Title of Research Project          

PORPOISE (Precision pharmacOtherapy and Risk PrOfiling in Susceptible Early-life populations)

Academic Supervisors 

Prof Eleanor Molloy (Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Medicine); Prof Cristín Ryan (School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences)

Biography

I am a pharmacist and PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin, with a research interest in optimising how medicines are used in newborn infants. My previous research has focused on pharmacogenomics and advanced clinical pharmacy practice. This sparked my interest in how we can use what we know about a person’s genetic makeup and physiology to tailor treatment more closely to the individual, improve how well it works and reduce the chance of side effects.

My PhD builds on this interest by exploring how we can better understand the benefits and risks of medicines in babies who may be particularly vulnerable to drug-related effects, including extremely preterm infants and babies with neonatal encephalopathy. I am particularly interested in how developmental differences between babies influence their response to medicines, and how neonatal-specific approaches can help us better understand pharmacological risk, recognise emerging toxicity and support more individualised treatment. More broadly, my research considers how advances in precision medicine, including approaches such as pharmacogenomics, might be translated to neonatal care and what evidence is needed to support their use in this population.

Alongside my PhD, I work as a research pharmacist on ACUMEN, a clinical trial investigating a potential new treatment for babies with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy.