UCD - Beacon Hospital Collaborative Research Seed Funding Grant 2025 Awardees
Thursday, 6 October 2025
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University College Dublin (UCD Health Affairs) and the Beacon Hospital have established two distinct seed grants of €20,000 each to foster pioneering research collaborations. This funding aims to support innovative research initiatives across high-impact areas such as cardiology, oncology, orthopaedics, physiotherapy, and other emerging fields of interest. By leveraging UCD’s academic excellence and the Beacon Hospital’s clinical expertise, we hope this investment will address healthcare challenges and improve patient outcomes through cutting-edge research and development.
The winners of this year’s seed funding have just been announced as follows:
AI-Assisted Skin Cancer Screening Through Tattooed Skin
Dr Courtney Ford, (PI Assistant Professor, School of Information and Communication Studies, UCD)
Dr Seamus Linnane, (PI Deputy Medical Director, Beacon Hospital)
This project develops AI-based computer vision methods to detect skin cancer in tattooed skin. Tattoos present significant visual barriers to traditional skin cancer screening, as pigments and patterns can obscure or mimic lesions. Using machine learning techniques adapted for obscured object detection, we will create algorithms capable of identifying potential malignancies despite tattoo interference. This collaboration between UCD and Beacon Hospital will establish proof-of-concept methods and collect preliminary data to support larger grant applications. This project addresses a growing clinical need as tattoo prevalence increases alongside skin cancer rates, potentially improving early detection outcomes for tattooed populations.
Development of a plasma-based companion diagnostic for coronary artery disease
Prof. David Burke (Lead PI, Beacon Hospital)
Prof. Orina Belton (Lead PI, UCD, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science)
Dr. Stephen Fitzsimons (Co-PI, UCD, School of Medicine)
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is detected using angiography where percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) is performed in patients with >70% stenosis. It is estimated that over 60% who undergo angiography, an invasive procedure, do not require PCI1. This highlights the need for better non-invasive diagnostics to determine stenosis severity.
This group have identified extracellular vesicle (EV)-derived plasma-based markers that are correlated with CAD stenosis severity in an early phase discovery study (n=64). Here, we aim to validate our findings in a larger clinical cohort (n=300/group) and develop a diagnostic score to assess stenosis severity, facilitating triage of patients.
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