 years ago and performs over 500 serological autoantibody assays each week, 90% of which are for NHS patients.  These tests help neurologists around the country, and abroad, to diagnose and hence treat their patients.

Dr Yvonne Dombrowski, Queen’s University Belfast, UK 

Dr Dombrowski’s research focuses on immune mechanisms in tissue damage and repair. Tissue damage can occur in infectious (e.g. bacteria, viruses, fungi) or sterile settings (e.g. trauma, autoimmune attack). The Dombrowski group is primarily interested in the underlying immunological mechanisms that direct tissue repair and regeneration with the goal to identify novel therapeutic targets for immune-mediated diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Current projects of the group investigate the function of inflammasomes during myelin damage and regeneration in the central nervous system (CNS) and the effects of IL-1 cytokines on oligodendrocytes in the CNS – the cells that produce myelin. Other projects in the group investigated the role of inflammasomes in regenerative inflammation after infectious tissue damage and the role of e-cigarette vapour as an inflammasome activator. Dr Dombrowski has published her work in high-impact journals (e.g. Nature Neuroscience) and her research has been recognized in prestigious awards including an Early Career Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust, the MS Society Research of the Year award and the invitation to the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting for Physiology and Medicine as one of ten UK representatives.

Professor Sean Kennelly, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland  

Professor Sean Kennelly MB BCh BAO PhD FRCP (Lond) FRCPI is a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin. He is Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition, and the Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit in Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin. He is the clinical director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service in TUH. He is a co-lead investigator on HRB-funded Dementia Trials Ireland, a national clinical trials network, and is the principle investigator on HRB-funded of Dementia Research Network Ireland (DRNI). A fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London & Ireland, he has extensively published in his main research areas of Ageing, brain health, dementia, and Inflammaging. He has served as chief and principal investigator on several international clinical trials in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. He is the principle investigator and lead-clinical advisor on several industry collaborations investigating novel applications of digital gait and speech biomarkers in the detection of cognitive decline. He is a member of the clinical and research advisory panel for the Alzheimer’s Society Ireland and a principal investigator in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He is a faculty member for the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin. He is a member of the clinical and research advisory panel for the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. He is on several clinical and service advisory committees for the national clinical program for older people and the national dementia office. He is a member of the national dementia strategy monitoring group within the Department of Health. He served as associate dean of higher speciality training in general internal medicine in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland from 2017-2021.

Dr Susan Byrne, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Ireland  

Dr Susan Byrne is a Senior Lecturer in FutureNeuro/Department of Paediatrics in RCSI, and consultant paediatric neurologist in CHI at Crumlin. Dr Byrne graduated from medical school at Trinity College Dublin in 2005. Between 2009 and 2012 she completed her PhD in genetic epidemiology. Prior to her move back to Ireland in 2021, Dr Byrne worked as a paediatric Neurology consultant at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. During her time there, she specialized in neuroinflammatory disorders of childhood and paediatric stroke, as well as general paediatric neurology including neurogenetic conditions. Since completing her PhD, Dr Byrne has been interested in research and teaching. Her main area of interest is in genotype/phenotype correlation in the neurogenetic disorders of childhood. More recently she has been involved in describing the neurological features of PIMS-TS, which is the post-inflammatory disorder associated with Covid-19 in children.

Professor Michael Johnson, Imperial College London, UK 

Prof Michael Johnson is the Professor of Neurology and Genomic Medicine in the Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, and a previous Deputy Head of the Centre for Clinical Translation in the Division of Neurosciences. He is an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. His research focuses on the use of computational biology and systems genetics to identify cell-type specific causal pathways and novel drug targets for human brain disease and behaviour. His lab aims to identify novel therapeutic opportunities which cannot be captured using traditional reductionist scientific methods. Additionally, Prof Johnson is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP), Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), Member of the UK Association of British Neurologists (ABN), Member of the British Medical Association (BMA) and Member of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). His research has benefited from grants from the UK research councils, charity foundations, the EU and the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. I have a strong track record of successful commercial collaboration with extensive funding from Pharma including grants currently from UCB and Roche. He remains clinically active in the fields of general neurology and epilepsy with a particular focus on autoimmune and tumor-associated epilepsies. Furthermore, he is a member of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Task Force on Epigenetics and the Epi4K, Epi25K, EpiPGx and EPITARGET international consortia for epilepsy research and currently advises the UK Parliamentary Health Ombudsman.