Meet the team

Professor Iracema Leroi is an academic clinician at the Global Brain Health Institute and Department of Psychiatry, TCD and lead of Dementia Trials Ireland. She also works as consultant geriatric psychiatrist at St James’ Hospital, Dublin. Iracema trained in Canada and in the US and until recently, was Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manchester. She is founder and lead of the Dementia Masterclass and Lewy Body Academy. She has 200+ publications in the field of mental health in neurodegenerative disorders and has been lead or co-applicant on grants worth €30+ million. She is currently Chief Investigator H2020 SENSE-Cog programme involving 8 nations and 32 investigators.

https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/iracema-leroi

Professor Seán Kennelly is consultant physician in stroke and geriatric medicine in Tallaght University Hospital Dublin, Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin, Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition, and Director of Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit in Tallaght University Hospital. He is chair of Dementia Research Network Ireland, and a member of the clinical and research advisory panel for the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. He is principal investigator in Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and served as chief and principal investigator on several international clinical trials in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Seán is co-lead investigator of Dementia Trials Ireland.

Lara Gibney is the Network Coordinator for Dementia Trials Ireland. Her role involves providing support to the overall management of the network. Lara also works directly on the industry trials as Study Coordinator at the St. James’ Hospital site.

Anne-Marie Miller is Senior Network Manager at Dementia Trials Ireland. Anne-Marie is a highly qualified scientific programme manager, research network coordinator and research professional with experience in academic, clinical, and fundamental research settings.

Anne-Marie has worked with key influencers in Irish and International dementia and neurodegenerative research to enhance inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional research co-operation, deliver on clinical research translation, and influence policymaking in dementia and neurodegeneration.

It is Anne-Marie’s wish to develop Dementia Trials Ireland to be a strong impactful advocate for the creation of opportunities for access to dementia trials, with an emphasis on accelerating progress with respect to enhanced treatment options; broadening the clinical trials definition to increase trial number, type, and opportunities; and building a culture of integrated dementia research nationally.

I have been diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia (LBD) following an earlier diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), so I have a great understanding of how complex these symptoms are and what the similarities are like between these two diseases.  Participating as a PPI panellist gives me a opportunity to speak of my experience as a patient.  I regularly speak to people living with Lewy Body dementia on zoom calls and have a lot of first hand knowledge of the reality of caring for and living with LBD.

Mike Hanrahan. Author, songwriter, guitarist and singer with Stockton’s Wing, Also performs with Eleanor Shanley, Leslie Dowdall, The Forget-Me-Nots Choir and as a solo artist. A long career in music which included 10 years working as writer, producer and musician with Ronnie Drew. Accomplished cook with a critically acclaimed book, Beautiful Affair, a life of music food and friendship, published by Harper Collins.

My name is Mary Whelan. I have journeyed for twelve years with my husband Tony as he lives with Alzheimer's Disease. His Alzheimer's was diagnosed before he was 60, just as he retired from a career in nursing. Since his diagnosis I have spent my time advocating for people with young onset dementia, highlighting the lack of services and treatments for them. I am extremely pleased to be part of the PPI panel for Dementia Trials Ireland. Tony and I have enjoyed some wonderful times on our journey but without a new treatment the road gets more difficult. My hope is that no person diagnosed with early onset Dementia will hear the words "we do not have any new treatments".

Councillor Deirdre Heney is a local politician in Clontarf. She does whatever she can, both at local and national level, to make the lives of people in her community living with dementia and those caring for loved ones with dementia, less painful. Deirdre continuously campaigns for 'dementia inclusive' policies at all levels of her work as a member of Dublin City Council.

I am Kieran Maguire, and as a member of a large 13-person family, I have witnessed five of my siblings suffer from Dementia, four of whom sadly passed away. I want to turn this experience into a positive outcome to support the development of treatment. I want to encourage other families impacted by dementia to participate in research studies to support development of a treatment. Whilst the experience alone is difficult, participating in the research trials re-defines this experience in a positive way as we battle against dementia together.

I am a perceptual neuroscientist, dancer, science communicator and a former Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow. I am currently an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at Trinity College Dublin, Director of the International Tinnitus Research Initiative Academy that disseminates tinnitus research and clinical practices and co-founder of BrainFM, a co-creative educational tool promoting brain-health literacy through dance.

I am a young person who is the main caregiver for my mum who was diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) at a very young age.  I only wish I knew more about dementia trials at the time of her diagnosis.  I would have got her involved and who knows, it could have given me more time with her and maybe make the very difficult road we are travelling a little easier for her.  I want to use my voice on the PPI panel in Dementia Trials Ireland to raise awareness that dementia is not just about older people and Alzheimer’s Disease is not the only form of dementia.

I am Kevin Quaid, 58 years old. I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s and then Lewy body dementia over five years ago. I was one of the first patients to write a book about Lewy body disease from the patients point of view, my first book is called ‘Lewy Body Dementia Survival and Me’ and my latest book is called ‘I am KEVIN not Lewy’. I am so proud to be part of Dementia Trials Ireland and equally proud to report I am now working on my third book.

I am the Chief Executive of Engaging Dementia since October 2020, transitioning to the voluntary sector after 30 years working in International business. Engaging Dementia is a registered charity which delivers dementia training focused on communication and engagement, organises an annual international dementia conference, and is involved in a range of collaborative projects in the community.

Mother and grandmother. Graduated from Trinity College in 2019 with a degree in Irish Studies which enhanced my appreciation of the Irish language. My mum, Margaret, was diagnosed with dementia in 2009 and as the disease progressed reverted to speaking ‘as Gaeilge’ the language she had been educated in.

RICHELLE FLANAGAN, B.A. (Physiology), MSc Nutrition & Dietetics, PgCert Allergy, MINDI
Registered dietitian, World Parkinson Congress Ambassador, committee member of the Dublin branch of the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland. Co-founder of the www.womensparkinsonsproject.com and co-founder of www.mymovesmatter.com, a digital health app for women living with PD.

I have a passion for improving the experience for people with disabilities using rail services.

I am Head of Customer Care and Accessibility at Iarnród Éireann. I have worked 30 year’s experience working in public transport for both Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus.

I have worked with Kevin Quaid and the Dementia Working group and it was inspiring to listen to their lived experiences. Outside of work, I love coaching Gaelic Games and making a difference in the lives of young people.

Professor Seán Kennelly is consultant physician in stroke and geriatric medicine in Tallaght University Hospital Dublin, Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin, Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition, and Director of Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit in Tallaght University Hospital. He is chair of Dementia Research Network Ireland, and a member of the clinical and research advisory panel for the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. He is principal investigator in Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and served as chief and principal investigator on several international clinical trials in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Seán is co-lead investigator of Dementia Trials Ireland.

Prof Ronan Killeen is consultant radiologist working within St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and The Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital and is Clinical Professor of Radiology in UCD. He did his fellowship training in New York Presbyterian Hospital in Neuroradiology and Molecular imaging and is board certified by ABNM. He has published 100+ papers, written several book chapters and authored a book on PET CT in Oncology. His interests include multimodality advanced imaging of neurological disease, artificial intelligence and healthcare digital innovation. Ronan is currently Chair of the Radiology Department in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.

Dr Justin Kinsella is a Consultant Neurologist and Associate Professor at St Vincent’s University Hospital. He runs a weekly cognitive Clinic at SVUH and is the Principal Investigator for several clinical trials in dementia and Alzheimer Disease. He has experience in clinical trials in dementia after completing a fellowship at the Dementia Research Centre at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square, London.

Brian Lawlor is an expert in dementia care and treatment and Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin.

Professor Iracema Leroi is an academic clinician at the Global Brain Health Institute and Department of Psychiatry, TCD and lead of Dementia Trials Ireland. She also works as consultant geriatric psychiatrist at St James’ Hospital, Dublin. Iracema trained in Canada and in the US and until recently, was Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manchester. She is founder and lead of the Dementia Masterclass and Lewy Body Academy. She has 200+ publications in the field of mental health in neurodegenerative disorders and has been lead or co-applicant on grants worth €30+ million. She is currently Chief Investigator H2020 SENSE-Cog programme involving 8 nations and 32 investigators.
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/iracema-leroi

Professor Tim Lynch is Chief Academic Officer Ireland East Hospital Group & Vice Principal of Health Affairs, University College Dublin. He is Consultant Neurologist, Clinical Director of the Centre for Brain Health at the Dublin Neurological Institute Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. In 1998 appointed Consultant Neurologist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin. Since then, he has received several awards and was made President of the Irish Neurological Association in 2020.

Dr Rónán O’Caoimh is a geriatrician at Mercy University Hospital Cork and hon senior lecturer in University College Cork (UCC). A graduate of UCC he has completed a PhD in Medicine (UCC), MSc in Geriatric Medicine (Keele), MPH (University of Edinburgh) and PG Cert (Harvard Medical School). His research interests are in epidemiology, dementia and frailty. He is the current academic secretary of the Irish Society of Physicians in Geriatric Medicine. He's acted as site PI for multiple pharma clinical trials (APECS, STEADFAST, Evoke, Evoke-plus, Skyline, ASPECT).

Richard Reilly is Professor of Neural Engineering, a joint position in the School of Medicine and School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin.

He is a Principal investigator at the Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering and the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. His research focuses on quantitative analysis of electrophysiological and neuroimaging data to aid diagnosis and provide biomarkers for monitoring the efficacy of interventions.

richard.reilly@tcd.ie
https://reillylab.net/
https://www.tcd.ie/biomedicalengineering/

Prof. Suzanne Timmons is a clinician-academic geriatrician, based in University College Cork. She was the Clinical Lead for dementia health services in Ireland from 2017-2021. Her dementia research focuses on Parkinson’s disease dementia, palliative care, delirium superimposed on dementia, and psychotropic prescribing. She has particular expertise in complex, non-pharmacological and service-focussed interventions.

Sven Vanneste is a neuroscientist, Professor and Head of School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. Sven’s lab for Clinical & Integrative Neuroscience (lab CLINT) is undertaking ground-breaking research on the ageing-related neurological disorders.

Cathal Walsh is Professor of Statistics at the University of Limerick having previously worked in TCD and in the United States and Australia. He has been working in Medical Statistics for over two decades, and works with the Cochrane Collaboration, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre and researchers in hospitals and health related disciplines across the world. Cathal has published nearly 200 peer reviewed journal articles in the modelling of phenotypes and longitudinal progression of Dementia, statistical aspects of virology and immunology, evidence synthesis and Bayesian modelling.

Prof Geraldine McCarthy MB BCH BAO DCH FRCPsych PGradDipClinEd MD is Consultant in Psychiatry of Old Age in Sligo, honorary Full Professor, NUIG School of Medicine. She is Dean of Undergraduate Education, Sligo Medical Academy, Dean of Postgraduate Psychiatry BST Training with the NUIG/RCSI Deanery, CPsychI, External Examiner MSc dementia (UCC) National Clinical Lead, Model of Care for Psychiatry of Old Age. She has contributed to the National Dementia Model of care, National Delirium Pathway, National Clinical Guideline21 and is involved in services-based research on Delirium, Dementia and Irish PI on BRAIN Diabetes a multimodal INTERREG CHITIN RCT.

I am a Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. My research interests include the role of biomarkers, especially MRI, SPECT and PET imaging, in the differential and early diagnosis of dementia, including identifying those 'at risk' of future cognitive decline and developing markers of onset and progression of disease.
I have particular interest in the diagnosis and management of Lewy body dementia and the role of vascular and inflammatory factors in precipitating and perpetuating depressive and cognitive symptoms.
I am also the NIHR Clinical Research Network National Specialty Lead for Dementia and a member of several clinical guideline groups.

Dag Aarsland, MD, is Professor and Head of Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, and Research Director at the Centre for Age-Related Medicine, Stavanger University Hospital. His main research interest is the neuropsychiatric aspects of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, in particular translational studies on cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.  He leads several national and international multi-centre research projects and is PI of European DLB Consortium, chair of the ISTAART Professional Interest Group for Lewy body dementias and Dementia theme lead of the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at KCL.

Professor Peter Passmore is Professor of Ageing and Geriatric Medicine, Queens University Belfast.  His research focus is cognitive disorders and dementia. This includes the risk factors, prevention, genetic predictors and treatment. Current studies involve dental inflammation and dementia, use of electronic care record to improve dementia care, delirium and dementia and diabetes management and dementia.

Professor Andre Strydom is a specialist in the Psychiatry of Intellectual disabilities. His research has a specific focus on conditions associated with ageing in intellectual disability populations, particularly Alzheimer's disease in individuals with Down Syndrome. His team's work includes optimising cognitive outcome measures and validating biomarkers for use in clinical trials of treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

He leads the Neurodevelopmental disorders clinical trials centre at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience which conducts phase II/III clinical trials for treatments of Autism, Down syndrome, and other conditions.

Dr. Magda Tsolaki, MD, PhD has been a Professor of Neurology since 2010, a Neuropsychiatrist since 1983 and has worked at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 1982, at the 3rd Department of Neurology since 1988, and 1st Department of Neurology since 2017. She has been the main author/co-author of 64 Books, has participated with 614 abstracts in Greek Conferences, 528 abstracts in International or European Conferences, is the first author/co-author of 285 papers in Greek journals, and in 582 international journals. She has been a reviewer for Conferences and Journals (461) and has organized 27 national conferences and five international ones.

Since 1992 I have been researching the social dimensions of health and well-being with a particular emphasis on public health perspectives on disability and health topics nationally and internationally. My research interests are focused on systems-related topics in global public health and inclusion which ranges from the individual to health and population level service systems. Specialties: Disability and Public Health, Health Systems, Psychology, Ageing and Rehabilitation Research, Social Dimensions of Health, Wellbeing and Participation, Health Inequalities, Environment and Access, Violence and Health, Inclusive research design, methodologies and data collection approaches. I am UCD lead for HRB funded National Network on Public and Patient Involvement in Health and Social Care Research (2021-2026).

Dr Angela Parker is an expert within the initiation and successful delivery to time and target of commercial and academic focused clinical research in the NHS. She led the development of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Dementias & Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network in the Northwest of England, and has subsequently established the operations of the NIHR Patient Recruitment Centre in Blackpool. As one of only 5 centres in England dedicated to the delivery of late phase commercial clinical research across specialties, PRC: Blackpool is leading the way in enabling the offer of new cutting-edge treatments and interventions for patients at the earliest opportunity.

Dr Juan Fortea, researcher at the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and head of the Memory Unit of the Neurology Service, has been elected coordinator of the Down Syndrome Study Group and Alzheimer from the International Society for the Advancement of Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment. “I’m proud to be able to lead this working group at ISTAART. Networking with other scientists from around the world is essential to strengthen knowledge in this area and to be able to advance, in benefit of our patients”.