Marie Curie Success for Engineering at DCU
Wednesday 27 July 2005

Dr Garrett McGuinness, Dr Lisa Looney, Dr Dermot Barbazon and Dr Joseph Stokes of the MPRC

A research project on innovative methods of producing hard and soft tissue substitutes, lead by Dr Lisa Looney, Dr Garrett McGuinness, Dr Joseph Stokes and Dr Dermot Brabazon of DCU's Materials Processing Research Centre (MPRC), has been approved by the European Commission. There are several circumstances under which it is necessary to replace human tissue, either on a permanent or temporary basis.

The current `gold standard' in replacing both bone and vascular tissue is to use autografts (material from other sites in the patient), but this can be problematic. Tissue may not be available and the `double' procedure incurs higher risk of infection, pain and prolongs hospital stays.

Synthetic alternatives do exist, but have not found widespread application due to difficulties in producing the optimum material structure and properties, in a repeatable and controllable manner. The research at DCU will study a number of innovative manufacturing processes with a view to achieving this control and repeatability, while characterising the properties, and response of cells to the tissue substitutes (or scaffolds).

Under the Marie Curie `Early Stage Training' programme, the investigation at DCU will be carried out by 7 postgraduate level researchers over the next 4 years. Alongside technical training, these students will undertake postgraduate level modules, and participate in a comprehensive professional development programme to enhance their future research career potential. Insights into biomedical industries will be important. Aspects of the study will involve researchers in IT Tallaght, NUIG and DCU's Vascular Health Research Centre.

The cost of the work will be approximately €1.2 million, and the team leaders are in negotiation with the EU Commission on the details. The Marie Curie Scheme is the most successful part of the FP6 Programme for Ireland. Income from Marie Curie to date is over €25m, 25% of the total from a programme that has only 9% of the total FP6 budget. This is €10m more than the IST programme which has more than double the budget available and represents a return of over four times what would be expected for Ireland. It is anticipated that this level of success will be maintained for the remainder of FP6. Marie Curie schemes will continue to operate for FP7 with an increased budget.