LINKS
Notices for inclusion in LINKS are welcome, but they must be brief, to the point, and of genuine interest to Irish SMEs. Email: [email protected]
LIVE LINK
SPIN ACTIVE APPLIED STI
OvErSEAS students are reported to bring in €900 million a year, and the Government aims to double these numbers by 2016. As part of this drive, India has been targeted. More than 10,000 Indian students go abroad to study every year, and of these about 1,000 come to Ireland.
Education export
Treating resistant bacterial infections
Classical antibiotics have proven to be safe and efficient, however, multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MrSA) and Enterobacteriaceae can be resistant against these and other agents often used as the last line of effective antibiotic treatment. researchers at rCSI have developed a technology allowing the versatile and reliable conjugation of a classical antibiotic to a host defence peptide, based on a cleavable linker. The disconnection of these agents can be selectively triggered by the main mechanism of bacterial resistance which is conserved in multidrug resistant pathogens. Combining the activities and assets of classical antibiotics and host defence peptides in this way may lead to effective new options for the treatment of resistant infections. For more information please contact dr Aoife Gallagher [email protected] www.rcsi.ie/technologiesforlicense
Treatments for diarrhoeal diseases
diarrhoeal diseases represent a huge global burden; in developing countries infectious diarrhoea kills 2.5 million children annually while in Western societies diarrhoea is a feature of many intestinal disorders including infectious diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases and celiac disease. rCSI studies into epithelial cell fluid transport have revealed a number of potential therapeutic approaches to diarrheal disease. As a result these new therapeutic options, which directly target intestinal epithelial transport processes, should provide more specific and safer approaches to treat diarrhoeal diseases. For more information please contact dr Aoife Gallagher [email protected] www.rcsi.ie/technologiesforlicense
LIVE LINK
A CAThETEr that allows skin to seal it in to prevent infection, has been developed by Marvao, a company established in 2006 at the GMIT campus. Clinical trials are now in progress at University hospital Galway for the product which is expected to solve a worldwide problem in preventing pathogens from entering the body. Catheter related blood infections are a serious, and sometimes fatal consequence of long term treatments that require insertion of a catheter.
Safer catheter
FIGUrES released by Forfas show that business spending on r&d was €1.9 billion in 2009. Preliminary estimates for 2010 show a small drop, to €1.8 billion. These figures represent all sectors. Irish businesses spent €563 million on r&d in 2009, and it is thought that this will have increased to €583 million in 2010.
Research spend
WhEN joints are damaged, through injury or disease, a considerable potential may still exist for self-repair. At TCd, dr daniel Kelly has been looking at how cells can be isolated and reinserted to regenerate damaged tissues. Moving joints have a limited ability to recover from injury, and often damage leads to arthritis. dr Kelly’s research concentrates on developing a cost effective way to help the cells themselves to make the repairs. Last year, dr Kelly was awarded a European research Council grant worth €1.5 million to support this project. Such awards are only granted for exceptional work, and less than ten per cent of the researchers who apply receive this support. In this work, mesenchymal stem cells are isolated from the injured joint and these are then cultured in a hydrogel containing a growth promotor. An important ai H? ??[ x?&\? ???\? ??] \?H?[ \?\? ????[???[??[?[ \??Y\? ]?[??H[\[?Y[?[XY?Y??[? ????[?[??[?Y\?[???S?\?[?UH ??[YK ?\? ]\[? ?\ ?[?]\??\?H?Z[????\?Y ?\ ? ??[?Y?]???H^ \?Y[??HX???Y ?HZ[H? H\?\?]\?[?[??[? ?\ ?[?]\?? ???[[YH\? ?X]? ?\? ]\ ? ?]^ \?Y[??Y?QH??\??[? ?\?[?\? \? ??]\??K?[?H [?
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