Professor Eilís Dowd is originally from Carna in the Connemara Gaeltacht. She spent her childhood alternating between playing outdoors in the gorse, heather & rocks, and being confined to bed with severe asthma, struggling to breathe. Her interest in biology stemmed from a fascination with the profound impact of her anti-asthma medications. As an undergraduate student, Eilís first learned how her inhalers actually produced their biological effects, and this cemented her love of biochemistry and pharmacology which she retains to the present day. Eilís received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh, after which she completed post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, McGill University and Cardiff University. She now holds a Full Professorship in Pharmacology at the University of Galway where one of her primary interests is in the potential of biomaterials to enhance brain repair for Parkinson’s. Over the years, her research has been funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the Wellcome Trust, the European Union, Science Foundation Ireland, the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council. Her research was the subject of the Parkinson’s documentary “Feats of Modest Valour” which won the AAAS “Scientist Award” at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York. Her contributions have been recognised through leadership positions including the Presidencies of both NECTAR (the Network for European CNS Transplantation and Restoration) and Neuroscience Ireland (Ireland’s official neuroscience society). She has also served on the Governing Councils of both the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), and she holds editorial roles with the British Journal of Pharmacology, the European Journal of Neuroscience and Neuronal Signaling.

Dr Caroline Joyce is a Principal Clinical Biochemist in Cork University Hospital and a member of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group in INFANT at University College Cork. She has over 30 years’ experience in laboratory medicine working in clinical biochemistry and human genetics and maintains a large research portfolio. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from University College Cork and a Masters in Science (MSc) from the University of Ulster. Caroline is a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath, UK) and is registered as a European Specialist in Laboratory Medicine (EuSpLM). She is also certified by the European Board of Medical Genetics to practice as a European Clinical Laboratory Geneticist (ErCLG).

Caroline is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the National Maternity & Gynaecology Clinical Guideline Programme. She is also a member of the National Strategy for Accelerating Genetic and Genomic Medicine in Ireland Testing Guidance Working Group. She is a member of the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) Gestational Trophoblastic Disease Steering Committee and co-author of the HSE National Clinical Guideline for the Diagnosis, Staging and Treatment of patients with Gestational Trophoblastic Disease.

Dr Joseph Kane is a clinical lecturer at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast and an honorary consultant in Psychiatry of Old Age for Belfast Health & Social Care. His main area of research and practice is in Lewy body dementia (LBD), the second most common form of neurodegenerative dementia. His research work to date has involved the clinical epidemiology of LBD and the use of cardiac scintigraphy imaging in LBD diagnosis, and optimising both detection and treatment in routine clinical care. He is currently developing projects aimed at further exploration of the role of peripheral neuropathology in LBD pathogenesis, and the use of metabolomic analysis in differentiating LBD from other disorders, as well developing assessment tools for use in LBD trials.

Rose Anne Kenny is Regius Professor of Physic (Medicine) and holds the Chair of Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin.  She is the founding Principal Investigator of The Irish LongituDinal study on Ageing (TILDA) and Director of the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA) at St. James’s Hospital, where she is also director of a large national falls and syncope and autonomic function laboratory.

TILDA includes extensive research of physiological determinants of the ageing process as a measure of biological ageing.

She is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, London and Ireland, a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine Ireland, and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.  She has received a number of international awards and has published widely, authoring over 600 publications including, her recently published book “Age Proof – The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life” which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2022.   In 2020, she was elected President of the Irish Gerontological Society. In 2022 she was nominated 24^th Regius Professor of Physic at TCD (1637), the first female nominee.

Dr Aoife Leahy obtained her medical degree in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She completed her BST in Beaumont Hospital and Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. She completed her Higher Specialist Training in Geriatric Medicine and General Internal Medicine. She is currently a Consultant Geriatrician in Integrated Care for Older Persons in the UL Hospital Group and CHO3.

Her research interests include frailty at the front door and interface geriatrics. She is completing her doctorate assessing frailty screening and comprehensive geriatric assessment in the Emergency Department. She has published on the utility of frailty screening tools and comprehensive geriatric assessment in the acute setting.

Dr. Dan McCartney BSc/Dip Diet, MSc, PhD, MINDI, SRD is an academic dietitian with postgraduate training in molecular medicine and public health nutrition. He has been Director of Human Nutrition & Dietetics at TU Dublin and Trinity College Dublin since 2015, and is also a former columnist with The Irish Examiner and a former Public Relations Officer with the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, the professional body for dietitians in Ireland. His research on the dietary management of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer has been nationally and internationally recognised, whilst his work in the area of nutrition in pregnancy has also been widely published. Recently, he has played a leading role with his colleagues in the Covit-D Consortium in investigating the role of vitamin D deficiency in the Covid-19 pandemic. He has sat on statutory expert committees for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and is a longstanding member of the Irish Heart Foundation’s Nutrition Council.

Graduated in Physiology (1982) and Medicine (1985), University College Cork.
General Professional Training in Medicine in Cork.
Higher Specialist Training in Nephrology in Edinburgh.
Consultant Renal Physician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh 1996-2001.
Honorary Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh University Medical School 1998-2001.
Consultant Renal Physician at Cork University Hospital 2001-24.
Clinical Professor in Renal Medicine at University College Cork Medical School
2017-24.
National Specialty Director for Nephrology Training in Ireland (2002-05).
Director South Intern Network (2019-23).
Council Member & Censor Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (2022-).
Chair of the Irish National Renal Strategy Review (2003-09).
National Clinical Director of the HSE National Renal Office (2009-18).
President of the Irish Nephrology Society (2018-24).
Author of over 75 publications in the medical literature

Clinical Professor, Dept of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College and St James’s Hospital Dublin

Hon Consultant, Bone Health & Osteoporosis Treatment Unit, Mercer’s Institute, St. James’s Hospital

Clinical Director, Medicine for the Elderly Directorate, St James’s Hospital Dublin,1992 –2001 and 2008 – 2011.

Lead Hospital Clinical Director and Medical Director of St James’s Hospital Dublin 2011 – 2014

Director of The Mercer’s Institute for Research on Ageing 2002-2018

Graduate of University College Cork

Trained in Cork and Mater Hospital in Dublin

Registrar in King’s College Hospital, London

Senior Registrar in Medicine for the Elderly, Royal Liverpool Hospital

Consultant Physician in Co Durham North East England 1981 -1984

Visiting Professor to the University of California, San Francisco 1982

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Member of the British Geriatrics Society

Past President of the Irish Gerontological Society 2011-2014

Member of the International Osteoporosis Society

Member of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Member of the European Calcified Tissue Society

Medical Director of the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes 2000-2014

Board Member, Royal City of Dublin Hospital Trust, Baggot Street, Dublin

Founding member of the National Dementia Information and Development Centre SJH.

Past Treasurer and Chairman of the Consultants Committee Irish Medical Organisation.

Uachtarán ar Acadamh na Lianna (Academy of Irish Speaking Physicians) 2021- Present.

Author/Co-author of over 200 peer reviewed publications in the area of Vitamin D, Bone Health, Memory,Vascular Medicine, Infectious Diseases and General Medical Problems in the elderly.