Aileen Lynch

Biography

Dr. Aileen Lynch graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry (1995) from NUI, Cork. She then pursued a postgraduate degree in Neuroscience and graduated with an MSc in Neuroscience (1996) from King's College, London. She carried out a project which investigated the effect of excitatory amino acids on the phosphorylation state of the microtubule-associated protein tau as part of the MSc course. In 2000, Dr. Lynch graduated with a PhD in Neuroanatomy from Imperial College, London. Her PhD involved the study of dendritic spines and glutamatergic cells in schizophrenic post-mortem tissue. Dr. Lynch began her postdoctoral research in the Department of Physiology and the Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College in 2000 where she investigated the signalling mechanisms which induce cellular damage in the aged brain. In 2002 she was awarded a HRB Postdoctoral Research Fellowship which investigated the age-related deterioration in synaptic function in rat hippocampus. Continuing with the theme of neuroinflammation, in 2005 Dr. Lynch began a SFI Postdoctoral Research Fellowship which investigated if the aged brain is more vulnerable to additional inflammatory insult. In 2007, Dr. Lynch was appointed a lectureship in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and is continuing to research strategies that modulate the inflammatory processes that occur during the ageing process.

Research Interest

Ageing, memory and other cognitive processes; Alzheimer's disease; Apoptosis; Astrocyte; Autoimmunity; BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER; Cell and tissue maintenance, repair and ageing; Chronic inflamation; Consequences of ischemia or hypoxia, convulsive disorders; Cytokine; ENDOTHELIAL CELLS; Immune system; Microglia; Multiple Sclerosis; Nervous system, development, plasticiy and ageing; Neurochemistry and neuropharmacology; Neurodegeneration; Neuroendocrine Immunology; Neuropharmacology; Neurophysiology; Schizophrenia; Stress; TIGHT JUNCTION PERMEABILITY; Tight junction proteins