Professor Cormac Taylor
The research team under Professor Taylor recently discovered a potential treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which affects millions of people globally and more than 15,000 people in Ireland. Using a new class of drugs known as hydroxylase inhibitors, the research team demonstrated that they can almost completely reverse the symptoms of IBD in a model.
The findings have resulted in a cross-university partnership with the University of Colorado in Denver who are working on a different hydroxylase inhibitor in conjunction with UCD Conway Institute team’s industry partner, Sigmoid Biotechnologies. Their work will generate strong lead compounds for future clinical trials.
The Irish and US research groups will now begin a collaborative investigation to bring the discovery to the next stage which involves developing a new therapeutic treatment which can be delivered safely to patients. Professor Taylor has also led a collaborative research project with researchers based at the University of Dundee into the cellular responses to hypoxia.
