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TILDA win two HRB grants as part of COVID-19 rapid research response'

The full press release is available here.

Today, TILDA was awarded two crucial grants by Ireland's Health Research Board, which will support the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to ten years of ground-breaking research on older people living in Ireland as part of TILDA's decade long study, TILDA will apply its data to examine more deeply the effects of COVID-19 on older people, and support the planning of long-term safety and health policy for Ireland's future.

The first of the projects, led by Principal Investigator of TILDA, Professor Rose Ann Kenny with Dr. Mark Ward, will examine the relationship between age-related immune system response and response to COVID-19 infection.

The project is entitled “Altered lives in a time of crisis: Preparing for recovery from the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on the lives of older adults”and will commence from May 11th of this year, and will be carried out over an 18 month period.

The second of the projects, led by Dr. Nollaig Burke will look at TILDA's cohort of older people who have taken part in the longitudinal study and take a blood sample from the participants to look for exposure to COVID-19. The assessments will examine the risk factors associated with the disease and help to determine who has been infected and why some have developed severe disease.


The project is entitled “SABS-TILDA: SARS-CoV-2 specific AntiBodies in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA): an opportunity to assess COVID-19 rates and phenotypes in older adults in Ireland” and will commence on June 1st of this year and take place over a 24 month period.

For more information on the projects awarded click here