Minister Lenihan Announces ¤5.6million Funding for New Science Foundation Ireland Strategic Research Cluster
“New Cluster to position Ireland as a key international player in oncology arena” – Lenihan
Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation, has today (Thursday, 25thJune 2009) announced a ¤5.6 million funding from Government, through Science Foundation Ireland, for the establishment of a new Strategic Research Cluster (SRC). Under the leadership of well known Consultant Medical Oncologist, Professor John Crown, with Dublin City University as lead academic institution, the SRC in Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer will assemble and build a fully-integrated national translational cancer drug discovery and development programme that will significantly benefit cancer patients in Ireland.
Making the announcement, Minister Lenihan, said “This SRC has genuine potential to make Ireland a leading centre for cancer drug discovery and development. Today marks the latest declaration from Government that it believes in science, and greatly values the top class collaborative research being conducted in this country”
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The Minister added “I very much look forward to the contributions and findings that will emerge from the efforts of Prof. Crown and his team over the five-year period of this funding award. There is real confidence that this SRC will help to ultimately position Ireland as a key international player in the oncology research arena”.
Addressing the event, Professor Crown said “We have witnessed fundamental change and enormous progress in the area of cancer drug treatment in recent years. The very significant funding provided by Government through Science Foundation Ireland, will foster greater and more focused collaboration between existing high quality cancer research units in this country. We would like to acknowledge the support of our industrial partners in this process and believe that the award will encourage further investment in biomedical research in Ireland.”
Professor Crown’s team comprises Co-principal Investigators Professor Joe Duffy, St Vincent’s University Hospital/University College Dublin; Professor William Gallagher, University College Dublin; Professor William Watson, University College Dublin; and Dr Judith Harmey, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In addition, Trinity College Dublin/St. James’s Hospital are a partnership institution and Irish Cooperative Oncology Research Group. The SRC’s Industry Partners are GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Novartis, Roche, Amgen, Erigal, Caliper Life Science, AntiCancer Inc.
Speaking at the announcement, Director General of SFI, Professor Frank Gannon, said “This SRC is a deliberate step to bring together the clinical and pharmaceutical worlds through the definition of research that is mutually important. The Irish Government, through the Health Research Board, as well as SFI, is reinforcing efforts in this area of translational research. In a research context, the exchange and sharing of knowledge in a cluster format provides the best possible chances of success. Collaborative activity remains a key priority of SFI’s overall strategy as it expands its research programmes, while maintaining an acute awareness of enterprise needs and commercial potential.
Professor Gannon added that “the detailed and rigorous process of assessment and review by international scientific experts and state agencies proves beyond doubt that this SRC really is of the very highest quality”.
SFI’s SRC programme aims to link scientists and engineers in partnerships across academia and industry to address crucial research questions, foster the development of new and existing Irish-based technology companies, and to grow partnerships with industry that will enhance the competitiveness of Ireland’s economy.
Today’s SRC announcement took place at the Royal College for Physicians of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
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For further information, please contact:
Alva O'Cleirigh, Communications Manager, SFI, +353 1 607 3249 / + 353 87 9152553 or Carl Gibney, Fleishman-Hillard +353 1 6188428 / + 353 86 045955
Note for Editors
About the Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer SRC
Lead Principal Investigator: Professor John Crown
Lead Institution: Dublin City University
Co-Principal Investigators
• Professor Joe Duffy, St Vincent’s University Hospital/University College Dublin
• Professor William Gallagher, University College Dublin
• Professor William Watson, University College Dublin
• Dr Judith Harmey, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Other partnering institution: Trinity College Dublin/St James’s Hospital
Industry Partners: GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Novartis, Roche, Amgen, Erigal, Caliper Life Science, AntiCancer Inc
Other Collaborators: Irish Cooperative Oncology Research Group
Summary of SRC
The drug treatment of cancer is undergoing a major revolution. In the past, relatively crude treatments, such as chemotherapy, were used to poison rapidly growing cancer cells, often in the absence of any knowledge as to how these drugs were working. In addition, these older drugs have very serious side effects due to the non-specific nature of their action.
More recently, cancer drug treatment has entered the era of “targeted therapy”. These newer drugs, sometimes thought of as “magic bullets” have been designed to exploit differences between the cancer cells, and normal cells. Unlike chemotherapy, these newer treatments will be more focussed in their effects resulting in a much more favourable toxicity profile.
In addition, many of theses drugs simply work much better than older cancer drugs. The treatment of some cancers e.g. “HER2 positive” breast cancer, a particularly dangerous and potentially lethal variant of the disease, has improved dramatically as result of Herceptin, an early targeted treatment.
A further fundamental difference which has occurred is in the way in which cancer drugs are developed. Formerly, the process was “observational” and based on a fairly sophisticated form of trial and error. In order words, those chemicals that stopped cancer cells growing in the lab, were identified as potential anti-cancer drugs, and taken on to further stages of development. In the modern, “molecular” era, the process begins with the study of the cancer cells themselves, attempting to identify areas of difference from normal cells, and then to develop new drugs to exploit these differences. Much of the expertise which is necessary for this process exists in Ireland, and indeed, Ireland has had a critical role in different parts of the development pathway for some of these newer agents.
Our consortium represents an attempt to coordinate all of these activities, to allow them to reach critical mass, to explore synergies which they may have and to develop new and existing skills, in order to make Ireland a leading centre for cancer drug discovery and development.
This type of development is very attractive to the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry, who understand the critical need for high quality scientific collaborations, if their promising drugs are to be developed in accordance with the highest research standards.
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Last modified: 25/06/2009
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