€2 million Award to Support Exciting Next Steps in Inflammation Research

Posted on: 07 March 2016

Arthritis, inflammatory bowel syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease all have one thing in common: inflammation. Understanding what causes it is crucial to developing new treatments for these chronic illnesses.

Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity, Luke O Neill, is a global pioneer in inflammation research. He has now secured a €2 million Investigator Award through the SFI-HRB-Wellcome Trust partnership to investigate new theories that consider how certain cells behave and cause inflammation. His goal is to find new therapies.

Professor O’Neill said: “We have discovered fascinating metabolic changes occur in a key cell associated with inflammation, called a macrophage. It appears that when this cell becomes over-activated, as it would in an inflammatory disease such as MS or arthritis, it burns nutrients in a peculiar way. This leads to the generation of inflammatory factors, which damage tissue and cause the signs and symptoms of inflammation.”

“We have discovered totally new events which regulate this process that could prove responsive to targeting with new medicines. Through this investment from the HRB, Science Foundation Ireland and the Wellcome Trust, we will investigate these events in great detail with a view to developing brand new therapies that would be very useful in a whole range of diseases where current treatments are ineffective.”

Dr Graham Love, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board, said: “Luke is a legend in immunology research. I believe we will see therapies for inflammatory diseases emerge from this work which will impact positively on people’s lives. The HRB will continue to work in partnership with others to support biomedical research which helps feed the pipeline for future treatments and therapies.”

Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland, said: “I am particularly pleased to congratulate Professor O’Neill on his success, as Science Foundation Ireland have supported his work for the past 15 years, witnessing directly the quality, progress and impact that his research is making in the field of immunology.  Professor O’Neill is one of the world’s leading researchers and one of the driving forces behind Ireland’s ranking of 2nd in the world in Immunology. I believe that through this work we will gain significant increased understanding of inflammatory diseases and see improved treatments emerge for patients. This award demonstrates that Science Foundation Ireland through the partnership with the Wellcome Trust and HRB can help support those who are leaders in their field, and who are delivering important and impactful scientific research.”

The award will also help Professor O’Neill establish a team of highly trained young scientists to pursue the goals of the project. 

Professor O'Neill added: “I am honoured to be supported by this Wellcome Trust – HRB- SFI programme. It will allow me to build a team of four postdoctoral scientists to carry out research into ideas I have in the area of inflammatory diseases which could change our view of the underlying mechanisms of these diseases and in turn might lead to better therapies.”