Curtis Clock Lab went out of a jolly Christmas lunch which lead us nicely into the RCSI Christmas Party
November 2019 : Annie gets the opportunity to visit University of Soochow, China
Annie was among a delegation of RCSI academics from RCSI to visit University of Soochow in China, in an effort to set up Bilateral PhD programs. Looking forward to some exciting new collaborations.
![Group photo_1[2].JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59a5b9b9bebafbcf1a22ba49/1576088617838-4KT9YMB6MVL3A9QC77XQ/Group+photo_1%5B2%5D.JPG)
October 2019 : Curtis Lab contributes to RCSI MyHealth Public Lecture - Arthritis, My Joint
On October 16th, Annie chaired the RCSI Public Health Lecture entitled Arthritis - My Joint Health, which provided a platform for discussion on the health issues associated with arthritis.
Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in Ireland, affecting approximately one in five Irish adults, equating to 915,000 people. The panel featured Dr Helen French, Senior Lecturer in the RCSI School of Physiotherapy; Professor Trevor Duffy, Consultant Rheumatologist at Connolly Hospital; Professor John O’Byrne, Consultant at the Mater Private Hospital and Specialist in Orthopaedics; and Dr Oran Kennedy, Lecturer in Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine at the RCSI Department of Anatomy.
We are very interested in the link between body clock disruption and osteoarthritis and Lauren Fagan who is funded by the Irish Research Council and works between our laboratory and Oran Kennedys is doing her best to figure this out!
You can watch the lecture here
September 2019 : Clock lab involved in hosting the Irish Society for Immunology Annual Meeting at RCSI
The Irish Society for Immunology Annual Meeting was held for the first time in RCSI due in part to Annies role on the ISI Executive Committee. It was a superb meeting with 11 invited speakers of which 9 were international. We hosted some world class immunologists including Prof. Doreen Cantrell ( University of Dundee) who spoke about nutrient uptake by T cells, Prof. David Sancho who discussed a new role for dendritic cells and Prof. Eicke Latz (Univesity of Bonn) who spoke about inflammasomes. National speakers included Prof. Ursula Fearon from Trinity College Dublin, and her exciting data on metabolism within the arthritic joint and Dr. Roger Preston, who inspired us to think about the interconnection between hemostasis and immunity.
Overall it was a wonderful 2 days of reconnecting with fellow scientists through lively discussion, debate and of course a drink of two.
Mariana, George and Jamie from our lab delivered wonderful presentations, highlighting to all that time is of the essence when it comes to the immune system. The rest of the Clock lab, James, Shannon, Lauren and Richie all helped out between AV, registration desk, microphones and much more.
We look forward to the 2020 meeting.
August 2019 : Clock lab day out - Hike to Howth
On Friday, the clock lab embarked on a 12 km walk around Howth. After several hours of hiking which almost claimed several members of the lab, the group then went to a well deserved teppanyaki dinner. Overall it was a great day out which took several days to recover from (the hike that is).
May 2019: Professor Garret FitzGerald awarded Honorary Doctorate at RCSI
Professor Garret FitzGerald was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the summer conferring ceremony here at RCSI on May 29th. This was a really special day for our laboratory as Annie completed her PhD in Garret’s laboratory at University of Pennsylvania back in the noughties. It was Garret who introduced Annie to the world of clocks and cardiovascular function. Garret has been a continued mentor, collaborator and significant influence over Annie’s career.
Garret provided the newly graduates with some excellent advice as they embark on their own professional career such as “not to be afraid to change your mind”, “ask questions that matter to you” and one that Annie often heard whilst in his company “focus and persist”.
May 2019 : A visit from Dr. Céline Vetter
Dr. Céline Vetter, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, came to visit RCSI this month as part of the RCSI’s Institutional Research Seminar Series. Céline uses large-scale epidemiological datasets to identify modifiable sleep and circadian risk factors of chronic disease. Her talk was titled “Rhythms Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health, From Cellular Clocks to Population Health”. Celine is pictured below with the lab and we had a great time hosting her for the day.
April 2019 : Associate Scientific Advisor for Science Translational Medicine
Annie was selected as one of 28 early-career translational scientists who will serve for a period of 1 year as an Associate Scientific Advisor for the journal Science Translational Medicine. In addition to acting as advisors for the journal, these scientists will scan the literature weekly and select and summarize research papers to be highlighted in our Editors' Choice section. Each Associate Advisor will have ~7 of their articles appear in Science Translational Medicine over the coming year.
Annies articles can be found here
Targeting Senescence in the Alzheimers Plaque
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/488/eaax4869
Sussing out sensitivity to light
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/498/eaax9568
Alternative Rhythms in Schizophrenia
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/506/eaaz0299.full
March 2019: Richie wins best presentation at British Society for Immunology (BSI) Immunometabolism conference
Richie Carroll from the Curtis Clock Lab won the Postdoc Bright Spark award for best postdoc presentation at the first British Society for Immunology (BSI) Immunometabolism 2019 conference held in March in Newcastle, UK. Richie presented work from the lab how circadian rhythms are impacting on antigen processing in dendritic cells.
February 2019: A new clock lab member
On 1st February 2019 at 12:20pm, Mariana welcomed baby Santiago into the world. Born at 9.1 pounds and 54 cm, Santiago is the first Clock Lab Baby. Congratulations Mariana and family!
January 2019: Lauren Fagan wins Best Musculoskeletal Research Presentation at BinI 2019
On January 18-19, TERG researchers presented their work at the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland Section of Bioengineering 25th Annual Conference (BinI 2019), which was held in Limerick. Lauren Fagan who is co-supervised by Dr. Annie Curtis and Dr. Oran Kennedy, presented her early stage work on the chondrocyte clock and PTOA, and was awarded Best Musculoskeletal Research Oral Presentation – Early Researcher Category.