Science - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

Novel gene therapy shows promise for treating multiple eye diseases

The gene therapeutic approach, which shows promise for treating age related macular degeneration (AMD), may also be effective in treating other eye conditions such as glaucoma. It provided benefit in three additional models of mitochondrial dysfunction, including cells taken from patients living with an optic neuropathy.

30 Jan 2023

Health|Research|Science

Size matters! Flock numbers and new faces are important in boosting flamingo populations

Flocking flamingos in groups of 50 or more and introducing new faces to a population may hold the keys to encouraging successful reproduction, according to a study published this month in Zoo Biology, which was led by Trinity zoologists.

26 Jan 2023

Environment|Research|Science

Discovery offers significant hope for improved vaccines

Scientists have discovered there is a “Goldilocks” effect in identifying the size of a “vaccine adjuvant” that can trigger strong immune responses and, as an example, have shown that a safe, biodegradable adjuvant can boost the action of cancer-killing cells – if the particles are the correct size.

20 Jan 2023

Health|Research|Science

Bees exposed to EU’s most common weedkiller via wildflower nectar

Bees may be at risk from exposure to glyphosate – an active ingredient in some of the EU’s most commonly used weedkillers – via contaminated wildflower nectar, according to new research from Trinity and DCU scientists.

17 Jan 2023

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Humans continue to evolve with the emergence of new genes

Modern humans evolutionarily split from our chimpanzee ancestors nearly 7 million years ago, yet we are continuing to evolve – with new analyses conducted by scientists from Trinity highlighting that two new human-specific “microgenes” have arisen from scratch.

20 Dec 2022

Research|Science

Immune surprise: unexpected function for recently evolved alarm molecule in driving inflammation

Scientists from Trinity have made an important breakthrough in understanding how inflammation is regulated. They have just discovered that a key immune alarm protein previously believed to calm down the immune response actually does the opposite.

16 Dec 2022

Health|Research|Science

Professor Luke O’Neill appointed to ERC Scientific Council

Composed of 22 distinguished researchers representing the European scientific community, the Council is the independent governing body of the European Research Council (ERC). Its main role is setting the ERC strategy and selecting the peer review evaluators.

8 Dec 2022

Research|Science

Ancient amphibians had their bones cooked

Scientists have solved a decades-long mystery as to why ancient tetrapods – amphibian-like creatures that lived over 300 million years ago – preserved in one of Ireland’s most important fossil sites seemingly had their bones cooked after they died.

7 Dec 2022

Environment|Research|Science

Genetic causes of bone tumours discovered in 1,000-year-old Irish skeletons

Two men buried long ago in a medieval graveyard in Co. Donegal had a genetic condition called Multiple Osteochondromas, which causes benign bone tumours. One of the disease mutations is a new discovery, so this is the first time such information has been unlocked from ancient genomic data.

5 Dec 2022

Health|Research|Science

Scientists homing in on why COVID-19 affects people so differently

Researchers from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, St. James’s Hospital Dublin and Trinity are getting closer to understanding what makes some people so vulnerable to COVID-19-induced illness, which in turn may guide the development of new therapeutic strategies.

1 Dec 2022

Health|Research|Science

Using technology to transform how we identify neurodegenerative disease

In a new study published in Translational Psychiatry, researchers at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) and the School of Psychology at Trinity College describe how technology can help detect early signs of cognitive decline in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

30 Nov 2022

Health|Research|Science

New badger research has implications for managing bovine TB

Badgers living with helminth parasite infections are more likely to have tuberculosis (TB), according to new research, which may influence policymakers trying to manage TB infection within cattle and wildlife populations

29 Nov 2022

Environment|Research|Science

New early detection programme offers new insights for frailty detection

A newly-launched research programme - FRAILMatics - is discovering new objective signals of frailty that could translate into the next generation of transdisciplinary diagnostics for ageing adults.

29 Nov 2022

Health|Innovation|Research|Science

Three Trinity researchers win prestigious European Research Council Starting Grants

Dr Kenneth Silver, Dr Colm Delaney and Dr Elaine Corbett were among just seven researchers in Ireland to receive the coveted awards worth up to €5 million from the ERC.

22 Nov 2022

Awards and Funding|Business|Research|Science

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland team awarded prestigious Ellis Prize

The Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) has awarded the prestigious Ellis Prize to the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. Considered the ‘Oscar’ for the recordkeeping sector, the award has been given for only the tenth time in 50 years.

21 Nov 2022

Arts|Awards and Funding|Research|Science

15 ways to reforest the planet: international scientists call for decade of global action

Scientists are calling for a “decade of global action” to reforest the planet following the publication of new research involving botanists from Trinity. The landmark issue of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions reveals the latest scientific advances in forest restoration with the aim of benefiting people as well as nature.

14 Nov 2022

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

WATCH: Learning from major climatic events in the past

Professor Micha Ruhl, from the School of Natural Sciences, talks about his work. This video features as part of the Trinity Research Stories campaign.

7 Nov 2022

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Trinity team unearths potential secret to viral resistance

Researchers worked with women infected by hepatitis C following exposure to contaminated anti-D medication in the 1970s. Some of these women exposed to the virus never showed symptoms and now – over 40 years on – the researchers believe they know why.

4 Nov 2022

Health|Research|Science

Promising results from psilocybin therapy trial for treatment-resistant depression

Trinity researchers have participated in the largest and most rigorous clinical trial to date of psilocybin. Their findings are published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

3 Nov 2022

Health|Research|Science

Ten-year dataset yields vital clues for supporting Ireland’s precious pollinators

Ecologists from Trinity College Dublin have unearthed vital clues for how we can best support Ireland’s precious pollinators after interrogating a ten-year dataset containing information from 119 sites across the country.

2 Nov 2022

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Marine biologists team up with tiger sharks to help discover the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem

Today one of the biggest marine discoveries of the last decade is being announced: the largest seagrass ecosystem in the world, an area in The Bahamas estimated to be up to 92,000 km2. Published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the study details a unique partnership with tiger sharks that played a key role in mapping and ultimately validating the main findings.

1 Nov 2022

Environment|Research|Science

Trinity physicist to lead €2.9 million Quantum Technologies Flagship project

Professor Mark Mitchison has won an EU Quantum Technologies Flagship research grant worth €2.9 million. He will lead a team of researchers seeking to understand nature’s timekeeping limitations and querying whether precision measurements can be more energy efficient.

1 Nov 2022

Awards and Funding|Research|Science

Speicis nua aimsithe: Éin áille a mhaireann ar oileáin san Indinéis

Tá zó-eolaithe ó Choláiste na Tríonóide, i gcomhar le taighdeoirí Indinéiseacha, tar éis teacht ar scata speiceas nua sa chlann Nectariniidae - éin trópaiceacha ildaite ar a dtugtar “éin gréine”. D’fhionn na zó-eolaithe go bhfuil speiceas nach raibh aithne air roimhe seo, “Éin Gréine na Wakatobi” (Cinnyris infrenatus), ag maireachtáil ar oileáin beaga bídeacha i lár na hIndinéise darbh ainm Oileáin Wakatobi.

25 Oct 2022

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Several beautiful new bird species found on remote Indonesian islands

Zoologists from Trinity, working with a research team in Indonesia, have found several new species of colourful, tropical sunbirds. The zoologists have identified a new species, the “Wakatobi Sunbird” (Cinnyris infrenatus), which lives on the tiny Wakatobi Islands in central Indonesia. They also examined the more widespread Olive-backed Sunbirds and Black Sunbirds, and found that individuals named as such actually belonged to multiple unrecognised species.

25 Oct 2022

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Science plaque unveiled to honour inventor Percy Ludgate

Percy Ludgate published the world’s second design for a computer. He designed it, often into the early hours, in his home at 30 Dargle Road in Drumcondra, Dublin, where the plaque was unveiled.

21 Oct 2022

Innovation|Science

Our brains use quantum computation

Scientists from Trinity believe our brains could use quantum computation after adapting an idea developed to prove the existence of quantum gravity to explore the human brain and its workings. The discovery may shed light on consciousness, the workings of which remain scientifically difficult to understand and explain.

19 Oct 2022

Research|Science

New machine-learning technique for classifying key immune cells

The technique accurately classifies the state of macrophages, which is important because these cells can modify their behaviour and act as pro- or anti-inflammatory agents in the immune response. As a result, the work has a suite of implications for research and has the potential to one day make major societal impact.

18 Oct 2022

Health|Research|Science

Scientists classify the entire planet’s ecosystems for the first time

A global cross-disciplinary team of scientists led by UNSW Sydney researchers, and including those from Trinity College Dublin, has developed the first comprehensive classification of the world’s ecosystems across land, rivers and wetlands, and seas. The ecosystem typology will enable more coordinated and effective biodiversity conservation, critical for human wellbeing.

12 Oct 2022

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Inaugural Lecture - Professor Jennifer McElwain

We hope you will join us for Professor Jennifer Mc Elwain's talk on 'A Journey into Deep Time with Fossil Plants'

11 Oct 2022

Environment|Science|Sustainability

Geneticists discover new wild goat subspecies via ancient DNA

Geneticists from Trinity, together with a team of international collaborators, have discovered a previously unknown lineage of wild goats over ten millennia old. The new goat type, discovered from genetic screening of bone remains and referred to as “the Taurasian tur”, likely survived the Last Glacial Maximum (the ice age), which stranded their ancestors in the high peaks of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey where their remains were found.

6 Oct 2022

Research|Science