Trinity College Dublin researchers secure Frontiers for the Future funding

The project aims range from better understanding quantum systems to improving future sea-level projections, and from investigating improved battery potential to developing new drug probes.

The Trinity winners are:

• Michael Monaghan (Professor, School of Engineering)
• David Igoe (Assistant Professor, School of Engineering)
• Binh-Son Hua (Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science and Statistics)
• Silvia Caldararu (Assistant Professor, School of Natural Sciences)
• Margaret Jackson (Assistant Professor, School of Natural Sciences)
• Larisa Florea (Associate Professor, School of Chemistry)
• Aisling Dunne (Associate Professor, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, and School of Medicine)
• Graeme Watson (Professor, School of Chemistry)
• Andrei Parnachev (Associate Professor, School of Mathematics)
• Pete Akers (Assistant Professor, School of Natural Sciences)
• Cormac McGuinness (Associate Professor, School of Physics)
• Joanna McGouran (Assistant Professor, School of Chemistry)
• Mary Canavan (Professor, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, and School of Medicine)

Prof. Monaghan will aim to design novel microscopy tools that generate large amounts of data for computational analysis. This will help to decipher the relationship between immune cell stiffness and its behaviour and metabolism, to inform the design of biomaterial coatings.

Prof. Igoe will develop innovative experiments and modelling approaches across multiple scales to study the soil-structure interaction for Offshore Wind Turbines, which will ultimately lower the risk and cost of developing offshore wind facilities.

Prof. Hua will make 3D content accessible to everyone via new methods for high-quality 3D content creation, guided by deep language understanding. Specifically, new techniques will create photorealistic 3D content from text inputs.

Prof. Caldararu will use the ability of plants and ecosystems to respond to changes in their environment, both short-term through changes in function, and long-term through changes in the species present, to develop models that will better predict the future of the planet in light of global climate change.

Prof. Jackson will map and date sediments deposited by the former British-Irish Ice Sheet during a period of sustained climatic change to reconstruct the response of the ice sheet to intervals of warming. The work will improve future ice-sheet and sea- level models, future sea-level projections, and community sea-level adaptation plans in Ireland and beyond.

Prof. Florea will combine state-of-the-art 3D manufacturing techniques with new types of soft materials to create micro-tools with flexible hinges and joints that can be triggered remotely to move and even deliver drugs on demand.

Prof. Dunne will carry out a detailed assessment in relevant cell types and tissue biopsies from individuals suffering from Irritable Bowel Disorder to validate their potential as novel treatments for IBD and other inflammatory diseases.

Prof. Watson will assess whether fluoride ion batteries may get round some of the issues with Li-ion batteries in impacting the cost and range limitation of electric vehicles. Alternative battery technologies could lead to a significant improvement as well as provide a mechanism for storing renewable energy from solar and wind farms.

Prof. Parnachev will study how the particles within quantum systems interact. Traditional approaches have encountered difficulties because they are based on the assumption that particles have weak connections, so this project aims to explore the fundamental behaviour of such strongly coupled quantum systems.

Prof. Akers will study bog plants preserved for thousands of years within peat to reconstruct a drought history to better know what droughts bogs can survive. Blanket bogs are critical carbon and biodiversity reserves for Ireland, but the drier future brought by climate change threatens their existence.

Prof. McGuinness will aim to open the door to nanodevices with versatile abilities, such as acting as highly specific sensors or electronic noses, by developing multifunctional molecules that can be modified to “click together” on surfaces.

Prof. McGouran will develop new drug probes, which confirm whether a drug has bound to its intended enzyme and switched it off as intended. Most probes react immediately upon seeing their enzyme target, like policemen, but the new probes will act more like undercover detectives only kicking into gear when the troublesome enzymes are active.

Prof. Canavan will aim to understand whether novel immune cells known as Tissue Resident Memory T cells (TRMs) are responsible for Rheumatoid Arthritis disease initiation and flares. TRM cells are memory cells that stay in the tissues so they may quickly respond to an infection if they encounter it again.

Prof. Sinéad Ryan, Dean of Research at Trinity, said: “I congratulate all the Trinity awardees – the disciplinary range in evidence here is testament to the research excellence across disciplines of which we in Trinity are so justly proud. I look forward to seeing how these projects progress over the coming years as they address a number of pressing environmental, health and technological problems.”

Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, said: “I am pleased to announce the Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future projects, which support high-risk, high-reward research endeavours. The selected projects, spanning 12 research institutions, bring fresh and innovative ideas that will help boost business and benefit society."

The research projects will vary in length between two and four years, and hold values ranging from approximately €580,000 to €825,000.

This article was first published on 23 October by Trinity College Dublin.