NUI Galway's new REMEDI centre brings together a top team in gene therapy and stem-cell research, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Gene therapy meets stem-cell research in a new research institute that should give Ireland a world-class profile in these important research areas. Based at NUI Galway, the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) also binds together laboratory research and clinical practice.
This combined approach is evident in the centre's director, Prof Tim O'Brien, who is Professor of Medicine in the university and consultant endocrinologist at University College Hospital Galway. "We are attempting to bring together these two technologies, adult stem cells and gene therapy," says Prof O'Brien, who was recruited from the US Mayo Clinic to head up Galway's drive for the new REMEDI centre. The plan is to use gene therapy techniques to control the growth, development and targeting of the adult stem cells to be used in new clinical treatments likely to flow from the research.
"One of the difficulties is getting adequate numbers of adult stem cells," he says. "We would hope to increase proliferation by increasing gene expression associated with cell growth."
Stem cells offer hope where other surgical and pharmaceutical treatments falter. These are the building block cells, undifferentiated cells with the potential to transform into brain, blood, bone and muscle cells. It is this plentipotentiality that attracts researchers to their potential for new treatments.
This transformation takes place in the presence of specific proteins, produced by teams of genes, says Prof O'Brien. Understanding this transformation is another aspect of the research to be conducted at REMEDI, which will have a staff of about 30 researchers.
Once the stem cells differentiate, they have to know where to go, where they are needed. The team also seeks the "homing targets" which signal to the stem cells and bring them to sites of injury, he says. With such information at hand, new treatments become possible for the repair of the damage caused, for example, by Parkinson's and MS.
The centre's stem-cell expertise will be led by Dr Frank Barry. Dr Barry directed arthritis research at Osiris Therapeutics in Baltimore, Maryland and will join the REMEDI team next month.
It is this blend of experience that should enable the centre, which received €15 million from Science Foundation Ireland, and €4 million from industrial partners including Medtronic in Galway and ChondroGene of Toronto, to develop new stem-cell treatments, says Prof O'Brien. The SFI funding will build on earlier support provided by the Higher Education Authority directed Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions. Its grant of €20 million allowed NUI Galway to build the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science. This in turn provides a home for the new REMEDI centre.