2004 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

Home Page

Table of contents

Index by Author

Index by topics

Search


The National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology
Donnacha O'Driscoll
The National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology

Baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells transfected with human prepro-insulin cDNA and expressing insulin

The National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB) is a multidisciplinary research institute based at Dublin City University, NUI Maynooth and IT Tallaght. The NICB research teams investigate the molecular functions of human and animal cells in order to discover and develop new treatments and diagnostics for a variety of human diseases, with particular emphasis on cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases and developmental biology. In particular, the Institute is involved in translational research programs in collaboration with a number of Dublin hospitals, in order to bring the output from basic research to application in disease diagnosis and treatment of patients. There is also close collaboration with industries in Ireland and abroad.

Core to the ethos of the NICB is the broadening of the debate on the ethics of biotechnology and its applications. The institute is developing core facilities in areas such as DNA microarrays, proteomics and associated areas of bioinfomatics.

The research themes at the NICB include:

��Cellular resistance to xenobiotics
��Models for cellular differentiation and tissue engineering for investigating diseases such as cancer and diabetes
��Transcription and translation
��Public perception of biotechnology/bioethics
��Communicating biotechnology
��Bioprocess engineering
��Characterisation of toxin biosynthetic and drug detoxification pathways in Aspergillus fumigatus
��The role of drug efflux pumps in conferring drug resistance in cancer cells and pathogenic fungi
��Design and synthesis of novel molecules
��Functional Genomics
��Mechanisms of cancer drug resistance and invasion/metastasis
��Application of nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, confocal laser scanning microscopy and X-ray crystallography to molecular cell biological research
�� In vitro evaluation of the therapeutic potential of novel anti-microbial peptides and peptidomimetics
��Investigation of host-bacterium interaction using Burkholderia cepacia
��Investigation of fungal toxins as indicators of fungal infection
��Biocomputation � the application of sophisticated computational methods to analyse a wide range of biological processes.
Construction of the NICB's new research and development facility is due for completion in late 2005. The building will house state-of-the-art equipment and specialised laboratories which will allow NICB scientists to lead the way in developing treatments and diagnostic products for diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Contact: Dr Donnacha O'Driscoll, Manager, NICB, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland;
Tel: +353-1-7005700; Fax: +353-1-7005484; E-mail: [email protected]