Why do peripheral nerves regenerate?
Professor Jessen obtained MSc and PhD degrees in Neuroscience while working in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, UCL, London. Following a Senior Research Fellowship of the Mental Health Foundation in the laboratory of Martin Raff, Department of Zoology, UCL, he was awarded a Wellcome University Award Lectureship in 1983 in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, UCL. He has been a Professor of Developmental Neurobiology in the same Department (now Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology) since 1993. His research is on (i) early Schwann cell development and the biology of the Schwann cell precursor (SCP), (ii) the molecular control of myelination and (iii) the response of Schwann cells to injury and genetic disease, including the processes of de-myelination, axonal regeneration and nerve repair. He became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002.
Multifunctional polymer matrices for regenerative therapies
Professor Carsten Werner is based in Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (IPF). His research interests are electrosurface phenomena, hemocompatible coatings, bioactive polymer matrices for regenerative therapies and biomimicry concepts in materials science. Professor Werner has 183 peer reviewed publications, 1 edited book, 13 book chapters and 28 patent or patent applications.
Biomimetic Approaches to Surface Functionalization for Biomedical Applications
Professor Textor's group has recently developed novel surface modification strategies based on functional polymers coupled to surfaces through strong, wet binding chemistry used by nature. The anchorage chemistry is derived from mussel adhesiver proteins (MAPs, following up from pioneering work of the Messersmith group at Northwestern) and from siderophores used by cyanobacteria to coordinate and harvest iron (III) in sea water. The focus is on self-assembly of such polymers ("grafting-to") providing a straightforward way to introduce (bio)functionalities at variable and controlled surface density, an important issue in biology in the context of high affinity/avidity through multivalent interactions.
Strategies for the Synthesis of Branched or Cross-linked Polymers by RAFT Controlled Radical Polymerization
Julien Poly received chemistry diplomas from “Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan” and “Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris”. He obtained his PhD in polymer chemistry in 2008 from the University of Bordeaux, where he studied the synthesis of nanogels by controlled radical crosslinking copolymerization under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Taton. In 2009, he was appointed as assistant professor at the University of Haute-Alsace. He joined the CNRS institute IS2M, where he is now developing macromolecular synthesis for surface engineering.
Fibrin Mediated Proangiogenic and Secretory Control Gene Therapy
Mangesh received his bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery from Grant Medical College, University of Mumbai, Mumbai in 2002. After practising medicine for two years, he then perceived a research career and received a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai in 2006. He came to NUI Galway to pursue a Ph.D. in gene therapy for compromised wound healing.
His doctoral research focused on development of a fibrin based non-viral system capable of multiple gene delivery in controlled manner. The other focus was unravelling the gene regulation in keratinocytes during compromised wound healing. The delivery system was tested with a combination of a well-known proangiogenic and a newly identified secretory control molecules in an alloxan induced rabbit ear ulcer model of compromised wound healing. Mangesh has published four journal articles, one book chapter and has presented at several conferences.
Morphology and Nanomechanics of Live Neuronal Growth Cones Analyzed by Atomic Force Microscopy
Neuronal growth cones are motile, hand-like structures located at the end of axons that read extracellular guidance information and translate it into directional movement. Despite of their important role in neuronal development and regeneration, relatively little is known about the topography and mechanical properties of distinct subcellular growth cone regions under live conditions. Here, we used the atomic force microscope (AFM) to obtain high-resolution images of the peripheral domain, the transition zone, and the central domain of live Aplysia growth cones, an ideal model system to study growth cone mechanics. Contact and dynamic mode imaging revealed an average height of 183 ± 33, 690 ± 274, and 1322 ± 164 nm for these domains, respectively, confirming previous data obtained from fixed cells. Nanoindentation measurements on the subcellular regions revealed that the P-domain and the T-zone ruffling region had similar elastic moduli (10-23 kPa), that was significantly higher than that measured in central domain (3-7 kPa). High resolution images of the P-domain suggest that the high elastic modulus of the P and T regions was a result of a dense actin meshwork that surrounds the filopodial F-actin bundles. These properties have been interpreted in terms of the structure of the cytoskeleton in specific regions of the growth cone and the proposed mechanism of growth cone motility.
Computer-aided design of nanostructured biomaterials
Dr Damien Thompson provides modelling support for materials design, using experimentally-validated massively-parallel computer simulations. He has authored 30 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of surface, carbohydrate and peptide engineering.
In this talk Dr Thompson will summarise the design principles required for development of functional biomaterials, and describe recent applications of High-Performance Computing to design one class of nanostructured scaffold, called "molecular printboards", that interact with organic macromolecules in a controllable manner (Figure 1a) [1]. This system serves as a model for the design of nanostructured scaffolds for cell immobilisation and ultimately, directed cell growth. The kinetics of such multivalent (multi-site) interactions at interfaces is poorly understood, despite its fundamental importance for molecular or biomolecular motion and molecular recognition events at biological interfaces. The simulations helped identify multiple surface diffusion mechanisms, which are called walking, hopping and flying. The study shows that the interfacial behaviour of multivalent systems is much more complex than that of monovalent ones, with implications for the development of materials that interact controllably with cell surfaces, including anti-viral drugs and growth factor-loaded tissue engineering scaffolds. Recent computer-aided design studies of protein immobilisation (Figure 1b) will also be discussed, together with functionalised nanoparticles [2] and self-assembled films [3,4] for medical diagnostics/therapeutics.
Figure 1. (a) Dendrimer (blue) binding to a cyclodextrin (red) functionalised surface; control of these multi-site interactions is crucial for development of tissue engineering scaffolds. (b) Optimised protein (green) immobilisation on silicon (blue), required for biomedical nanosensors.
The role of macrophage receptors in Innate Immunity
Therapeutic Aerosol Bioengineering for Targeted Delivery in the Lungs
Sally-Ann Cryan graduated with a BSc. (Pharmacy) from Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) and subsequently carried out PhD research in the area of gene therapy in the Department of Pharmaceutics in TCD. After completing her PhD she went on to work as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 2003, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to carry out research into novel gene and protein-based therapies for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) at the School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) with Prof. Anthony Hickey. In 2004 she was appointed as Lecturer in Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy, RCSI and was appointed to Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics in October 2008. She is currently Research Convenor for Pharmacy in RCSI and a PI in RCSI’s Respiratory and Tissue Engineering Research Clusters. She has been involved in the design and delivery of the new Pharmacy degree in RCSI and of structured PhD courses including the HRB PhD Scholars Programme in Therapeutics and Diagnostics for Human Disease. Her main area of research interest is in the development of specialised drug delivery platforms for therapeutic drug molecules, with a particular focus on three areas: (i) delivery of biotherapeutics including proteins and non-viral gene delivery (ii) bioengineering of bioresponsive platforms for targeted drug delivery and (iii) respiratory drug delivery. She has established an independent research group that develops advanced drug delivery platforms for biotherapeutics and is currently involved in a number of projects developing novel strategies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and respiratory infections, including tuberculosis and in developing “smart” drug-loaded scaffolds for tissue engineering. She was a founding member of the Irish Drug Delivery Network (IDDN) that was funded as a Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) in 2007. Her research team collaborates with a range of academic research groups, clinicians and industry on research projects and in conducting contract research.
Gradient Strategies and Umbilical Cord Wharton's Jelly Cells for Osteochondral Tissue Engineering
Michael Detamore is an Associate Professor of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and Director of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory at the University of Kansas. He came to KU in 2004 after earning his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado and his Ph.D. in bioengineering from Rice University. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the Coulter Foundation Translational Research Award, and is a Fulbright Scholar currently on sabbatical at NUI Galway in Ireland. His research interests are biomaterials, biomechanics, stem cells and tissue engineering. Tissue engineering efforts focus primarily on bone and cartilage regeneration, including the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), knee, cranium, and trachea. Central research themes include umbilical cord stem cells and gradients in tissue engineering. He has published over 50 papers, given invited lectures around the world, and has three patents pending. In addition to his research, he enjoys teaching and has won numerous teaching awards at the department, school and university levels.
