Trinity research team awarded €10.5m ERC Synergy Grant

Prof Tomás Ryan and an international team have secured a €10.5 million European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant to investigate how the brain stores memories of illness.

The project, titled “Immune Memory”, will examine how neural “engrams” of infection and inflammation are formed and how they influence future immune responses. Ryan, a professor in Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the Institute of Neuroscience, will act as coordinating principal investigator.

Collaborating researchers

The four‑person team includes Prof Staci Bilbo of Duke University (USA), Prof Claudia Buss of Charité‑Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany) and Prof Markus Werkle‑Bergner of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and University of Bremen (Germany). Ryan and Werkle‑Bergner specialise in the neuroscience of memory, while Bilbo and Buss are leading experts in neuroimmunology, particularly during pregnancy.

Ryan noted that the brain and immune system are in constant communication and that understanding how the brain records past immune events could shed light on lifelong health, disease susceptibility and early development.

Source: Silicon Republic. Photo: Kleison Leopoldino / Pexels.