“BENCH to bedside” medical studies at NUI Galway (NUIG) have received a boost with a €1 million donation towards the college’s new translational research facility.
The donation has been given by the National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI), a voluntary-based charity located at Galway University Hospital’s clinical science institute.
The new facility will allow researchers to “translate” their work into practical strategies for those facing intractable health problems.
Ten principal investigators and 120 researchers across a broad range of disciplines in cancer biology will work there, and it will also run other key research programmes in clinical disciplines.
Open-plan “wet laboratory space” and an adjoining open-plan write-up area will allow research groups to expand and contract as their requirements change.
The principal investigators – together with support facilities such as tissue culture and microscopy – will be situated around the open-plan area, according to NUIG.
This will “help to facilitate the growth of multidisciplinary approaches to clinical problems”, it says.
NUIG professor of surgery Michael Kerin said the NBCRI’s gift would ensure it had a “footprint” in the translational research facility.
“The infrastructure here will now be on a par with the world’s great research facilities, and will enhance clinical developments and translational science for the west of Ireland’s population,” he said.
NUIG’s aim is to develop research institutes and programmes in selected areas with a critical mass of experience, such as the Regenerative Medicine Institute and the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science.
Interdisciplinary teams working in regenerative medicine, cancer biology and therapeutics, biomedical engineering, glycoscience and neuroscience are focused on “developing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic solutions to medical challenges”, it says. Such challenges include cardiovascular disease, orthopaedics, neurological disorders and cancer.
NUIG president Dr Jim Browne said the NBCRI’s generous support would “enable cancer sufferers to benefit from innovative treatments to address their health concerns in the future”. The donation was arranged through Galway University Foundation.
The NBCRI’s own research team is currently investigating the presence of biological markers involved in the detection, development and spread of breast cancer.
As part of this effort, it funds postdoctoral scientists and postgraduate researchers and provides financial support for the running of the research laboratory.
