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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
School:
Dr Roisin Dwyer
Discipline of Surgery
School of Medicine
National University of Ireland Galway
Phone +353-(0)91-524390, Fax: +353-(0)91-494509
Email: Roisin.dwyer@nuigalway.ie
Medicine
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration
school?
Research Centre / group
affiliation:
Discipline of Surgery Research Group and National Breast
Cancer Research Institute
Research group / centre
website:
www.nuigalway.ie/surgery/research
www.nbcri.ie
PI website / link to CV:
http://www.nuigalway.ie/surgery/research/roisin_dwyer.html
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
Breast cancer is the core focus of this research group, with a number of different approaches to
identifying novel therapeutic strategies under investigation. The work highlighted here investigates
the potential of adult stem cells as vehicles for targeted delivery of therapeutic genes or their
products to breast tumors, with a specific interest in imaging modalities to track MSC migration in
vivo.
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
Mesencyhmal Stem Cell (MSC)-mediated Gene Therapy for Breast Cancer
Despite improvements in detection and treatment, breast cancer incidence continues to rise.
Although patients with early stage disease have an excellent prognosis, the outcome remains poor
for those with metastatic disease. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are a subset of nonhaematopoietic multipotent cells found primarily within the bone marrow stroma. The ability of
MSCs to specifically home to sites of tumours and their metastases, while escaping host immune
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
surveillance holds tremendous promise for tumour targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. The
proposed study will harness MSCs for tumour-specific delivery of genes to support both imaging of
MSC migration in vivo, and ablation of breast cancer tissue following MSC engraftment. Previous
studies performed by this research group and others support the feasibility of this approach: MSCs
were engineered to express a gene to track migration in vivo and then injected intravenously into
tumour bearing mice, followed by imaging. MSCs were shown to migrate specifically to the sites of
tumours, after which their anti-cancer properties were activated. This resulted in a significant
reduction of tumour growth. This exciting preliminary data was generated using models of localised
breast cancer. The proposed study will translate this to clinically relevant models of metastatic
disease, and determine the true potential of this novel therapeutic strategy for treatment of
invasive breast cancer. Interactions between MSCs and cells in the primary tumour
microenvironment will also be investigated to determine the role of these cells in disease
progression.
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
This work represents a multidisciplinary international collaboration between groups at NUI Galway
(Surgery, Regenerative Medicine, Physics), the University of Arizona Centre for Gamma Ray Imaging
(Arizona, USA) and the Discipline of Endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA).
All of the required facilities and support required for the proposed project are available on site or
adjacent to (Clinical Research facility) the University campus.
Within the Discipline of Surgery, all equipment and resources required for tissue processing, storage
and analysis are present, e.g.:
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Dedicated hoods for tissues homogenisation, RNA extraction and RQ-PCR respectively
Fast RQ-PCR machine for large scale analysis of RNA from tissue samples- the PCR reaction is
completed within 25mins
GUAVA 8HT for analysis of primary cell populations and MSCs to confirm cell specific
antigen expression profile
Fluorescent microscope for analysis of PKH26 labelled MSCs within tissue sections
Ventana machine for automated Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue sections
Cell culture laboratory with dedicated incubators and hoods for both primary culture, and
culture of cell lines
Specialised In Vivo research facilities are also available on campus
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Biomedical Science, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pré-clinical and Health Sciences
X
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ Y____
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): _N____
Suitable for either/Don’t know: _____