dmmc news (jul 2006) vfinal · 2017. 6. 29. · prof jochen prehn (rcsi), prof michael gill (tcd...
TRANSCRIPT
DMMC News July 2006The DMMC was established through PRTLI, funded by the Higher Education AuthorityThe DMMC was established through PRTLI, funded by the Higher Education Authority
To subscribe, please contact [email protected] or subscribe online at www.dmmc.ie/DMMC_News.htm
DMMC News
DMMC News is a forum for the molecular medicine DMMC News is a forum for the molecular medicine DMMC Newsresearch community in Dublin to present the latest developments of interest to a local and international audience.
DMMC News is circulated widely in Dublin and to contacts DMMC News is circulated widely in Dublin and to contacts DMMC Newsfurther afi eld; it is also available to all from the DMMC website (www.dmmc.ie/DMMC_News.htm). It is an opportunity to present research news, in the context of the developing cross-institutional collaborative environment, to fellow scientists and clinicians, funding agencies, government bodies, and the public. DMMC News also contains listings of events DMMC News also contains listings of events DMMC News(seminars, meetings, courses and workshops). Contact [email protected] to contribute to future issues.
DMMC News On other pages2 Dublin Medical Schools Collaborate to
Secure Major Grant for Clinical ResearchIACR/ISMO Meeting 2006
3 RESEARCH UPDATE: Applied Neuro-therapeutics Research Group
4 HRB Conference: ‘Today’s Health Research isTomorrow’s Health Care’
5 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE: High Content CellAnalysis in Irish Academic BiomedicalResearch & Education
6 EMBO Molecular Medicine Conference
7 News in Brief
8 Events
Opportunities for Ireland in the Higher Education Sector
Michael Kelly Chairman, Higher Education Authority
The launch of the Strategy for Science, Technology & Innovation (SSTI) on 18 June 2006, by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern T.D., marked a further milestone in this time of opportunity and justifi ed optimism for the higher education sector. The SSTI provides a strong sense of direction and a signifi cant investment boost which, used effectively, will propel our national research and innovation agenda forward and should greatly improve our capacity to realise our knowledge society aspirations.
On its establishment in 1971, one of the objectives assigned to the HEA was “providing an appreciation of the value of higher education and research”. It is a sign of our stage of maturity as a society and our awareness of our position in the world around us that this objective is now seen as everyone’s business. The growth and development of the Irish economy since the late 1990’s offers very tangible evidence of the importance of the capacity of the higher education sector to respond quickly and effectively to the need for the development and creation of new skills, so as to meet the economic and social needs of the country.
On research specifi cally, with key enablers now being put into place, we have collectively a big job to do. We start from a position where the Irish track record is already substantial and the self-confi dence gained from earlier programmes forms a solid foundation for future plans. The research landscape has been transformed through the PRTLI.
Such rapid and successful development has led to increasing self-confi dence in our national abilities and demonstrates that focused investment in initiatives such as the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre can lead to a greater expansion in our stock of scientifi c knowledge. This new knowledge is widely recognised as the key driver of medical practice and education in the future. The joint approach to translational research, as undertaken by the DMMC, offers the opportunity for different institutions to come together in building on their existing individual strengths to develop Ireland as a world-class centre of excellence in molecular medicine. We now need to build on this solid foundation and push out the boundaries of new knowledge, leading to improved teaching and learning at all levels, better graduate education, enhanced benefi t from commercial exploitation and overall, much greater recognition of Ireland as a strong source of innovation.
Within higher education we will need to manage the balances that are struck between teaching, learning, and research, ensuring that these are mutually reinforcing. We will need to balance our effort and resources between the competing demands of greater access and participation at undergraduate level and the requirements for achieving excellence
DMMC News DMMC News July 2006
The picturesque vista of a sparkling Galway bay provided a most appropriate backdrop to the exceptional standard of both local and international speakers at this year’s 42nd Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR) / Irish Society of Medical Oncology (ISMO) meeting on the 3rd and 4th of March 2006. This year’s event was attended by over 300 registrants, with 120 posters and over 30 speakers as well as the new addition of an oral poster session comprising of 11 different presentations. This year also saw the offi cial launch of the IACR website (www.ia-cr.ie). Naturally with such a complete range and depth of content, it is diffi cult to do justice to everyone within the limits of a review article! Therefore, I have highlighted just a sample of the excellent topics covered during the 2-day event.
2
IACR/ISMO Meeting 2006Ann Maria McCrohan, UCD
in postgraduate training, research and innovation. Our plans will also need to provide for wider disciplinary collaboration and balance, ensuring that the arts, humanities and social sciences fi nd their place in our priority setting alongside the natural sciences, engineering and technology disciplines. As a relatively small education and research system we will also need to balance individual and institutional agendas against the requirement to achieve critical mass in particular areas as the basis on which we market our capabilities, nationally and internationally.
Health-related research seems to offer particular opportunities which cannot be ignored. We already have a well earned reputation for high-quality research and professional training in health-related disciplines. The pharmaceutical and medical devices industries already have a strong presence here. In addition to the SSTI, we are simultaneously embarking on a new round of investment to strengthen medical training at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, building on developments in education, training and research capability in nursing, pharmacy and therapy areas over recent years.
This stronger academic base throughout the health sciences, taken in consultation with the new round of research investment and growing interest from the enterprise sector, points to strong growth potential. With the right safeguards for health service users and for students and trainers, we should be able to derive solutions which serve all of the relevant interests fairly and equitably.
Dublin Medical Schools Collaborate to Secure Major Grant for Clinical Research
A bid to the Wellcome Trust / Health Research Board for a major Clinical Research Centre in Dublin, coordinated by the DMMC, has been successful. This will comprise two major components:
i) The build of a new Clinical Research Centre at St James’s Hospital.
ii) A network of Clinical Research Facilities linking this new centre to existing ones at Beaumont Hospital, St Vincent’s University Hospital and the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.
Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland agreed
early on in the process that there should be one unique bid from Dublin coordinated through the DMMC. “This is a landmark achievement for clinical research in Ireland and demonstrates that by working together, Irish Institutions can compete with the best in the UK” explains Dr Michael Kamarck, Chairman of the DMMC Board of Directors. “This exceptional result could not have been achieved if the building blocks had not been provided through investments in infrastructure by the Higher Education Authority (PRTLI) and research excellence through Science Foundation Ireland”.
The bid, led by Prof Dermot Kelleher of TCD & St James’s Hospital, brought together an exceptional team of scientists from the three Dublin Medical Schools and their associated teaching hospitals: Prof Shaun McCann (TCD & St James’s Hospital), Prof William Powderly (UCD & Mater Misericordiae University Hospital), Prof Harald Hempel (Adelaide & Meath Incorporating the National Children’s Hospital), Prof Jochen Prehn (RCSI), Prof Michael Gill (TCD and St James’s Hospital), Prof Noel G McElvaney (RCSI & Beaumont Hospital), Prof Kingston Mills (TCD), Prof Peter Humphries (TCD), Dr Seamas Donnelly (UCD & St Vincent’s University Hospital), Dr Joseph Keane (TCD & St James’s Hospital), Prof Dermot Kenny (RCSI & Beaumont Hospital).
The funding will provide the necessary infrastructure to run clinical and translational research programmes in areas such as cancer, neuro-psychiatric diseases and infectious diseases across the citywide network.
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The Applied Neurotherapeutics Research Group (ANRG) is a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Wyeth funded Investigator cluster that forms a unique, world-class team of scientists focused on building a research and development initiative to provide a new generation of drugs to be used in the treatment of brain illness. This most complex endeavour focuses on a largely untapped resource of drug targets – the molecular and cellular events that relate gradual change of brain circuits to modifi ed behaviour. This is an increasingly important issue in modern drug development as most, if not all, drugs used to treat psychiatric and neurological illness take weeks, if not months, to elicit their benefi cial effect.
Selected from Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and Wyeth Discovery at Princeton, New Jersey and Cambridge, Massachusetts, this interdisciplinary group of scientists, established in early 2004, is co-ordinated by Prof Ciaran Regan whose task is to develop a dynamic, international research hub at UCD Conway Institute. Prof Regan along with Prof Peter Humphries, TCD; Dr William O’Connor, UCD; Dr Keith Murphy, UCD and Dr Mene Pangalos, Wyeth, lead the fi ve research teams that make up the ANRG.
In its fi rst year ANRG successfully used Affymetrix microarray technology to generate a dynamic, temporal map of gene activity necessary and common to the consolidation of two rodent behaviours, spatial learning and avoidance conditioning. In excess of 1400 genes were found to modulate at different times in a manner that is specifi c to both tasks (Figure 1). Genes that change with behaviour were grouped into
RESEARCH UPDATE: Applied Neurotherapeutics Research Group, A Year of Discovery
Keith Murphy & Ciaran Regan, UCD
A best oral poster prize went to Deirdre Toomey (TCD) for her work showing that transfer of p r e - s t i m u l a t e d dendritic cells (with a combination of an HSP70 tumour vaccine and a COX2 inhibitor) into tumour-bearing mice resulted in a signifi cantly increased survival and decreased tumour incidence. Another winner in this category was Rebecca Hourihan (Cork Cancer Research Centre) for her research on the role of Connexin 43 in oesophageal cancer. Prizes for best oral presentations went to Antoinette Perry (TCD Institute of Molecular Medicine) and Ashleigh Hill (Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology, Queens University Belfast) for their respective work into IGFBP3 gene promoter hypermethylation as an early event in prostate cancer and the role of CD44 as a signifi cant mediator of skeletal bone metastasis in breast cancer. A further six prizes were awarded for poster presentations.
Despite the different origins of various malignancies discussed at the meeting, I was particularly interested in common themes. One such theme was that of chemopreventative strategies using nutritional-based compounds. Research presented included studies into the possible use of chemoprotective agents in the area of prostate cancer, melanoma and colon cancer (posters by Orla Maguire and Declan Doherty of the Centre of Molecular Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine), and resveratrol - a constituent of grapes and wine (poster by Aoife Devery, National Institute
The presentation following Dr Michael Karin’s Irish Cancer Society Lecture. From left to right: Prof Mark Lawler (St James’s Hospital & TCD), John McCormack (Chief Executive, Irish Cancer Society), Dr Michael Karin, Dr Ralph De Vere White (Director, UC Davis Cancer Centre).
for Cellular Biology, DCU; and an oral by Catherine Gill, UCD Conway Institute). Invited speakers on this subject included Dr Ralph De Vere White (Director, UC Davis Cancer Centre), who spoke about his studies into a secondary chemoprevention strategy for prostate cancer based on a nutritional approach using Genistein, a phyto- (plant) derived non-steroidal compound.
Ann Maria McCrohan is a PhD student in Dr Bill Watson’s lab at the UCD Conway Institute, studying apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. A longer version of this article is available on the DMMC website.
The content of the special symposia encompassed topics such as genomic instability, targets and biomarkers, translational research and cell signalling. Irish and international speakers presented their latest research and the implications of their fi ndings for future targeted therapeutic strategies in various cancers such as leukaemia, breast, lung, colorectal and prostate. The Irish Cancer Society lecture this year was given by Dr Michael Karin (University of California), the foremost authority in the fi eld of NF-κB signalling, who spoke about the link of the IKK-NF-κB axis and infl ammation in cancer development.
DMMC News DMMC News July 2006
HRB Conference: ‘Today’s Health Research is Tomorrow’s Health Care’
This high level conference took place in Dublin Castle on 13-14 June 2006 and included an address by the Tánaiste Mary Harney T.D. The Tánaiste developed strong arguments around why we need to integrate a research culture into the health service and how research can bring value to social and economic development of this country. She renewed the commitment of the Irish government to large investments in health research as part of the new Strategic Implementation Plan.
Several speakers described the impact of research on current treatments and none with more eloquence than Prof Patrick Johnston (Queens University Belfast), who discussed several changes in standard of care in colon cancer that are being driven by research fi ndings. He highlighted the increasing use of modern technologies (proteomics, genomics and metabolomics) in hospital settings in the translational research space. The importance of clinical research is such, Prof Johnston argued, that if oncology units are not performing clinical trials, then they are not providing patients with the best treatments available.
Prof Tim O’Brien (NUIG) gave a ‘state of the nation’ presentation on clinical research in Ireland. He identifi ed a large gap that has developed since the huge investments made by the HEA (PRTLI programmes) and SFI which have resulted in excellent basic research being performed in our Higher Education Institutions. The fi ndings from this
three categories – those expected to change, known genes unexpected to be involved, and unexpected genes with unknown function. During our second year, several target genes were prioritised and studies were carried out to discriminate between genes necessary for behavioural change, as opposed to those simply associated with it. To date, in vivointervention studies have shown 75% of the genes tested have a crucial role in memory formation. At this early stage, these genes represent promising leads towards the development of novel cognition enhancing drugs.
Many gene targets identifi ed by the microarray approach, while of great interest, were without tools to facilitate intervention studies. To address this issue, Dr Jane Farrar and Prof Pete Humphries of the Smurfi t Institite of Genetics, TCD, have developed viral delivery tools to allow in vivo site-specifi c gene silencing. We now hope to employ this technology to evaluate the role of several, previously intractable gene candidates in these behavioural paradigms.
The ANRG has also completely characterised two animal models believed to replicate certain core defi cits of schizophrenia. For the fi rst time these two models, isolation rearing and brief maternal deprivation, have been shown to exhibit signifi cant defi cits in brain activity in the frontal regions where processing perturbations exist in individuals suffering from schizophrenia. Direct measurement of information processing revealed severe defi cits in animals reared in isolation and, importantly, these emerge in late puberty, a characteristic feature of schizophrenia. The ANRG has now transcriptionally profi led these animals to identify gene dysregulations associated with the developmental emergence of disease. These gene alterations provide not only potential novel therapeutic targets for treating the symptoms of schizophrenia but also, as many
Pierre MeulienPierre MeulienChief Executive, DMMC
precede emergence of behavioural defi cits, provide the possibility of preventative interventions and, importantly, predictive biomoarker identifi cation.
With these repositories of potential novel drug targets now established, ANRG stands ready to deliver on the promise that Dr. William C. Harris, Director General of SFI, saw at the outset: “an investment in talent from two spheres of the research world – academia and industry – that make it possible for major advances to occur… We... are confi dent that this team has the ability to produce intellectual property using leading edge novel approaches, licensing agreements, and new ideas that can strengthen Ireland’s entire biotechnology sector.” An exciting two years beckon for ANRG.
Figure 1. Number of genes transcriptionally regulated following learning
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Irving Gold from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation gave the keynote presentation on the second day, discussing the bridge between clinical research and health delivery and the requirement for knowledge management systems and processes. The notion of brokering was brought forward as a tool for ensuring that individuals from different disciplines could share knowledge in the most effective way. Overall the meeting was very exciting and came at an opportune moment given the subsequent announcement of the Irish government’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (see page 8), which was commented on during a good panel discussion at the end of the meeting.
research need now to be translated into the clinic and we just do not have the necessary infrastructure. This complex translational research space needs to be occupied using dedicated facilities on hospital sites populated with multi-disciplinary teams including clinicians, scientists, research nurses, data managers, biostatistics and epidemiology experts. Major investment is needed in this area if Ireland is to become competitive in clinical research.
The increasing involvement of patients and patient groups in promoting health research was stressed by Michael Griffi th (Fighting Blindness), who explained that patients understand more and more about their illness and can advocate for better treatments. A need for greater understanding of the different perspectives of various stakeholders was highlighted by a provocative talk from Prof Allyson Pollock (University College London) in which she painted a dark picture of the pharmaceutical industry. This was subsequently challenged by Michael Griffi th, who also chairs IPPOSI (Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Technology) and by Dr Damian O’Connell from Pfi zer who were both able to give more balanced views on the rapidly evolving interactions. The open and engaging tone of Dr O’Connell’s presentation was particularly refreshing. It is clear that interactive models involving industry, patients, academia and clinical practitioners, although perhaps challenging to put together, will be a key factor in the success of clinical research.
The world of information systems is making important impacts on the health sector. Ms Mary Fitzsimons (Beaumont Hospital) gave a very clear and exciting presentation on the introduction of electronic patient records using epilepsy as a model system. The pragmatic approach taken by the Beaumont group (in collaboration with Professor Jane Grimson, TCD Health Informatics Group) looks set to succeed where many others have failed. This could be rolled out to many other chronic diseases and could have an enormous positive impact on patient waiting lists, logistics of consultations and simplifi cation of administrative functions.
Several parallel breakfast workshops were held and I attended one dedicated to clinical trials. The lead speaker was Dr Paul Browne, Head of the Clinical Trials Unit of St James’s Hospital. Dr Browne described how clinical trials are now an integrated part of treatment in haematological malignancies and that we need to dramatically increase the numbers of patients on trials in this country.
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE: High Content Cell Analysis in Irish Academic Biomedical Research & Education Yuri Volkov, TCDYuri Volkov, TCD
The complexity of contemporary experimental tasks pursued by the biomedical scientists in academic research institutions and pharmaceutical companies has over recent years boosted a rapid worldwide development of high content analysis technologies (HCA). In contrast to traditional biochemical procedures enabling us to quantify the presence and functional activity of individual bio-molecules in vitro, these technologies represent cell-based assays, permitting us to monitor and analyze multiple molecular targets in individual cells and populations at sub-cellular resolution in a high throughput multi-well format. The role of these technologies in defi ning the function of genes, proteins and other bio-molecules in normal cells and disease is becoming key in many large-scale medical and drug discovery studies.
HCA is strategically positioned at the interface between the biomedical sciences, advanced robotics, molecular and cellular imaging and nanotechnology. HCA technologies have proven to be extremely useful in cancer, infl ammation, cardiovascular and neurological studies, providing multiplexing quantitative information on parameters such as cellular morphology, subcellular localization of molecular targets, cell viability, apoptosis and cytoskeletal rearrangements. Other examples of truly amazing HCA capabilities include kinetic measurement of intracellular pH changes and other ion activation events, cross-correlation of drug candidate potency, specifi city, and toxicity in a single assay, ratiometric imaging of distinct sub-
DMMC News DMMC News July 2006
EMBO Molecular Medicine Conference: ‘Common Mechanisms of Mammary Gland Development and Breast Cancer Progression’
Darran P. O’Connor, Finian Martin & William M. Gallagher, UCD
cellular compartment, including live cell analysis of fl uorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) -based assays and multi-parametric readout of novel light-emitting biosensors. Taken together, HCA methods greatly enhance the quality and amount of biological information for functional genomics and proteomics, target validation, high throughput screening, lead optimization in drug discovery and toxicology.
Recently, a team of scientists at the TCD Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), led by Prof Dermot Kelleher, has successfully i m p l e m e n t e d the results of f u n d a m e n t a l studies using HCA technology to unveil the p r e v i o u s l y u n k n o w n mechanism of immune evasion
A multi-colour array of fl uorescent nanoparticles (quantum dots) in living cells. Complex pictures like this represent perfect objects for HCA analysis, unachievable by other methods.
by the hepatitis C virus, which currently represents one of the most worrying causes of long-term morbidity worldwide (published in Gastroenterologyearlier this year). Currently, the IMM has two fully operational HCA systems: Cellomics® KineticScan ® KineticScan ®
workstation and GE Healthcare InCell-1000 Analyser, which comprises a unique facility of its kind in a European academic institution.
To translate the cutting edge research achievements into academic teaching practice, beginning this year the Department of Clinical Medicine, TCD is offering an innovative Master of Science in Molecular Medicine course with specialized high content analysis and screening components. The graduates will be not only empowered with the fundamental knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of human disease, but will also have an opportunity to learn basic principles of HCA and receive advanced hands-on experience in practical aspects associated with HCA use and applications. The course is taught with the participation of world leading specialists from research institutions and companies involved in HCA development and utilization, providing the fi rst worldwide platform-independent educational and practical training centre for the future specialists of HCA applications in Molecular Medicine.
Breast cancer is by far the most frequent cancer in women worldwide. On average, 2700 women a year are diagnosed in the island of Ireland with breast cancer, with over 900 dying from this disease and incidence rates increasing by 1.5% per year. While some success has been achieved in detecting and treating this disease, concerted efforts are still required to refi ne our understanding of breast cancer progression, with a view to the development of diagnostics and more targeted therapies.
Considerable insights have been gained into the biological basis of breast cancer through study of how the breast forms and changes during the cycle from birth to puberty to pregnancy. To highlight some key advances in our understanding of normal breast development and its dysregulation, investigators at the UCD Conway Institute (Prof William Gallagher, Prof Finian Martin and Dr Darran O’Connor) organised an international scientifi c conference from 6-8 June 2006 at the O’Reilly Hall UCD, where over 150 delegates from around the world presented their research (www.targetbreast.com). Over the course of 3 days, mammary gland development, invasion and metastasis, therapeutic implications and future directions, biomarkers and susceptibility genes and “omics” approaches in breast cancer were discussed.
Cell populations must co-ordinate migration, proliferation and apoptosis over space and time to create organised multi-cellular tissues. Meeting delegates heard how 3-D culture models are being used to describe the role of integrin signaling (Charles Streuli, Manchester, UK), changes in the extracellular matrix (ECM), in particular matrix stiffness (Valerie Weaver, Philadelphia, USA) and expression of the Erb2 oncogenic receptor (Senthil Muthuswamy, New York, USA). In understanding these key developmental processes, we can improve our search for novel therapeutics to treat malignant disease of the breast.
Though large numbers of cancer cells are shed
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News In Brief...
from primary tumours, only a very small proportion survive passage through the circulatory system, reach a secondary site and grow to form an overt metastasis. Many persist in the secondary organ as dormant solitary cells or micrometastasis. Ann Chambers (Ontario, Canada) showed, through fascinating intravital videomicroscopy, the ineffi ciency of the metastatic process and the fate of disseminated tumour cells. These dormant solitary cells could represent quiescent populations awaiting activation and may also be metabolically active and help prime the micro-environment for incoming tumour cells. Also discussed were the role of slug/snail-mediated E-cadherin expression in regulating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (a hallmark of cancer progression) (Geert Berx, Ghent, Belgium) and the part played by matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) (Barbara Fingleton, Nashville, USA) and intriguing structures called invadopodia (Hideki Yamaguchi, New York, USA) in facilitating the spread of tumour cells.
Breast cancer research has also focused in recent years on the search for new biomarkers which accurately diagnose disease, monitor disease status, indicate recurrence, determine metastatic potential and predict therapeutic response. To date, despite the discovery of a whole host of biomarkers, only a handful are routinely used in clinical diagnostics for breast cancer (hormone receptors and HER2-neu being the most common). Delegates heard how technology that has emerged recently has facilitated a high-throughput approach to biomarker discovery and validation, and how tissue microarrays, in particular, would seem to hold the key to translating putative indicators of disease progression from the bench to the bedside (Donal Brennan, Dublin, Ireland).
Targeted therapy results from detailed insights into tumour initiation and progression. For example, endocrine therapies based on estrogen antagonists, e.g. tamoxifen, or more recently, aromatase inhibitors which block the biosynthesis of estrogen, have been of tremendous clinical value (Lesley-Ann Martin, London, UK). Rene Bernards (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), introduced the notion of genome-wide RNAi-based screens as a mechanism of gaining insight into the mode of action of small molecules with anti-cancer activity and for detecting genes whose inactivation causes resistance to conventional chemo-therapeutic agents, like tamoxifen. The mechanisms which underlie emergence of resistance of tumor cells to tamoxifen treatment have still to be elucidated, and further insight may be gained from
the detailed analysis of the high molecular weight protein complexes which assemble and disassemble
From left: Prof Finian Martin (Conference Co-organiser), Dr Hugh Brady (President, UCD), Prof Rene Bernards (Netherlands Cancer Institute) and Prof William Gallagher (Primary Organiser of EMBO Conference).
DMMC Education & TrainingIn a busy close to the academic year, seven DMMC Courses ran between March and June 2006, including fi ve completely new courses. These included Unravelling Chromatin & the Role of Epigenetics in Disease a two-day course with 79 attendees including researchers based Ireland-wide and from further afi eld (including the USA, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom). The DMMC teamed up with Wyeth staff to put together Molecules to Medicines: How Biopharma Delivers, which included a very well received 1-day workshop with discussion groups comprising PhD students tackling problem sets that highlighted key issues in biopharmaceutical discovery, development and manufacturing. Population Genetics & SNP Analysis combined lectures with a half-day practical Analysis combined lectures with a half-day practical Analysisworkshop. Details of all completed DMMC Courses are in the Education Archive on the DMMC website. Details of forthcoming DMMC Courses will appear on the website as soon as they are confi rmed. This brings the running total of users since DMMC Courses began in December 2003 (individuals applying for one or more DMMC Courses) to 1141.
at estrogen receptor-regulated promoter sequences (Frank Gannon, Heidelberg, Germany). New points of intervention in estrogen-induced gene transcription might require “ u n c o n v e n t i o n a l ” drugs, e.g. those that disrupt protein-protein or protein-DNA interactions, and the use of target-specifi c peptides delivered into cells provides a strategy for this (Bernd Groner, Frankfurt, Germany).The conference was primarily supported by EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization), in addition to the ESF COST B20 action, the Health Research Board of Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, University College Dublin, the British Association for Cancer Research and Cancer Research Ireland. A longer version of this article is available on the DMMC website.
DMMC News DMMC News July 2006
Events See www.dmmc.ie for more information on these and other eventsPlease send details of forthcoming events to [email protected]
1 Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), St James’s Hospital, Dublin 82 Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research, UCD, Belfi eld, Dublin 4
DATE (2006) EVENT LOCATION
DMMC 2005 Annual Report PublishedThe 2005 DMMC Annual Report is now available. This provides an overview of the themed translational research, education activities, and infrastructure linking researchers across the city, with details on selected programmes. The Annual Report can be downloaded from the DMMC website (visit http://www.dmmc.ie/about.htm).
Strategy for Science, Technology & InnovationOn 18 June 2006, the Irish Government launched its new Strategy for Science, Technology & Innovation 2006-2013. The implementation of the Strategy will form a central plank of the forthcoming National Development Plan and will involve expenditure by Government of €2.7 billion in the period up to 2008. An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern T.D., said “the Government is fully committed to the implementation of the Strategy and making Ireland renowned for the excellence of its research.” The strategy document is available at http://www.entemp.ie/science/technology/sciencestrategy.htm
ABI Gene Expression Service LaunchesAn Applied Biosystems Advanced Gene Expression Service Provider Facility was launched by the Department of Histopathology, TCD, on 1 June 2006. The facility is located in the Institute of Molecular
Medicine, St James’s Hospital. For information and pricing, contact [email protected]
New High Throughput Tissue Sample AnalysisA joint research initiative between the UCD Conway Institute and Beaumont Hospital has led to the acquisition of new imaging equipment, which will transform translational research. The Aperio ScanScope system, the only one of its kind in the Republic of Ireland, allows for accelerated analyses of huge numbers of clinical tissue samples. Dr Amanda McCann and Dr William Gallagher, both of UCD Conway Institute, and Prof Elaine Kay of Beaumont Hospital and RCSI received funding for this equipment through the Health Research Board. This award is testament to the success of their cross-institutional partnership, which is facilitated through the DMMC.
New Arrival in the DMMC DirectorateDr Caroline Ang has joined the DMMC Directorate as Programmes Manager. Caroline, who was previously Education & Outreach Manager at the Centre for Human Proteomics, RCSI, is now based in the DMMC Directorate offi ces, Newman House (Email [email protected]).
31 Jul Symposium: Recent Advances in Melanoma Research Contact [email protected]
UCD Conway Institute 2
31 Aug - 01 Sep Symposium: SGM Irish Branch - Microbial Bioconversions: Biocatalysis and Biodegradation
William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium, UCD
06 Sep - 07 Sep Course: SELDI Basic TrainingContact [email protected]
UCD Conway Institute 2
07 Sep Conference: ISHG Conference 2006 - 9th Annual Scientifi c Meeting
The Helix, Dublin City University
07 Sep - 08 Sep Conference: Global mRNA and Protein Expression Analysis - Research applications in cancer and other diseases and in biopharmaceutical production
Joly Lecture Theatre, Hamilton Theatre, East End, TCD
18 Oct DMMC Science Day IMM 1
12 Nov - 14 Nov Conference: BioIreland 2006 - International Biotechnology Conference
O’Reilly Hall, UCD