Prof. Sarah Doyle
Commencing in 2024, this project is co-funded by Fighting Blindness and the Health Research Board (HRB) under the HRCI-HRB co-funding scheme. Through this study, Prof. Doyle and her team at TCD are investigating how the immune system may play a role in the death of light-sensing cells in the eye during retinal degeneration, aiming to discover new ways to slow down vision loss.
Project: Exploring Innate Immune Pathways in Photoreceptors in Retinal Degenerative Disease.
Start date: 2024
Award amount: Fighting Blindness is one of the partners in this exciting project, and we are investing €149,994 in total.
Sarah Doyle is a Professor in Immunology and the Director of Research in the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin.
Prof. Doyle is a Principal Investigator (PI) at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN), where one of her team’s key research areas is investigating how the immune system contributes to retinal health and the progression of retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
We spoke to Prof. Sarah Doyle about her new project. Find out more about the project and Prof. Doyle below.
2. Why did you get into research and what do you most enjoy about it?
3. Within the next five years, where do you expect great advances to be made in vision research?
4. What are your other interests?
1. What are the overall aims of the project you are working on, including how it could have an impact on those affected by sight loss?
The retina is the part of the eye that converts light into electrical signals and it is made up of a variety of different types of cells. In retinal degeneration the cells that die are the neurons, and the common end point is the death of a very specialised type of neuron called the photoreceptor cell. Photoreceptor cells can die for many different reasons; in inherited retinal diseases mistakes in the genetic code can stress the retinal cells and cause cell death, while in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) life-style factors such as smoking can contribute to cell death. Stressed and dying cells trigger inflammatory reactions, and we can see this occur in the retina by finding immune cells moving towards the photoreceptors.
We know from our research in animal models of retinal disease, that preventing this movement of immune cells to the photoreceptor cell layer slows down the speed at which retinal degeneration progresses and in doing so prolongs vision. The overall aim of this project is to identify the immune pathways that are activated in human photoreceptor cells. The goal is to pinpoint inhibitors of this immune activity that will help us to slow progression of photoreceptor cell death and lengthen the time a person has before going blind. Because immune cells are active in a broad variety of retinal diseases this should lead to treatment options for a broad range of retinal diseases in the long term.
2. Why did you get into research and what do you most enjoy about it?
I’ve always been fascinated by the natural world, which led me to study Science at Trinity. I was especially drawn to biology and chemistry, and as I progressed in my degree, I chose to specialise in biochemistry — the chemistry of life. I never made a conscious decision to “get into research,” but from the moment I began my undergraduate thesis project in an immunology lab, I knew I had found where I belonged. There are so many great things about being a researcher, I love being able to ask meaningful scientific questions and then design experiments to answer them; making new discoveries is incredibly exciting.
The immune system, in particular, is still full of mysteries, how it’s activated in disease, how it can be modulated, and what makes it go awry. It is a great privilege to be part of the research effort to uncover some of these questions and to know that your research might one day contribute to improving someone’s life. I also really enjoy supervising and mentoring the younger generation of scientists that come through my lab, seeing them succeed and the joy when something works is extremely rewarding.
3. Within the next five years, where do you expect great advances to be made in vision research?
There are great advances being made across many areas of vision research. I think we will start to see more cell-based therapies and new therapies that target disease-associated pathways that occur commonly across a variety of diseases in a gene-independent manner. It’s an exciting time to be involved in vision research.
4. What are your other interests?
I have sporty children, so I spend a lot of time on the sidelines cheering them on! When I can I love getting to the sea, whether it’s for a swim, a dive or a walk.
5. Prof. Doyle’s bio
Sarah Doyle is a Professor in Immunology and Director of Research in the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin. She graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from TCD in 2002 and completed her PhD in the Dept. of Biochemistry in the same institution in 2007. Her postgraduate and postdoctoral research in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology focused on innate immune signalling pathways downstream of pattern recognition receptors. In 2012 Sarah was recruited to the Dept. of Clinical Medicine in the School of Medicine in TCD and started her own research group. Prof. Doyle’s laboratory has been recognised through notable honours and awards, and she is a recipient of a Science Foundation Ireland Career Development Award (CDA, 2016), an Irish Research Council Laureate award (2018), and a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator award in 2023.
Sarah is a Principal Investigator (PI) in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) and is affiliated with Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI). Prof. Doyle is also the academic principal investigator of the immunology incubator lab in the ophthalmology section in Roche, Basel, an initiative established to strengthen links between industry-based research and development and academia. Sarah is Co-PI of EYE-D, a Research Ireland strategic partnership programme focused on understanding the root causes of retinal degenerative diseases.
Sarah’s research lab is focused on mechanisms of innate immune signalling and cellular immunology over the life-course. The lab applies this knowledge to understand how the innate immune system contributes to retinal health and progressive retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and inherited retinopathies. In particular, the Doyle lab studies how signals from innate immune pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and IL-1 Family Receptors contribute to health and disease. These receptor families are the primary surveillance system for the detection of tissue injury and are crucial to activation of host defence and maintenance of tissue homeostasis. The balance between pro-inflammatory signals and pro-resolution signals needs to be finely controlled and the Doyle lab research aims to determine how immune dysregulation contributes to disease progression, and how it can be modulated for therapeutic benefit.
For more information on publications and further research outputs from the Doyle Lab, please click here.
