Igniting Discovery

From its inception, UCD Conway Institute was envisioned as a place where researchers from disparate disciplines would work together to explore the connections across traditional boundaries with a shared vision; to reveal exciting, novel discoveries that shape new understandings in science. UCD Conway has delivered on this vision with a membership comprising biomedical researchers, chemists, physicists, engineers, computational scientists and clinicians dedicated to innovative interactions. Such interdisciplinarity fosters the ability of researchers to see beyond the normal constraints of their own fields. Together, our researchers are creating fundamental new concepts that are driving new knowledge. Many of the high impact research articles from the institute in the last 10 years have emerged from the interfaces between biology and chemistry; computation and nanoengineering; agriculture and genomics.

Unpicking the genetic code of extinct giant cattle

The collaboration between Professors David MacHugh and Brendan Loftus with other Irish and UK scientists led to the discovery of the first mitochondrial DNA genome sequence from extinct giant cattle called aurochs.

European domestic cattle are thought to have descended from these giant wild cattle that stood over six feet tall to the shoulder and weighed more than a ton.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down from a mother to her offspring. This initial discovery will ultimately allow the research teams to sequence the full nuclear genome of the aurochs and compare it with that of modern domesticated cattle. The aim is to identify genes associated with improved health, production and behavioural traits, which have evolved since cattle were first domesticated almost 10,000 years ago.

“ Our results demonstrate the incredible promise that next-generation DNA sequencing holds for archaeogenetics.”

Professor David MacHugh

Improving anti-cancer agents using biodegradable plastic

The collaboration between Conway Fellows, Professor William Gallagher and Dr Kevin O’Connor led to the creation of an improved anti-cancer agent using small molecules derived from a biodegradable plastic, PHA.

PHA is produced by certain bacteria and is intensively studied as a substitute for non-degradable plastic packaging. This is the first example globally of a biodegradable plastic monomer being used as a cancer therapeutic.

In the O’Connor laboratory, researchers created a new molecular structure by chemically linking the simple component building blocks or monomers of PHA to a hybrid of two naturally occurring peptides with anti-cancer activity.

Working with the Gallagher group, the team investigated the impact of the new synthetic molecule (R10P18) on a variety of cancer cell types. They found that these new synthetic molecules were able to drive a variety of cancer cells types to self-destruction much more effectively.

“ The next step in our research is to test this putative therapeutic in an in-vivo setting so that we can establish drug toxicity levels and anti-tumour efficacy.”

Dr Kevin O’Connor