A new cellular biotech centre, opening tomorrow, may bring researchers home from abroad, writes Dick Ahlstrom
The National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University moves into its new home tomorrow. The €18 million facility will house 100-120 researchers who will have access to some of the best facilities available anywhere in the world.
"Until now we were in different places around the campus. Now we can bring all the researchers together in one space," says the NICB's director, Prof Martin Clynes. "It will be the best cell and tissue culture centre in the country. We really have a world-class centre for this research."
DCU established the NICB back in 2000, a body that grew out of the earlier National Cell and Tissue Culture centre that opened in 1987.
The university received major funding for the purpose-built facility from the Higher Education Authority administered Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions and from Atlantic Philanthropies.
A key strength is the fact that work in the NICB is strongly interdisciplinary. Research teams typically have a wide cross-section of expertise available to them from the laboratory research side and from the clinical and industrial side, says Clynes.
Many university faculties are represented in the NICB. It also has major collaborative work under way with many of Dublin's hospitals including the Mater, St Vincent's, Beaumont, St Luke's and the Eye and Ear, Clynes points out. "We really focus on bringing basic research into application in the medical area and industry."
He cites as example a project with the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear for the culture of adult eye stem cells. These are being developed for the possible repair of corneal damage.
There are a number of cancer-related studies, Clynes says. "We are trying to find a way around cancer drug resistance," he says of work under way with the Mater. Yet another project involves St Luke's in an effort to discover "markers" in serum and saliva that can give a much earlier diagnosis of cancer.
"If we could get early markers we could detect the disease earlier and cure more patients," says Clynes. "We have already found some promising markers."
The centre is involved in a programme supporting research into islet cell transplantation as a cure for the insulin deficiency associated with Type One diabetes.
There are also industry research links. The centre is involved in a major collaboration with Wyeth BioPharma in Grange Castle and Andover Massachusetts to develop better molecular biology-based methods to improve biological production of pharmaceutical products.
While the NICB is all about research, it is having other impacts, says Clynes.
"Having a building like this with the core facilities is attracting Irish researchers back from abroad. We think this will be a magnet to bring good researchers from abroad."