Trinity Centre for BioEngineering
Transcription
Trinity Centre for BioEngineering
NEURAL ENGINEERING MUSCULOSKELETAL BIOMATERIALS REGENERATIVE MEDICINE CARDIOVASCULAR Trinity Centre for BioEngineering News Winter 2014 Trinity Centre for Bioengineering Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Tel: +353-1-8964214 Email: [email protected] Website: www.tcd.ie/bioengineering TRINITY CENTRE FOR BIOENGINEERING Directors Message In this issue: Directors Message TCBE Bibliometrics Grants & Awards Outreach Events, Seminars & Conferences People Papers Media Highlights Other news Happy New Year and welcome to the winter 2014/2015 newsletter of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering. The past few months have again been a very productive period for the PIs, postdoctoral researchers and students associated with the Centre. Details of all our recent outputs and activities can be found within this newsletter, but I’d like to highlight just a few of them here. Firstly, I’d like to welcome our newest PI to the Centre - Dr Mark Ahearne, who is a Senior Research Fellow in Trinity College Dublin. Mark is an SFI SIRG awardee, and was recently successful in obtaining a highly prestigious European Research Council (ERC) starter grant. In addition, Dr Triona Lally from Dublin City University also received an ERC starter award. This brings to 8 the number of TCBE researchers (either past or present) who have been awarded these highly prestigious ERC grants. This reflects the strength of research within the TCBE, and highlights Bioengineering as a key national research strength. Congratulations also to Professor Richard Reilly and all others in TCD involved in the new European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) Knowledge Innovation Communities (KICs). The KICs are large scale partnerships made up of academic institutions and innovation stakeholders. The InnoLife Consortium – winner of EIT Health (healthy living and active ageing) – is a consortium of more than 140 partners of leading businesses, research centres and universities from 14 EU countries. Professor Richard Reilly led the Irish input to the successful InnoLife consortium. Thanks again to everyone who participated in the TCBE Winter Symposium, which was held during the week before the Christmas break. At the symposium, TCBE researchers presented a 3 minute review of their research. It was great to see the diversity and strength of research ongoing in the Centre. Finally, congratulations to Prof. Ciaran Simms who was recently promoted to associate professor. I hope you enjoy reading the newsletter. Best, TRINITY CENTRE FOR BIOENGINEERING TCBE BIBLIOMETRICS TCBE Peer reviewed Journal Articles 2004-2013 No. of papers: Number of citations: Impact (citations per paper): H-index: Collaborating countries (in terms of co-authorship) 901 14,018 15.5 57 Top citing countries 2004-2013 Number of Citations Source: Scopus, accessed December 17, 2014 GRANTS & AWARDS Trinity Key Partner in Two Successful Multi-Million EU Bids to Tackle Ageing and Sustainability Trinity College Dublin has been successful as a key partner in two milestone EU consortia that will boost innovation and tackle health and raw materials. The European Institute for Innovation and Technology yesterday announced the winning consortia for two new Knowledge Innovation Communities (KICs) − large scale partnerships made up of academic institutions and innovation stakeholders. The winners of the EIT’s 2014 Call for Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) proposals are the pan-European consortia InnoLife (EIT Health) and RawMatTERS (EIT Raw Materials), bringing together more than 150 partners from 20 EU Member States. InnoLife Consortium – winner of EIT Health (healthy living and active ageing) – is a consortium of more than 140 partners of leading businesses, research centres and universities from 14 EU countries, including Abbott Laboratories from Spain, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and the University of Oxford from the UK. Professor Richard Reilly, who led the Irish input to the successful InnoLife consortium, described the EIT KICHEALTH programme as the “perfect framework to accelerate near-to-market healthcare related research projects and promote developed concepts to an expert global audience to secure additional funding, support, network and commercialization opportunities.” European Research Council Grants TCBE PI’s, Dr Mark Ahearne and Dr Triona Lally are recipients of European Research Council Grants. Dr Mark Ahearne was awarded an European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant. The grant is valued at just under €1.5 million over five years and will fund research in the area of corneal tissue regeneration. Corneal blindness resulting from disease, physical injury or chemical burns affects millions worldwide. In many cases a cornea transplant is required to restore vision however a shortage of donor tissue has necessitated the development of alternative treatment strategies. The aim of this research will be to develop a biomaterial based product that can used as an alternative to donor tissue for transplantation. Enterprise Ireland Commercialization Fund 2015-2017 €382,450 Project title: A decellularised extracellular matrix derived scaffold incorporating freshly isolated joint tissue derived cells as a bioactive implant for cartilage repair. Description: We have developed a new ‘single-stage’ or ‘off-the-shelf’ approach to articular cartilage regeneration that consists of a chondro-inductive extracellular matrix (ECM) derived scaffold seeded with freshly isolated joint tissue derived stromal cells that are processed ‘in-theatre’. The primary objective of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of this ‘single-stage’ or ‘in-theatre’ therapy for articular cartilage regeneration in a large animal model study. Collaborators: Prof. Fergal O’Brien (Royal College of Surgeons); Prof. Conor Buckley (TCD); Prof Kevin Mulhall (Mater Hospital & TCD); Prof Cathal Moran (Sports Surgery Clinic & TCD). IRC ELEVATE FELLOWSHIP 2014-2017 €248,810 Project title: Development of a platform for understanding astrocyte mechanobiology: Steps towards the treatment of glaucoma in patients. Description: Glaucoma affects >60 million people and is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. Existing treatments are all designed to lower intraocular pressure (IOP), but are inadequate. Thus, novel treatments for glaucoma are needed. IOP deforms the delicate tissues of the optic nerve head (ONH). It is believed that ONH astrocytes respond to this deformation in glaucoma, changing their phenotype in a way that ultimately triggers vision loss. However, the details of this response, i.e. the mechanobiology of ONH astrocytes, are unclear. Previous researchers have studied ONH astrocyte mechanobiology using 2D (monolayer) culture systems, which do not mimic the true 3D environment of the ONH. We know that cells are sensitive to such 2D/3D differences, and thus there is a pressing need to understand how astrocytes react to deformation in 3D. Accordingly, our aim is to better understand the mechanobiology of ONH astrocytes and astrocyte precursor cells, with the long-term goal of developing new interventions to treat glaucoma. Astrocytes and astrocyte precursor cells will be cultured in 3D, and their response to mechanical strain will be studied using proteomic approaches to identify key pathways involved in ONH astrocyte mechanobiology. Collaborators: Prof. Ross Ethier (Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory) GRANTS & AWARDS Fellow of the year Prof Fergal O’Brien was awarded Fellow of the year in the Anatomical Society, RCSI . OUTREACH Discover Research TCBE was involved in Discover Research which had over 50 fun, interactive, free events and activities allowing members of the public to interact with researchers. The idea is to challenge perceptions about researchers and showcase the creativity and innovation that exists across all disciplines. Activities on the night were grouped under four broad themes – Body Parts, Creativity in Research, Meet the Researchers and Living Thought/Thinking Life Pictured above is Prof. Clive Lee presenting Prof. Fergal O’Brien with his award Professional Excellence Award Dr Sally Ann Cyran (PI, TCBE) was the recipient of the Professional Excellence Award at the recent Helix Health Pharmacist Awards 2014. Dr Cyran also received the following grants: SFI IvP (€1.9million) Functional polymers for nanomedical devices -SFI CURAM Centre for Research in Medical Devices (SA Cryan Funded Investigator) SFI TIDA (€80,000) Development of a scalable process for production of inhaled anti-tubercular therapies using bioactive carriers. Academic Innovation of the Year 2014 Prof Richard Reilly (TCBE) and Prof Richard Costello of RCSI/Beaumont Hospital were finalists in the Academic Innovation of the Year 2014 Excellence Awards for the INCA-Inhaler Compliance Assessment. Clinical Innovation Award Dr. Aamir Hameed, a Cardiothoracic Surgeon and currently a clinician Scientist with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, received a clinical innovation award. Dr. Hameed is developing a solution with colleagues in RCSI of safer paediatric treatments for cancer. Side effects, and in particular cardiotoxicty, is associated with current cancer treatments for paediatric patients, thus limiting treatment options. This solution has the potential to address the safety profile of these treatments, and therefore improve the quality of life and life expectancy for these patients. Awardees receive Feasibility Funding from Enterprise Ireland to investigate the commercial potential of their ideas. Pictured above are TCBE Researchers at the Discover Research Event "I'm An Engineer Get Me Out of Here“ Professor David Taylor (Principal Investigator, TCBE) entered a competition called "I'm An Engineer Get Me Out of Here"...and he won! The competition, which has been run several times before in the UK, was running for the first time in Ireland, sponsored by SFI. The idea is to engage with school students who want to find out more about engineering. Engineers sign up as competitors: the children get to ask them questions and engage in online chat sessions. Engineers get eliminated until someone - in this case David - is left standing. It's a lot of fun, questions range from the serious and technical ("how does the remote work on a TV"), to careeroriented ( "how much do you earn?") to the very silly ("what's your favourite joke?"). David won €500 which he will donate to the research group of Tony Robinson in the Mechanical Engineering department: Tony is working with people in Malawi to make better cooking stoves that generate electricity. The competition will run in February: colleagues are recommended to enter as it's a very nice way to engage with schools and students. Here's the link: http://imanengineer.ie/ “ TCBE Transition Year Programme The TCBE Transition Year programme will take place from February 23-27 2015. If you would like to participate please email an expression of interest to [email protected] The programme gives students an excellent insight into biomedical engineering and research. EVENTS CONFERENCES & SEMINARS Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop Keynote & Invited Talks Dr Ed Lalor co-led a group of researchers including James O'Sullivan and Giovanni Di Liberto at the Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop in Colorado in July. Professor Daniel Kelly, Director of TCBE gave the following invited talks: “Re-engineering articular cartilage: A seemingly simple tissue that is wonderfully complex”. Keynote talk, Matrix Biology Ireland, Galway, 19th to 21st of November 2014. Auditory Cortex Conference Germany Dr Ed Lalor and PhD candidates James O'Sullivan, Michael Crosse and Giovanni Di Liberto all presented work at the Auditory Cortex Conference in Magdeburg Germany in September (pictured below). “Innovation in Medical Devices and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products”. Invited talk, Pharmacists in Industry, Education and Regulatory (PIER) meeting, 8th November 2014. “Innovation in Natural Biomaterials: A review of next generation implants and regenerative therapies in AMBER”. Invited Talk, MEDTEC Ireland, October 2014. “Tissue Engineering of soft-hard tissue interfaces” Invited Talk, World Congress of Biomechanics, Boston, July 2014. Trinity Biomedical Sciences Annual Symposium 2014 ‘Research at the Interface’ Ground-breaking research at the interface of immunology, cancer and medicine was recently discussed at the third annual symposium in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) at Trinity College Dublin. Prof Danny Kelly Director of Trinity Centre for Bioengineering organised the event. National Thesis-in-3 final Congratulations to Dinorath Olivera who was a finalist at the National Thesis-in-3 final. Thesis-in-3 is a national competition for research students from all over Ireland who have just 3 slides and 3 minutes to explain an entire thesis. The competition is designed to showcase the world-class research happening in Ireland in bitesized chunks. Dinorath is a PhD student in the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering in Trinity College Dublin. As part of the Regenerative Medicine team, her research focuses on a fibre reinforced hydrogel to engineer the interface between soft and hard tissue. Dinorath was awarded an Irish Research Council scholarship to carry out her PhD studies. “Coupling in vitro and in silico models of endothelial and mesenchymal stem cell mechanobiology to improve our understanding of bone regeneration”. Invited Talk, World Congress of Biomechanics, Boston, July 2014. Dr. Ed Lalor gave an invited talk at a Workshop and Summer School on "Auditory Attention and Scene Analysis" in Delmenhorst Germany in July. One of our MSc Bioengineering students, Timo Lauteslager, won a student travel award to present his work at this workshop. And James O'Sullivan also presented his latest findings. Dr. Buckley gave a public lecture entitled “Science & Sports Injuries- How tissue engineering will reduce the need for complex surgery?- "A World of Science in Sport”, Public Lecture, Global Room, Trinity College Dublin, July 2014. As part of his Irish Research Council (IRC) New foundations Award Dr Buckley was a visiting Professor in the laboratory of Prof James Latridis at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA and gave a seminar entitled “Regenerating the Intervertebral Disc- Biomaterial Strategies, Stem Cells and Microenvironmental Effects- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.” TCBE WINTER SYMPOSIUM The Trinity Centre for Bioengineering Winter symposium was held on 18 December. Director of TCBE, Professor Daniel Kelly gave a review of the year for the Centre. Senior PhD candidates gave a ‘thesis-in3” presentation of their research. Congratulations James O’Sullivan, Gillian Gunning and Masooma Naqvi who won prizes for best presentations. There was also a poster display. PEOPLE Welcome to Dr. John Mulvihill to the Tissue Engineering Group. John received his Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Limerick, Ireland, John previously was a research and development engineer with commercialisation experience in vascular medical device design (AMCARE FP7 project, Enterprise Ireland funded Halo Device and Cleveland Clinic Innovation funded TUCSS project), academic experience in diseased vascular tissue characterization and lecturing at the University of Limerick in the areas of Mechanical Design and Mechanics of Solids, with a specialty in fracture mechanics. John is currently a visiting research scholar from Trinity College Dublin through the ELEVATE funding from the Irish Research Council International Career Development Fellowship – cofunded by Marie Cure Actions. Jennifer Gansau (PhD Candidate) studied medical Biotechnology and graduated at Technische Universität Berlin. She received an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Fellowship and joined the group of Dr. Conor Buckley to investigate “Microencapsulated MSCs for Minimal Invasive Regeneration of the Intervertebral Disc”. TCBE Research ‘Thesis-in-3” Presentation prize winners L-R: James O’Sullivan, Gillian Gunning, Masooma Naqvi Welcome to Denis Drennan who was awarded an IRC Enterprise Partnership Postgraduate Scholarship to join the Lalor lab. His work will focus on auditory-tactile multimodal stimulation as a solution to a number of clinical needs. Welcome to Ivan Dudurych, Darina Gilroy, Samuel Holt, Srujana Ven Vedicherla, Tom McIntyre who join the Buckley Lab as part of the MSc in Bioengineering (Tissue Engineering Specialisation) Fiona Brien and Dr Jeremy Murphy joined the Lalor lab to work on an IRC project on the neurophysiology of music. Pictured at the symposium: TCBE Principal Investigators Prof. Bruce Murphy, Prof. Conor Buckley and Prof. Ed Lalor Congratulations to Dr Raja Eswaramoorthy, who recently left the Tissue Engineering lab to take up a faculty position at Sri Ramachandra University PEOPLE Welcome to Eimear Dolan who recently joined the Cardiovascular research group as a Research Associate and part of a translational research program to develop truly restorative therapies for acute myocardial infarction (MI) repair by optimising cardiac progenitor cell therapy using smart biomaterials and advanced drug delivery, and coupling these therapeutics with minimally-invasive surgical devices. These multimodal therapies developed by this collaborative 7th Framework Programme European Commission project aim to modify the underlying pathology of the post-MI disease state, specifically replacing lost cells due to ischemia with functionally competent viable cells using cardiopoietic stem cells. Fore more information, see www.amcare.eu PAPERS Loughnane GM, Shanley JP, Lalor EC, O'Connell RG (2015). Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of opposing lateral visuospatial asymmetries in the upper and lower visual fields. Cortex, 63(2015): 220-231. Guillaume, O., Naqvi, S.M., Lennon, K. and Buckley C.T. Enhancing cell migration in shape-memory alginatecollagen composite scaffolds: in vitro and ex vivo assessment for intervertebral disc repair. Journal of Biomaterials Applications (Accepted for Publication) Sridharan, R., Reilly, R.B. and Buckley C.T. Decellularized Grafts with Axially Aligned Channels for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials (Accepted for Publication) Naqvi, S.M. and Buckley, C.T. Differential Response of Encapsulated Nucleus Pulposus and Bone Marrow Stem Cells in Isolation and Coculture in Alginate and Chitosan Hydrogels. Tissue Engineering Part A (In Press) Aisa J., Calvo I., Buckley C.T. and Kirby B.M. Mechanical Comparison of Loop and Crimp Configurations for Extracapsular Stabilization of the Cranial Cruciate Ligament-Deficient Stifle. Veterinary Surgery (In Press) Kelly C, Yadav AB, Lawlor C, Nolan K, O'Dwyer J, Greene CM, McElvaney NG, Sivadas N, Ramsey JM, Cryan SA.Therapeutic Aerosol Bioengineering of siRNA for the Treatment of Inflammatory Lung Disease by TNFα Gene Silencing in Macrophages. Mol Pharm. 2014 Nov 3;11(11):4270-9. doi: 10.1021/mp500473d. Epub 2014 Oct 13.PMID: 25243784 [PubMed - in process] PAPERS Sheehy, E.S, Mesallati, T., Vinardell, T., Kelly, D.J. Engineering cartilage or endochondral bone: A comparison of different naturally derived hydrogels. Acta Biomaterilia (in press). Burke, D., Kelly, D.J. A Mechanobiological Model of Endothelial Cell Migration and Proliferation. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering (in press). Steward, A.J., Kelly, D.J., Wagner, D.R. The role of calcium signalling in the chondrogenic response of mesenchymal stem cells to hydrostatic pressure. European Cells and Material, 28, 358-371, 2014. Steward, A.J., Kelly, D.J. Mechanical regulation of mesenchymal stem cell differentiation. Journal of Anatomy, (in press). Hibbitts A, O'Mahony AM, Forde E, Nolan L, Ogier J, Desgranges S, Darcy R, MacLoughlin R, O'Driscoll CM, Cryan SA.Early-Stage Development of Novel CyclodextrinsiRNA Nanocomplexes Allows for Successful Postnebulization Transfection of Bronchial Epithelial Cells. J Aerosol Med Pulm Drug Deliv. 2014 Dec;27(6):466-477.PMID: 24665866 McKiernan PJ, Molloy K, Cryan SA, McElvaney NG, Greene CM Long noncoding RNA are aberrantly expressed in vivo in the cystic fibrosis bronchial epithelium.Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2014 Jul;52:184-91. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2014.02.022. Epub 2014 Mar 12.PMID: 24631641 Brandwein, Alice B., et al. "Neurophysiological Indices of Atypical Auditory Processing and Multisensory Integration are Associated with Symptom Severity in Autism." Journal of autism and developmental disorders (2014): 1-15. Wynne C, Lazzari E, Smith S, McCarthy EM, Ní Gabhann J, Kallal LE, Higgs R, Cryan SA, Biron CA, Jefferies CA.TRIM68 negatively regulates IFN-β production by degrading TRK fused gene, a novel driver of IFN-β downstream of anti-viral detection systems. PLoS One. 2014 Jul 7;9(7):e101503. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101503. eCollection 2014.PMID: 24999993 Ciara Kelly, Ciaran Lawlor, Colin Burke, James W. Barlow, Joanne M Ramsey, Caroline Jefferies and Sally-Ann Cryan. High Throughput Methods for Screening Liposome-Macrophage Cell Interaction, j oF Liposome Research In press MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS Radio: Prof. Conor Buckley was interviewed on national radio- Newstalk: Pat Kenny Show on the topic of “Tissue Engineering for Sports Injuries” National Press: Prof. Daniel Kelly featured in the irish Times Science Supplement (5 Nov 2014) Great scientific mysteries: the researchers puzzle it out From freak waves to gut bugs, Irish scientists are working to crack some of the imponderables in life. OTHER NEWS Trinity College Dublin along with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) will co-host the 2018 World Congress of Biomechanics in Dublin in 2018 (WCB2018). The World Congress of Biomechanics (WCB) is an international meeting held once every four years, rotating among Europe, Asia and the Americas. Prof Daniel J. Kelly, Director of the Trinity Centre of Bioengineering, and Co-Chair WCB2018 said "the scientific programme of the congress will feature the best international speakers and a wide programme of subject areas across the spectrum of biomechanics in plenary and parallel formats. We look forward to welcoming all those engaged in the field of biomechanics to Dublin in 2018." The conference is potentially worth over €5 million to the Irish economy. The Convention Centre Dublin will be the venue for the congress in July 2018, with 3000 participants expected from all corners of the globe. The bid will be supported by an All-Ireland Organising Committee which includes biomechanics researchers from all across Ireland- north and south. Contact us Trinity Centre for Bioengineering Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, 152-160 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 Tel: +353-1-8964214 Email: [email protected] www.tcd.ie/bioengineering