Dr Sarah Hudson and Dr Jakki Cooney

Congratulations to SSPC members Dr Jakki Cooney and Dr Sarah Hudson, who secured significant funding in the €5 million Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund award led by Cala Medical. The project entitled Therapeutic enzymes as a treatment for sepsis and other immune disorder diseases is partnered with the University of Limerick.

Announced on Monday, December 10, 2018 by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Heather Humphreys TD, the project led by Cala Medical, Nexus Centre, UL, and SME Curran Scientific, Raheen, Limerick, aims to tackle global challenges for the treatment of diseases including sepsis, psoriasis, arthritis and Crohn’s disease.

As Principal investigator for the SFI-funded Biologicals Process Infrastructure Testbed (BioPoint), secured through SSPC and based at the Bernal Institute, UL, Dr Sarah Hudson, said:
 “We are very fortunate to have the BioPoint facilities that will allow the development for novel biological applications and allocate work on combining technology and business model innovation. This funding will allow us the opportunity to implement the expertise further on a commercial basis and really solve treatment challenges.”

Dr Jakki Cooney, UL and Cala Medical, added:
 “This consortium has a disruptive technology, Cytoflow5, for the treatment of sepsis, a system that specifically targets the human immune system and reduces the over-response no matter what the cause. This affords us the opportunity to expand to disrupt areas currently dominated by monoclonal antibodies and thus disrupt the biologics area, moving into other treatment areas.”

In addition, we extend a massive congratulations to all recipients and also a new Co-Principal to the Centre, Prof. Donal O’Shea, Head of Department of Chemistry, RCSI, on receiving €5.7M. The project aims to transform the diagnosis and surgical treatment of Gastro-Intestinal (GI) diseases, specifically cancer, by allowing decision-support information to be available when needed for faster and more accurate interventions for patients. The project is led by RCSI and Mater University Hospital, UCD in partnership with Deciphex Ltd and IBM Research.

Disruptive technology is that which has the potential to significantly alter markets and their functioning and significantly alter the way that businesses operate. While it involves a new product or process, it can also involve the emergence of a new business model. Disruption is about the combination of technology and business model innovation.
The combination of science, technology and innovation and this targeted funding mechanism is the manner in which disruptive technology will help achieve the National Strategic Outcomes (NSOs) set out in Project Ireland 2040, in particular National Strategic Outcome 5 (A Strong Economy supported by Enterprise, Innovation and Skills).

For more information on Cala Medical’s Cytoflow5 technology, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_2mJLUjWXc