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DCU collaborating with Brazilian university for new research on peptides

DCU collaborating with Brazilian university for new research on peptides

DCU’s Dr. Dermot Walls and two recent Analytical Science graduates contributed to a new study on synthetic peptides. Their research will feature on the cover of the December issue of the Royal Society for Chemistry’s Interdisciplinary journal RSC Soft Matter.

Along with a Brazilian team lead by Dr. Emerson da Silva at the Federal University of São Paulo, they discovered that certain peptides can be useful tools for gene delivery into cells. This is the basis of gene therapy, which means that normal genes can be introduced into cells that are missing or defective in order to correct genetic disorders.

Shannon Lee and Gary Cooney contributed to some of the DCU work when they were fourth years students with Dr. Dermot Walls in the School of Biotechnology. Dr. Dermot Walls, along with co-author Dr. Brendan O’Connor, established the collaboration during a visit to Brazil funded by Research Brazil Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland.

Speaking about the peptides, Dr. Walls said:

“The peptides don’t just need to be able to protect and promote the gene’s entry into the cell’s nucleus, they also need to be able to efficiently let go of the gene once they get inside.”