Dr. Cathal Mc Crory

This project will generate whole genome sequencing (WGS) data for 790 participants in TILDA, selected to preserve representativeness of the baseline cohort and to maximise integration with existing multi-omic resources. Participants have extensive longitudinal phenotypic, clinical, behavioural, and biomarker data, including epigenetic, metabolomic, telomere, and proteomic measures. The project will link high-resolution genomic data with these deep phenotypes to enable investigation of genetic and molecular contributions to biological ageing, multimorbidity, frailty, cognitive decline, and mortality. The resulting dataset will enhance the scientific infrastructure of TILDA and provide a population-representative genomic reference resource to support secondary research studies in ageing and health in Ireland.

This project examines how residential environmental exposures influence cognitive decline and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer"s disease and related dementias (ADRD). While area-level deprivation and air pollution are established risk factors, the role of the home environment, where older adults spend the majority of their time, remains understudied. We are developing open-source tools to characterise housing exposures and integrating these measures with clinical, neuroimaging, and biomarker data to determine how housing conditions become biologically embedded and contribute to disease progression.

A consistent finding in the epidemiological literature is that health is socially patterned. On average, individuals from more disadvantaged social backgrounds will develop diseases earlier and will die earlier compared with their more advantaged peers. So ubiquitous is the association between health and wealth that it has been referred to as a "fundamental" cause of disease. But what is it about low socio-economic status (SES) that makes a person growing up disadvantaged more likely to experience disease, to experience earlier onset of disease, and more likely to suffer premature mortality? Understanding how social group-based differences in SES become biologically embedded in the tissues and organs of the body over the life course is the focus of this project. We will develop a measure for estimating the impact of life course stresses on the body and explore the extent to which this construct explains differences in longevity between different SES groups. It is anticipated that this project will lead to the identification of modifiable risk and resilience factors that contribute to accelerated ageing and will help inform societal approaches to reduce health inequalities and promote healthy ageing.