Epidemiology & Public Health

Contact Details

Address	Epidemiology & Public Health Room 4.033 Hrb Centre For Diet and Health Research Western Gateway Building University College Cork
Telephone:	+353 (0) 21 420 5538
Fax:	+353 (0) 21 490 1604
Email:	ei.ccu@spillihp.c

Biography:

Following a BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from University College Dublin and a Ph.D entitled Studies of Postprandial Lipoprotein Metabolism in Diabetes, from Trinity College Dublin, I continued my postdoctoral research in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland investigating aspects of postprandial lipoprotein metabolism in Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

In 2004 I joined the Nutrigenomics Research Group, Trinity College Dublin (and later at University College Dublin) to work on two EU 6^th Framework initiatives - NuGO (European Nutrigenomics Organisation) and LIPGENE (Diet, genomics and the metabolic syndrome: an integrated nutrition, agro-food, social and economic analysis). NuGO is a Network of Excellence, linking genomics, nutrition and health research (www.nugo.org). The LIPGENE project(www.ucd.ie/lipgene) involved a prospective genetic study and a human dietary intervention trial to test the interaction between dietary fat exposure and genetic risk of the metabolic syndrome. Within LIPGENE I coordinated the prospective case-control genetic study in collaboration with INSERM U476 & U557 (Marseille and Paris) which investigated genetic associations with metabolic syndrome and its phenotypes, and whether interaction with dietary fatty acid composition modulated these relationships. 

I joined the HRB Centre for Diet and Health Research, University College Cork in 2011 as a Principal Investigator on cluster 3 (the Cork and Kerry Study/Mitchelstown cohort). This cross-sectional study of middle-aged men and women is examining the effects of dietary exposures and lifestyle factors on obesity and the metabolic syndrome - a very common, multi-component, condition characterised by insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, abdominal obesity and hypertension that is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. This study represents a valuable resource to additionally test a range of other hypotheses relevant to diet-related disease. Current research interests include obesity, diabetes and cardiometabolic risk prediction, determinants of and associations between inflammatory biomarkers, lipoprotein particle profiles and cardiometabolic risk, and examination of the metabolically healthy obese phenotype and its determinants.