Cavan scientist wins research award

Dr. Emma Connolly, a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, has just scooped a prestigious Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (RAMI) award for her work on age-related macular degeneration (AMD)- a disease that clouds the central vision of millions worldwide.

The simple version for why the Butlersbridge native and her team were honoured has to do with some AMD patients getting treated with a drug called Bevacizumab. It’s supposed to stop the growth of extra blood vessels in the eye that make vision blurry. For many, it works, but for about 30%, it doesn’t.

“Think of it like your eye sending out tiny distress signals,” explains Emma. “These signals are called cytokines, and they tell your body, ‘there’s something wrong here!’

“During my PhD, and for a couple of years afterward, I researched the inflammatory and immune system aspects of AMD. We wanted to see what role the immune system plays in AMD progression, and if it’s the reason why some patients’ eyes don’t respond to treatment.”

To do this Emma and her team collected and examined fluid samples from patients’ eyes before each monthly injection over a period of about three months. They measured 12 different cytokines- the chemical messengers of inflammation and found that two of these proteins (IL-6 and IL-8) were much higher in the eyes of patients who didn’t respond to Bevacizumab. IL-8 especially makes blood vessels leaky, causing fluid to pool in the retina.

“The eye is expected to improve after treatment,” Emma says. “But in these patients, it didn’t. Our findings suggest there are other factors, such as the immune system, at play”.

Published

Their findings were published last year in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, a leading online vision research journal. The paper was co-authored with a team including her PhD supervisor Professor Sarah Doyle and clinicians at Dublin’s Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital. The hope is their breakthrough can direct future therapies in tackling both the blood vessel problem and the inflammatory signals.

Mum of two Emma’s RAMI award is not her first. Back in 2018, she was recognised for her study of genetic risk factors for AMD in the Irish population, mapping out how the disease progresses over four years.

She’s made a habit of asking the kind of questions that matter, though currently the Cavan woman's focus has shifted slightly. Now she’s working on the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), analysing national data on health and ageing.

“My research mainly involves analysing health data. At the moment, I’m looking at the prevalence of multi-morbidity in Ireland, which is when a person lives with two or more chronic conditions, and the healthcare costs associated with it.”

Passion

Still, her eyes are always on returning to vision research- her true passion.

“I do hope to return to vision research eventually.”

The RAMI awards, held last week at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, celebrated top-tier Irish medical research.

Emma’s partner, Chris Greene from Dublin, was also on the podium, winning his own RAMI award for work on long COVID.

His research shows that people suffering from the notorious “brain fog” often have disrupted blood–brain barriers and ongoing inflammation.