Dr. Kiva Brennan
Research Assistant Professor, Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN)
Research Assistant Professor, Clinical Medicine
Biography
I lead the Paediatric Immunobiology Research Group in the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. My research interests are in paediatric immunology, obesity, innate immune regulation and evasion, ocular biology, and the role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of disease. I have a passion for pediatric research and vaccine adjuvant design. Over the past decade, I have engaged in extensive research focused on identifying and characterizing the activity of a family of receptors, including RIG-I, in primary human neonatal cells. This work has been critical in understanding how these receptors function within the immune responses of newborns, particularly in relation to their unique immune profiles compared to adults. By investigating the mechanisms of RIG-I and related receptors, we can gain insights into their roles in detecting viral infections and modulating the immune response, which may lead to improved strategies for paediatric vaccinations.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Mealy, Grace and Hempelmann Perez, Sofia and Brennan, Kiva and Callanan, Sophie and Saldova, Radka and Groeger, David and Van Sinderen, Douwe and Cotter, Paul D. and Doyle, Sarah L. and McAuliffe, Fionnuala M., Stress and depression risk in pregnancy associates with altered immune function, World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2025
Sophie Duignan, Kiva Brennan, Emma Connolly, Alan J. Watson, Declan Noone, Emma C. Dunne, Patrick J. Gavin, Aisling M. Flinn, Cilian Ó Maoldomhnaigh, Sarah Doyle, Colin J. McMahon, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Their Association with Coronary Artery Aneurysms and IVIG Resistance in Kawasaki Disease in Ireland, Pediatric Cardiology, 2025
Killeen, S.L. and Mealy, G. and Brennan, K. and Cotter, P.D. and Yelverton, C. and Saldova, R. and Groeger, D. and VanSinderen, D. and Doyle, S. and McAuliffe, F.M., Impact of Bifidobacterium longum1714® on maternal cytokine response in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, Cytokine, 174, (156458), 2024
Connolly, E. and El-Farouki, G. and Brennan, K. and Cahill, M. and Doyle, S.L., Poor Response to Bevacizumab Correlates With Higher IL-6 and IL-8 Aqueous Cytokines in AMD, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 65, (11), 2024, p37
Mealy, G. and Brennan, K. and Killeen, S.L. and Kilbane, M. and Yelverton, C. and Saldova, R. and Groeger, D. and VanSinderen, D. and Cotter, P.D. and Doyle, S.L. and McAuliffe, F.M., Impact of previous pregnancy and BMI on cellular and serum immune activity from early to late pregnancy, Scientific Reports, 14, (1), 2024
De Barra, C. and Khalil, M. and Mat, A. and O'Donnell, C. and Shaamile, F. and Brennan, K. and O'Shea, D. and Hogan, A.E., Glucagon-like peptide-1 therapy in people with obesity restores natural killer cell metabolism and effector function, Obesity, 31, (7), 2023, p1787-1797
Brennan, K, Craven, S., Cheung, M, Kane, D., Noone, E., O'Callaghan, J., Molloy, E.J., Walsh, P.T., McAuliffe, F.,Doyle, S.L. , Cytosolic dsRNA improves neonatal innate immune responses to adjuvants in use in paediatric vaccines., Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 2022
Slattery K., Breheny M., Woods E., Keating S., Brennan K., Rooney C., Augustine S., Ryan A., Owens C., Gardiner C.M., Heightened metabolic responses in NK cells from patients with neuroblastoma suggests increased potential for immunotherapy, Frontiers in Oncology, 12, 2022
Jennifer Cable and Rino Rappuoli and Elizabeth J. Klemm and Gagandeep Kang and Ankur Mutreja and Gavin J. Wright and Mariagrazia Pizza and Sowmya Ajay Castro and Joseph P. Hoffmann and Galit Alter and Andrea Carfi and Andrew J. Pollard and Florian Krammer and Ravindra K. Gupta and Caroline E. Wagner and Viviane Machado and Kayvon Modjarrad and Lawrence Corey and Peter B. Gilbert and Gordon Dougan and Nicole Lurie and Pamela J. Bjorkman and Christopher Chiu and Elisa Nemes and Stephen B. Gordon and Andrew C. Steer and Thomas Rudel and Catherine A. Blish and John Tyler Sandberg and Kiva Brennan and Keith P. Klugman and Lynda M. Stuart and Shabir A. Madhi and Christopher L. Karp, Innovative vaccine approaches"a Keystone Symposia report, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1511, (1), 2022, p59--86
Delaney, C. and Farrell, M. and Doherty, C.P. and Brennan, K. and Oâ Keeffe, E. and Greene, C. and Byrne, K. and Kelly, E. and Birmingham, N. and Hickey, P. and Cronin, S. and Savvides, S.N. and Doyle, S.L. and Campbell, M., Attenuated CSF-1R signalling drives cerebrovascular pathology, EMBO Molecular Medicine, 13, (2), 2021
Useckaite Z, Ward MP, Trappe A, Reilly R, Lennon J, Davage H, Matallanas D, Cassidy H, Dillon ET, Brennan K, Doyle SL, Carter S, Donnelly S, Linnane B, McKone EF, McNally P, Coppinger JA., Increased extracellular vesicles mediate inflammatory signalling in cystic fibrosis., Thorax, 75, (6), 2020, p449-458
Mulfaul K, Ozaki E, Fernando N, Brennan K, Chirco KR, Connolly E, Greene C, Maminishkis A, Salomon RG, Linetsky M, Natoli R, Mullins RF, Campbell M, Doyle SL., Toll-like Receptor 2 Facilitates Oxidative Damage-Induced Retinal Degeneration., Cell reports, 30, (7), 2020, p2209-2224.e5
Brennan, K. and O'Leary, B.D. and Mc Laughlin, D. and Kinlen, D. and Molloy, E.J. and Cody, D. and Paran, S. and McAuliffe, F.M. and Hogan, A.E. and Doyle, S.L., Nucleic acid cytokine responses in obese children and infants of obese mothers, Cytokine, 119, 2019, p152-158
Ui Mhaonaigh, A., Coughlan, A. M., Dwivedi, A., Hartnett, J., Cabral, J., Moran, B., Brennan, K., Doyle, S. L., Hughes, K., Lucey, R., Floudas, A., Fearon, U., McGrath, S., Cormican, S., De Bhailis, A., Molloy, E. J., Brady, G., & Little, M. A., Low Density Granulocytes in ANCA Vasculitis Are Heterogenous and Hypo-Responsive to Anti-Myeloperoxidase Antibodies., Frontiers in immunology, 10, (2603), 2019
Brennan, K. and Lyons, C. and Fernandes, P. and Doyle, S. and Houston, A. and Brint, E., Engagement of Fas differentially regulates the production of LPS-induced proinflammatory cytokines and type I interferons, FEBS Journal, 286, (3), 2019, p523-535
Ui Mhaonaigh, A. and Coughlan, A.M. and Dwivedi, A. and Hartnett, J. and Cabral, J. and Moran, B. and Brennan, K. and Doyle, S.L. and Hughes, K. and Lucey, R. and Floudas, A. and Fearon, U. and McGrath, S. and Cormican, S. and De Bhailis, A. and Molloy, E.J. and Brady, G. and Little, M.A., Low Density Granulocytes in ANCA Vasculitis Are Heterogenous and Hypo-Responsive to Anti-Myeloperoxidase Antibodies, Frontiers in Immunology, 10, (2603), 2019
1. Doyle S, Mulfaul K, Fernando N, Chirco K, Connolly E, Ryan T, Ozaki E, Brennan K, Maminishkis A, Salomon R, Natoli R., TLR2 bridges oxidative damage and complement-associated pathology and is a therapeutic target for age-related macular degeneration, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 2018 Jul 13;59(9):3475, 2018
Kiva Brennan, Bobby D. O"Leary, Danielle Mc Laughlin, Eamon P. Breen, Emma Connolly, Nusrat Ali, David N. O"Driscoll, Ema Ozaki, Rebecca Mahony, Kelly Mulfaul, Aoife M. Ryan, Aine Ni Chianain, Alison McHugh, Eleanor J. Molloy, Andrew E. Hogan, Sri Paran, Fionnuala M. McAuliffe, Sarah L. Doyle, Type 1 IFN Induction by Cytosolic Nucleic Acid Is Intact in Neonatal Mononuclear Cells, Contrasting Starkly with Neonatal Hyporesponsiveness to TLR Ligation Due to Independence from Endosome-Mediated IRF3 Activation, The Journal of Immunology, 2018, pji1700956
Brennan K, McSharry BP, Keating S, Petrasca A, O'Reilly VP, Keane J, Doherty DG, Gardiner CM, Human Natural Killer cell expression of ULBP2 is associated with a mature functional phenotype., Human immunology, 77, (10), 2016, p876-885
Keating SE, Zaiatz-Bittencourt V, Loftus RM, Keane C, Brennan K, Finlay DK, Gardiner CM., Metabolic Reprogramming Supports IFN-γ Production by CD56bright NK Cells., Journal of Immunology, 196, (6), 2016, p2552 - 2560
Doyle SL, López FJ, Celkova L, Brennan K, Mulfaul K, Ozaki E, Kenna PF, Kurali E, Hudson N, Doggett T, Ferguson TA, Humphries P, Adamson P, Campbell M, IL-18 Immunotherapy for Neovascular AMD: Tolerability and Efficacy in Nonhuman Primates., Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 56, (9), 2015, p5424-30
Ní Gabhann J, Hams E, Smith S, Wynne C, Byrne JC, Brennan K, Spence S, Kissenpfennig A, Johnston JA, Fallon PG, Jefferies CA., Btk regulates macrophage polarization in response to lipopolysaccharide., PloS One, 21, 2014, pe85834.
Doyle, SL, Ozaki, E, Brennan, K, Humphries, MM, Mulfaul, K, Keaney, J, Kenna, PF, Maminishkis, A, Kiang, AS, Saunders, SP, Hams, E, Lavelle, EC, Gardiner, C, Fallon, PG, Adamson, P, Humphries, P, Campbell, M, IL-18 Attenuates Experimental Choroidal Neovascularization as a Potential Therapy for Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration, SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, 6, 2014, p230-
Stack J, Hurst TP, Flannery SM, Brennan K, Rupp S, Oda S, Khan AR, Bowie AG, Poxviral protein A52 stimulates p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation by causing tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) self-association leading to transforming growth factor ß-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) recruitment., The Journal of biological chemistry, 288, (47), 2013, p33642-53
Gabhann, J.N., Higgs, R., Brennan, K., Thomas, W., Damen, J.E., Larbi, N.B., Krystal, G., Jefferies, C.A., Absence of SHIP-1 results in constitutive phosphorylation of tank-binding kinase 1 and enhanced TLR3-dependent IFN-ß production, Journal of Immunology, 184, (5), 2010, p2314-2320
Brennan, K., Bowie, A.G., Activation of host pattern recognition receptors by viruses, Current Opinion in Microbiology, 13, (4), 2010, p503-507
Boyd, C.R., Orr, S.J., Spence, S., Burrows, J.F., Elliott, J., Carroll, H.P., Brennan, K., Gabhann, J.N., Coulter, W.A., Johnston, J.A., Jefferies, C.A., Siglec-E is up-regulated and phosphorylated following lipopolysaccharide stimulation in order to limit TLR-driven cytokine production, Journal of Immunology, 183, (12), 2009, p7703-7709
Brennan, K., Jefferies, C.A., Proteomic analysis of protein complexes in toll-like receptor biology, Methods in Molecular Biology, 517, 2009, p91-104
Bridges DJ, Pitt AR, Hanrahan O, Brennan K, Voorheis HP, Herzyk P, de Koning HP, Burchmore RJ, Characterisation of the plasma membrane subproteome of bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei., Proteomics, 8, (1), 2008, p83-99
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
1. K Mulfaul, E Ozaki, K Brennan, M Campbell, S Doyle, Investigating a role for Toll like receptor signaling in the pathogenesis of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). , Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, , ARVO, Seattle, 57 (12), (5010-5010), 2016
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Research Boost Programme - Stream 1 HEREG
BrightFocus Foundation RD Travel Awardee
SFI IRC Pathways Awardee 2023
TCD Dean's Research Initiatives Award 2022
Trinity Med Research Award 2021