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Dr. Cathal Mc Crory

Professor In (Medical Gerontology)
ST JAMESS HOSPITAL
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Cathal Mc Crory

Professor In (Medical Gerontology)
ST JAMESS HOSPITAL

 mccrorc@tcd.ie

 3531896 4263


Project Title
 Soci-Omics
From
To
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
Irish Research Council Advanced Laureate
Project Title
 Social circumstances and epigenomics supporting health in 3 countries
From
Oct 2020
To
Oct 2025
Summary
Funding Agency
National Institutes of health / Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
US-Ireland partnership award
Project Title
 The ALLOSTAT Project
From
December 2017
To
December 2021
Summary
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.
Funding Agency
Health Research Board
Programme
Emerging Investigator Award
Person Months
48
Project Title
 The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) core grant
From
2017
To
2022
Summary
Provides the survey and administrative infrastructure for waves 5-6 of the TILDA study
Funding Agency
Health Research Board
Programme
Core funding
Project Title
 Whole genome sequencing of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) cohort
From
2025
To
Summary
The proposed WGS investment will be layered upon and leverage complementary `omic datasets in TILDA. A primary aim of TILDA is to identify the biological and environmental factors that contribute to trajectories of ageing and chronic disease development over time. `Omic datasets generated to date in TILDA include epigenetics (n=950, Illumina EPIC v1 850K DNA methylation platform), telomeres (n=5400, Leukocyte Telomere Length, using monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR, Cawthon et al, 20091), metabolomics (n=1400, >700 metabolites generated by reverse phase chromatography, proteomics (n=4960, 26 biomarkers, 9 clinically measured and 17 measured on MSD V-Plex and UPlex enzyme-linked immunosorbent multiplex assays), micronutrients (n=4900, five vitamin and antioxidant biomarkers measured by LC-MS/MS or HPLC), hormones (n=2500, five stress and sex hormones measured by HPLC-MS), SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (n=3500, antibodies against five SARS-Cov-2 antigens and four seasonal coronavirus antigens measured by a Luminex bead-based multiplex Luciferase-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) and viral exposure histories (n=540, >9,000 epitopes from all known human viruses using CDI VirScan Phage ImmunoPrecipitation Sequencing (PhIP-Seq) platform). We will WGS 700 individuals, focusing on the overlap between the methylation, telomere and proteomic platforms (n=916). 588 of these samples also overlap with the metabolomic dataset. CRT investment will build on this foundation, with the WGS data informing on the underlying genetic architecture of ageing, how architecture interacts with lifestyle and environmental exposures throughout the life-course, ultimately influencing biological ageing in Ireland.
Funding Agency
SFI
Programme
Centre for Research Training - Data Generation Fund
Project Type
Genomics

Page 1 of 2
Details Date From Date To
Research Affiliate, Economic and Social Research Institute 2012
Member of the Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) 2014
Member of the Expert Advisory Group - Growing Up in Ireland 2015
McCrory, C., Fiorito, G., Ni Cheallaigh, C., Polidoro, S., Karisola, P., Alenius, H., Layte, R., Seeman, T., Vineis, P. & Kenny, RA. , How does socio-economic position (SEP) get biologically embedded? A comparison of allostatic load and the epigenetic clock(s)., Psychoneuroendocrinology, 104, 2019, p64 - 73, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  URL
McCrory, C., McLoughlin, S., Layte, R., Ni Cheallaigh, C., O'Halloran, A.M, Barros, H., Berkman, L.F., Bochud, M., Crimmins, E., Farrell, M., Fraga, S., GrundyE., Kelly-Irving, M., Petrovic, D., Seeman, T., Stringhini, S., Vollenveider, P., Kenny, R.A, Towards a consensus definition of allostatic load: a multi-cohort, multi-system, multi-biomarker individual participant data (IPD ) meta-analysis, Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2023, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
McCrory C, Leahy, Ribeiro AI, Fraga S, Barros H, Avendano M, Vineis P, Layte R; LIFEPATH consortium, Maternal educational inequalities in measured body mass index trajectories in three European countries., Maternal educational inequalities in measured body mass index trajectories in three European countries., 2019, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Fiorito G, McCrory C, Robinson O, Carmeli C, Rosales CO, Zhang Y, Colicino E, Dugué PA, Artaud F, McKay GJ, Jeong A, Mishra PP, Nøst TH, Krogh V, Panico S, Sacerdote C, Tumino R, Palli D, Matullo G, Guarrera S, Gandini M, Bochud M, Dermitzakis E, Muka T, Schwartz J, Vokonas PS, Just A, Hodge AM, Giles GG, Southey MC, Hurme MA, Young I, McKnight AJ, Kunze S, Waldenberger M, Peters A, Schwettmann L, Lund E, Baccarelli A, Milne RL, Kenny RA, Elbaz A, Brenner H, Kee F, Voortman T, Probst-Hensch N, Lehtimäki T, Elliot P, Stringhini S, Vineis P, Polidoro S; BIOS Consortium; Lifepath consortium., Socioeconomic position, lifestyle habits and biomarkers of epigenetic aging: a multi-cohort analysis., Aging, 11, (7), 2019, p2045 - 2070, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Crimmins EM, Hernandez B, Potter C, Kim JK, Higgins-Chen A, Kenny RA, O'Halloran AM, McGuinness B, Smyth LJ, Hill C, Fiorito G, Faul J, McKnight AJ, McCrory C., Epigenetic Clocks Relate to Four Age-Related Health Outcomes Similarly across Three Countries., The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2025, pglaf036 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
McCrory, C., Berkman, L., Nolan, H., O'Leary, N., Foley, M., & Kenny, R.A., Speed of Heart Rate Recovery in Response to Orthostatic Challenge: A Strong Risk Marker of Mortality., Circulation Research, 119, (5), 2016, p666 - 675, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI  URL
McCrory, C., Berkman, L., Moore, P.V., & Kenny, R.A. , What Explains Socioeconomic Differences in the Speed of Heart Rate Recovery to Postural Challenge?, Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 72, (12), 2017, p1717 - 1723, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
McCrory, C., O'Leary, N., Fraga, S., Ribeiro, A.I., Barros, H., Kartiosuo, N. Raitakari, O., Kivimaki, M., Vineis, & Layte, R. for the Lifepath Consortium, Socioeconomic differences in children's growth trajectories from infancy to early adulthood: evidence from four European countries, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 71, (10), 2017, p981 - 989, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Stinghini, S., Carmeli, C., Jokela, M., Avendano, M., McCrory, C. et al., Socioeconomic status, non-communicable disease risk factors, and walking speed in older adults: multi-cohort population based study, British Medical Journal, 360, 2018, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Fiorito, G., Polidoro, S. Dugue, P.A., Kivimaki, M., Ponzi, E., Matullo, G., Guarrera, S., Assummaa, M.B. Georgiadis, P., Kyrtopoulos, S.O. Krogh, V. Palli, D., Panico, S., Sacerdote, C. Tumino, R., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Stringhini, S., Severi, G., Hodge, A.M., Giles, G.G., Marioni, R., Linnér, R.K. O'Halloran, A., Kenny, R.A., Layte, R., McCrory, C., Baglietto, L., Milne, R.L., Vineis, P. (2017)., Social adversity and epigenetic aging: a multi-cohort study on socioeconomic differences in peripheral blood DNA methylation., Scientific Reports, 7, (1), 2017, p16391 - 16395, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI  URL
  

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Social Variation in Child Health and Development: A Life Course Approach in, editor(s)James Williams, Elizabeth Nixon, Emer Smyth, Dorothy Watson , Cherishing All the Children Equally? Ireland 100 years on from the Easter Rising, Dublin, Oak Tree Press, 2016, pp194 - 214, [Layte, R & McCrory, C.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Editors Choice Award - Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences Jan 2021
Editors Choice Award - Psychoneuroendocrinology June 2019
My research utilizes population-level data to explore the pathways, processes and mechanisms through which variation in exposure to risk and protective factors over the life course precipitates earlier disease and mortality among more socially disadvantaged groups. Since 2006, I have been involved with the two flagship national longitudinal studies of children and older people in Ireland: Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) and the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Since May 2015 I have also been involved with a large European consortium on a large European Union funded Horizon 2020 project called LIFEPATH with 15 partner institutions across the UK, Europe and the US. I was the recipient of an Emerging Investigator Award from the Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland in December 2017 to explore social differentials in health and mortality using putative markers of accelerated ageing. The ALLOSTAT project will chart the social distribution of neuroendocrine, inflammatory, cardiovascular and metabolic markers in TILDA and other international ageing datasets; and examine the predictive utility of a composite index derived from this battery of biomarkers for identifying emergent disease states, frailty and mortality. The project will also examine the magnitude and degree of association between Allostatic Load and other putative markers