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VOLUME 9 , 2010

News? Please send photos and news items to Jacqueline.Jago@ucd.ie for inclusion in our website

SBBS breakthrough in cardiac research An international team led by researchers from the Universities of Leicester, Cambridge and SBBS

has announced a breakthrough in identifying people at risk of developing potentially fatal blood clots

that can lead to heart attack. The discovery, published in the 26th November 2010 issue of the

leading hematology journal Blood, is expected to advance ways of detecting and treating coronary

heart disease – the most common form of disease affecting the heart and an important cause of

premature death.

The SBBS team led by Dr Patricia Maguire and Professor Des

Fitzgerald, Professor of Molecular Medicine & Vice-President for

Research, together with the international Bloodomics consortium

identified 63 genes that contribute to platelet function and promote blood

clot formation. Upon further investigation on six of these genes they were

able to show that two resulting proteins in particular, commd7 and lrrfip1,

have a significant role in regulating thrombus formation.

Platelets are small blood cells that circulate in the bloodstream until they

are called into action. When activated, platelets trigger a sequence of

events that cause a blood clot to form. This is a normal response when a

blood vessel is damaged but, when a blood clot forms as part of

a stroke or heart attack, it can deprive the heart muscle of vital

oxygen. Unraveling the genetic roots of atherothrombosis and

cardiovascular disease will enable better screening for those

most at risk of these diseases and offer targeted therapeutic

interventions.

Commenting on the work, Dr Maguire said, "By tracing the

cellular network and understanding the function of the proteins

involved in the platelet response, we want to provide new insight

into the causes of heart disease. This work is a substantial step

towards our goal of developing novel platelet inhibitors that can

lower the morbidity and mortality associated with these prevalent

diseases".

Dr. Maguire and her team also published significant work last

year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

describing a novel platelet signaling network that dampens platelet function. They believe that this

signaling pathway may not be correctly regulated in heart disease formation and its discovery is an

important development to find new drugs. Dr Brian Steele, who just completed his PhD was the first

author on the PNAS manuscript, won a prestigious young investigator award at the 2009 International

Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis meeting in Boston for his work on this subject.

The Irish Health Research Board and European Union jointly funded this research.

Congratulations to Dr. Maguire for her successful application for a SFI PI award (Jan 2011- Dec 2014) for her project entitled ' Wnt pathway in vascular biology: a novel target in atherothrombosis'

Above:Maguire Group: (L-R) Naheda Alka-zemi, Vishal Salunkhe, Brian Steele & Dr. Patricia Maguire

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SBBS NEWS VOLUME 9 , 2010

Dr. Kevin O’Connor takes part in Green Economy

Documentary

Dr. Kevin O’Connor was recently interviewed for the RTE documentary “Green Gold? In search of Ireland’s

Green Economy”

The programme presented by Paul Cunningham centres on Paul speaking with many of those centrally

involved in the question of the Green Economy from researchers and entrepreneurs at the coal face of

Green Tech development, to the politicians' responsible for the direction of the Green Economy to those

Economists and researchers who argue that we are going in the wrong direction entirely.

The programme can be viewed on the RTE website: http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1086060

Soluble amyloid β-protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common human dementia and confers a huge burden on society. The

molecular pathways leading to AD are not well understood, but substantial data indicate that the amyloid

β-protein plays a central role.

It is proposed that a defect leading to over-production or decreased clearance causes Aβ to accumulate

and ultimately lead to the cognitive deficits that characterise AD. The protein can form large insoluble

aggregates called amyloid plaques, Since plaques are pathogenic hallmarks of AD, it had been assumed

that they also caused the disease.

However since the quantity and temporal progression of amyloid plaques do not correlate well with disease

status, which raises the question if Aβ causes AD, why does the amount of plaque not relate to the

severity of dementia?

Studies recently published in Brain by Professor Dominic Walsh looked at the relationship between

biochemically distinct forms of Aβ and the presence of AD-type dementia in 43 brains obtained from the

MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing study.

Analysis revealed that the levels of SDS–stable Aβ dimmers strongly correlates with the presence of AD

type dementia. These exciting findings build on earlier publications from the Walsh group that SDS-stable

Aβ dimmers can impair neuronal functions necessary for memory formation and suggest that targeting Aβ

dimmers may alleviate the memory loss typical of AD.

The MCR have awarded Professor Walsh’s research group a grant for follow-up research on a larger

scale that should allow for further validation of Aβ dimmers as mediators of disease. Parallel studies

(funded by NIH, EU, SFI and HRB) aimed at developing antibodies and small molecules, which bind to Aβ

dimers and neutralise their activity, are ongoing.

The presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate-stable Ab dimers is strongly associated with Alzheimer-type dementia. Jessica M

McDonald, George M. Savva, Carol Brayne, Alfred T. Welzel, Gill Forster, Ganesh M. Shankar, Dennis J. Selkoe, Paul G. Ince and

Dominic M Walsh on behalf of the Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study . Brain 2010: 133; 1328-1341

Dr. Cormac Murphy Seminar

Dr. Cormac Murphy gave a seminar in the Department of Chemistry, Durham University on September 14th

(Biosynthesis and Biotransformation of Organofluorine Compounds) and a lecture at a meeting of the

French Fluorine Network hosted at the Faculte de Pharmacie Paris-Sud (Fluorine-19 NMR in

Biology). Dr. Murphy also recently gave a radio interview concerning Alternatives to animal testing on

Dublin City FM (podcast available at http://sciencespin.podomatic.com/).

New Grants Awarded

Congratulations to the following for their successful applications for research funding: Paul Engel

(IRCSET), Patricia Maguire (DHHS), Steffen Backert (DHHS), Liam Gallagher (EI, FP7) , Kevin O’Connor

(EI-Commercialisation fund), Philip Newsholme (Cystinosis Foundation Ireland).

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SBBS NEWS VOLUME 9 , 2010

December Conferrings The following SBBS postgraduates were conferred with the award of Ph.D. on December 8th 2010:

Laura Batti, Jason Alexander Bennett, Alessandro Bianchi, Una Bjarnadottir, Michelle Cronin, Kevin

Cunnigham, Catherine Daly, Patrick Houston, Maria Lacovella, Izyanti Ibrahim, Sarah Kandil, David

Kavanagh, Geraldine Kelly, Thomas Lau, Paul McGettigan, Sarah McLoughlin, Siobhan Moyna, Michelle

Ni Raghnaill, Sean O’Shea, Elton Rexhepaj, Sarah Rowe, Brian Steele and John Synnott. Also on the 8th

of December 2010 Venkata Pakala was conferred with the award of M.Sc.

The 2009-2010 graduates in Pharmacology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Biochemistry and Microbiology were

conferred with B.Sc.(Hons) degrees on the 8th of December.

The Pharmacology/AstraZeneca prize was awarded to Lucy Wyse, the Neuroscience prize was awarded

to Grainne McNamara, the Biochemistry prize (Harrington medal) was awarded to Gillian Houlihan, the

Genetics prize was awarded to Hazel Mangan and the Microbiology prize was awarded to Sarah Finn.

Selected Recent Publications and Presentations Holland, L., B. Conlon, and J. P. O'Gara. 2010. Mutation of tagO reveals an essential role for wall teichoic acids in Staphylococcus

epidermidis biofilm development. Microbiology. Epub ahead of print.

Martin-Martin N, Ryan G, McMorrow T, Ryan MP. (2010) 'Sirolimus and cyclosporine A alter barrier function in renal proximal tubular

cells through stimulation of ERK1/2 signaling and claudin-1 expression'. American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, 293

(3):672-682.

O'Neill K, Lyons SK, Gallagher WM, Curran KM, Byrne AT (2010) 'Bioluminescent imaging: a critical tool in pre-clinical oncology

research'. Journal of Pathology, 220 (3):317-327

Staff News

The Biochemical Society Irish Area Section (IAS) Meeting took place on Nov 25/26 in Belfast Two

students won Oral Presentation Prizes: Winner (Best Oral Presentation): Sean MacFhearraigh, PI:

Margaret McGee. One of three runners-up: Brian Rooney, PI: John Crean.

Dr. Jim O’Gara gave an invited seminar at the 14th International Symposium on Staphylococci and

Staphylococcal Infections (Bath, UK) entitled “Novel roles for the major autolysin and the

fibronectin binding proteins in promoting MRSA biofilm development”.

Dr Antonio Campos Torres will join SBBS as a visiting lecturer for 4 years from 1st January 2011.

Antonio's expertise is in neuroimmunology and he has research collaborations with several PIs in the

school, including Dr. Gethin McBean, Dr. Jana Haase and Dr. Carmel Hensey. He will provide lectures in

the module 'Molecular Neuroimmunology', which is available to MSc in Biotechnology students and is an

option for the BSc Hons in Neuroscience and for the PRTLI cycle 4-funded Clinician Scientist Fellowship

Programme that is co-ordinated by Molecular Medicine Ireland.

Above: Dr. John O’Connor with Laura Batti. Above Right: Dr. Gethin McBean Head of School with 4 of the B.Sc (Hons) prize winning graduates.

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SBBS NEWS VOLUME 9 , 2010

Staff News contd.

The Wellcome Trust have awarded funding for the first 4 year Ph.D. Programme outside the U.K. to UCD.

The programme is in "Computational Infection Biology", Geraldine Butler will be directing the programme

with Denis Shields (SMMS) as deputy director. The programme will support 20 PhD students, with an

intake of 5 students a year for 4 years. The programme brings together 8 investigators from SBBS with

others from SMMS, SAFVM, SMS and SCSI The programme will be launched in January 2011, with the

first student intake in September. The application process was very competitive - only 4 awards were

made, with > 60 applications from institutes all around the UK and Ireland.

Sean MacFhearraigh from Dr Margaret McGee’s research group recently took part in an interview for

Raidió na Gaeltachta, called, Ar Strae sa tSaotharlann. It was an interview based on Sean’s research work

through Irish. There is a podcast up for the show on: http://www.rte.ie/rnag/arstraesatsaotharlann.html

Professor Malthouse has launched an Application for the iPhone called “AminoAcidQA“. This App

contains about eighty revision questions and answers on amino acid metabolism. It is hoped that it will

help University students revise amino acid metabolism at home or on the go. Students will be able to test

their knowledge of key facts in amino acid metabolism . The App can be downloaded from itunes: http://

itunes.apple.com/ie/app/aminoacidqa/id406042691?mt=8 and a support page for the App can be found

at :http://homepage.eircom.net/~jpgm/

Inaugural DAPI Research Day

The Dublin Academy of Pathogenomics and Infection Biology (DAPI) Inaugural Research Day was held in

UCD Health Sciences Building on the 9th December 2010. Dr. Carmen Buchrieser of the Institut Pasteur

gave the inaugural lecture .

Many thanks to all who participated to make the

Inaugural DAPI meeting a huge success.

Attendees were treated to presentations covering

the cutting edge of bacterial and infection biology

research in UCD and TCD. Students and early

career postdoctoral students from both universities

presented their research and prizes for best

student presentation and best student poster were

awarded.

Prizes for best student talks were awarded to Brian Conlon in Dr. Jim

O’Gara’s group (SBBS) and Kelly Kane in Prof. Charles Dorman’s group at

TCD. Prizes for student poster presentations were awarded to Jing Chen in

Prof. Stephen Gordon’s group at UCD and Emma Jane Smith, a student in

Prof. Tim Foster’s group (TCD).

The meeting was co-funded by the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance

(DRHEA) and the UCD School of Biomedical and Biomolecular Science,

School of Medicine and Medical Science, and the School of Agriculture,

Food Science and Veterinary Medicine. The DRHEA Graduate Education

Strand aims to reposition the Dublin region as an International Centre for

Graduate and in particular, Doctoral Education, by combining the strengths

of the participating institutions.

DAPI was formed in 2010 to enhance synergy in research and teaching between microbiologists based in

University College Dublin and in Trinity College Dublin who are interested in the application of functional

genomics methods to the study of bacterial pathogens of humans and animals. With 19 laboratories

coming together to found the Academy, the range of research interests is broad and spans an impressive

array of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.

Above: Professor Stephen Gordon with prize winner Brian Conlon