Regenerative Medicine Institute Overview Prof' Timothy O Brien

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Regenerative Medicine Institute - OverviewProf.
Timothy O Brien
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Vision for REMEDI

• To develop a new and realisable paradigm for
  medicine in the future utilising minimally
  invasive therapeutic approaches to promote organ
  and tissue repair and regeneration rather than
  replacement

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Structure of REMEDI
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Other Workpackages

• Ethics
• Socioeconomic

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Strategic Goals

• to bring together clusters of researchers from
  academia and industry
• to combine cell and gene therapy approaches for
  tissue regenerative purposes
• to understand the biology of stem cells and to
  utilize this knowledge to genetically modify
  these cells for therapeutic purposes
• to commercialize the intellectual property
  arising from REMEDI research programmes in
  partnership with industry
• to develop a robust education and outreach
  programme by engaging with the public, schools
  and policy makers

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Faculty Involvement at NUIG

• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Science
• Engineering
• Arts (Philosophy)
• Commerce
• Law

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Core Participant Organizations
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Participants

• NUIG
• UCD (Proteomics and bioinformatics)
• DCU (Vascular Biology)
• NUIM (Immunology)
• Medtronic
• Charles River Laboratories
• Georgia Tech/Emory/MayoClinic/REMEDI

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Funding and Human Capital
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Funding

• 15 4 million
• 3.3 million in additional funds

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Human Capital

• Critical mass achieved
• Space and equipment in place
• 73 REMEDI associated personnel in Galway
• 32 directly paid by REMEDI
• In total 21 PhD, 3 MD and 3 MSc students (8, 2,
  and 2 paid by REMEDI)
• 8 clinicians in registered post graduate degree
  programmes (Endo, cards, nephrology, orthopaedic
  surgery, vascular surgery, general surgery)

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University/Health Service Leveraged Posts

• Prof Cellular Therapy Frank Barry
• Prof Regenerative Medicine/Consultant
  Rheumatologist Dennis McGonagle
• Prof Clinical Pharmacology/Consultant Physician
  in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Larry
  Egan
• Prof Transplantation Biology/Consultant Physician
  TBA
• Lecturers in Gene Therapy Thomas Ritter and
  Ralf Zwacka
• Lecturer in Regenerative Medicine Mary Murphy
• Lecturer in Cellular Therapy TBA
• Senior Lecturer Medicine Sean Dinneen
• Prof Biomaterials Science

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The National Centre for Biomedical Engineering
Science NUI Galway
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Infrastructure 1

• Sample Prep. Electron Microscopy Lab
• Flow Cytometry Analysis Lab
• Ultracentrifugation and Histology Lab
• General Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Labs
• Primary Cell and Stem Cell Culture Suite
• Cell Line Culture Facility
• Virus Culture Room
• Bacteriology and Tissue Isolation Room

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Infrastructure 2

• Equipment Sterilisation Room
• Real Time PCR and Microarray Lab
• PCR, DNA/RNA gel electrophoresis,
• protein gel and imaging Facility
• Confocal, Fluorescent Microscopy and Laser
• Capture Microdissection Suite
• Mass Spectrometry
• GMP Process Development Lab
• GMP Facility Virus Production, Purification
• Storage

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Likely Economic and Social Impact
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• New treatments for cardiovascular disease,
  arthritis and spinal cord injury
• Establishment of Ireland as a single site for
  translational research with opportunities for
  increased FDI and indigenous industry
• Intellectual property

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Examples of Significant Results
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Accomplishments - Science

• Abstracts at American Diabetes Association
  American, British and European Societies of Gene
  Therapy American College of Cardiology
  International Society of Stem Cell Therapy
• Invited reviews, book chapters and original
  manuscripts (32 peer-reviewed publications, 18
  review articles, and 105 conference
  presentations)

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Accomplishments - Science

• Identification of resistance to oxygen
  deprivation of stem cells
• Identification of novel stem cell surface markers
• Development of site specifically integrating gene
  delivery system
• Identification of novel factors involved in the
  increased risk of vascular disease in diabetes
  mellitus

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Accomplishments - Industry

• Additional industry partners identified
• Robust interaction between academic and industry
  partners knowledge transfer
• Spin off company established - Procure
• 6 patents submitted or in preparation

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Accomplishments-Outreach

• Website and newsletter
• Primary school and secondary school outreach
• Website including primary school site established
• National schools essay competition
• Schools debating programme
• Very active public outreach programme frequent
  interactions with media (96 hits in 2005 and 89
  in 2006)

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AccomplishmentsEducation

• Large number of summer students in laboratories
  (18 including 5 UREKA)
• UREKA and STARS participant
• MSc in Regenerative Medicine to start 2007
• Establishment of Irish Society of Gene and Cell
  Therapy

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NUI and UCH Galway
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Summary

• Academic output
• Industry interaction
• Intellectual property development
• Outreach activities
• Research driven education
• Facilitate closer interactions between hospital
  and university
• Embedding of research culture within the
  university and hospital e.g new posts.