During my visit to Maynooth University, I was warmly welcomed by a wonderful research group consisting of research assistants Aoife (who organised my visit!), Christiane and Sean; PhD students Enya, Aung, and Jacob, undergraduate student Dearbhla. I spent most of my time working closely with the brilliant PhD student Enya, focusing on harmonizing data and beginning the development of polygenic scores. This is the beginning of our collaboration project where we will develop polygenic scores for the Pelotas Cohort and the ABCD Study and compare them to deeply explore the genomic relationship across.
I participated in a meeting with the FamilySleeps research group and Professor Eleisa Heron's Trinity College Dublin external collaboration journal club. This meeting provided an opportunity to discuss current genetic methods for identifying phenotypic subtypes, among other topics.
While at Maynooth, I had the honour of meeting Professor Andrew Coogan and Dr. Cathy Wise, with whom I share several scientific interests. Our conversation provided valuable insights into the relationship between mental health and sleep.
On September 17th, I delivered a presentation on my Wellcome Trust-funded project, which I am conducting with the 2004 Pelotas Cohort. I also had the opportunity to introduce and discuss the Pelotas Cohort studies in more detail.
Additionally, I met the Chrono-Epilepsy team from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), led by Professor Cristina Ruedell Reschke. The following day, I toured the RCSI and FutureNeuro labs at the invitation of Professor Cristina's team. I was warmly received by postdoctoral researchers Melissa Alves Braga de Oliveira, Radharani Benvenutti, and Matheus Galas-Lopes. During this visit, I was introduced to Professor Ciara Kelly, who shares many of my scientific interests particularly the understanding about how deal with genomic studies conducted with admixture populations. Finally, on September 19th, I attended the ISHG meeting, where I had the opportunity to listen to excellent talks, including those by Professor Aiden Corvin and Professor Orla Hardiman.
I also met PhD student Fiona Pantring, who is working on understanding diverse ancestries, as well as several other brilliant researchers and students. At the meeting, I presented a poster showcasing part of my work.
This collaborative visit to Maynooth University and RCSI has been a valuable experience for building networks and advancing the genetic research that I am conducting. I look forward to continuing these collaborations in the future. My visit was sponsored by the Circadian Mental Health Network Early Career award.
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