Media

Publications
Latest News

Conway success in SFI Technology Innovation Development Award programme

Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock TD, announced Government funding via the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of over €6.5million covering 58 research awards.

The investment is being made as part of Science Foundation Ireland’s Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) programme. Making the announcement at Dublin’s RDS, Minister Sherlock said: “The TIDA Programme focuses on the first stages of an applied research project. It provides financial support to research teams to enable them to get from concept to market.”

Five Conway Fellows were among the 58 awardees announced and they are proposing to commercialise diverse aspects of research from testing for sexually transmitted infections using a biosensor to fast tracking valuable commercial catalysts for green chemistry.

Prof. Gil Lee, UCD
Flow-Enhanced nonlinear magnetophoretic biosensor: validation of multiplexed superparamagnetic bead assay for sexually transmitted infections and development of optical bead detector
Some of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoea and Herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2. This programme is looking to produce and validate key elements of an assay or test for these infections using a biosensor. The project has two aims; to clinically validate a test that uses antibodies and superparamagnetic microparticles (SPM) in a measurement technique called flow cytometry; the other is to build a detector for counting particles on a chip. Developing these elements is essential for the completion of a biosensor prototype, which will be validated using commercialisation support.

Dr. Albert Smolenski, UCD
Generation and characterisation of a phosphorylation site specific antibody for application in the diagnosis of platelet reactivity
Myocardial infarction and stroke represent a major cause of disease and death in Ireland and worldwide. These diseases are triggered by the formation of clots inside coronary arteries or in blood vessels supplying the brain. Clot formation depends on small blood cells called platelets that stick to the inside of injured vessel walls and to each other forming large platelet aggregates. These aggregates are able to obstruct blood flow resulting in severe damage to heart or brain tissue. The reactivity of circulating platelets is known to correlate with the risk for developing myocardial infarction and stroke. Inhibition of platelet activity using anti-platelet drugs such as aspirin is an established strategy that is able to prevent the recurrence of disease. Only few assays are available that can provide an estimate of the reactivity of a patient’s platelets using a blood sample. Our project seeks to exploit recent findings on cyclic nucleotide signalling in platelets to design a new method for measuring platelet activity. The assay will be based on intracellular protein phosphorylation which will be detected using specific antibodies in a new flow cytometry based system. This assay might improve current options for predicting the risk of myocardial infarction or stroke and for monitoring the efficacy of anti-platelet therapy.

Dr. Breandan Kennedy, UCD
Development of novel inhibitors of ocular neovascularisation
There is clinical need to develop more cost-effective and more easily administered drug therapies for blindness associated with excess blood vessel growth in the eye. These conditions include diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and retinopathy of prematurity.
Current therapies can be effective, but they are economically unsustainable and often require monthly injection into the eye by a clinician.
From unbiased screens, this group identified novel, small molecule inhibitors of developmental angiogenesis, or blood vessel growth. The goal of this project is to better understand the core chemical structures and mechanisms of action underlying this bioactivity, and to determine if these lead compounds are effective inhibitors of disease-related blood vessel growth in the eye if given as intraocular injection or topical eye drop

Prof. David Brayden, UCD
Establishment of the KBxN mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis to assess efficacy of anti-inflammatory molecules: comparison with the current industry standard, collagen-induced mouse model.
Before a drug can be approved and marketed, it needs to be extensively tested and evaluated. Part of this process for potential new therapies is pre-clinical testing in animal models. Preclinical evaluation of molecules to treat inflammatory arthritis relies largely on immune-based rodent models but, with long incubations, variable disease severity, they have limited predictive value. This project will compare that with a new model of acute effector phase inflammatory arthritis and therapeutic comparisons will be made using selected anti-arthritic drugs. The data will provide the first direct comparison of the models, thereby allowing assessment of novel anti-inflammatory agents in two complimentary arthritis models.

Prof. Paul Engel, UCD
Novel single-cell screening procedure for generating industrial biocatalysts
Enzymes are used as catalysts in industry when carrying out complex chemical reactions to make products. One way to identify new biocatalysts, or catalysts from biological sources, that can handle high-value industrial substrates is through a process called random mutagenesis, and this depends critically on efficient screening. Breakthrough technology from this group for screening of single cells in liquid culture allows rapid selection of the small number of potential ‘positives’ without the need to grow up the vastly more numerous failures. This offers a fast track to valuable commercial catalysts for green chemistry.