Innovation Newsletter Autumn 2020

Welcome to the Autumn edition of the quarterly RCSI Innovation Newsletter, which contains information on research commercialisation and industry engagement activity at RCSI, including news and events, recent researcher successes and funding opportunities.

RCSI Licences Three Tissue Engineering Technologies to Locate Bio

RCSI has recently entered into agreements with Locate Bio, an orthobiologics focused regenerative medicine company, for the licencing of multiple late stage orthobiologics assets from Prof Feral O’Brien’s research group.

Locate Bio exists to help surgeons improve the lives of people with debilitating orthopaedic conditions and the in-licencing of these assets provides additional depth and breadth to its orthobiologics portfolio. The technologies developed by the RCSI Tissue Engineering Research Group have extensive pre-clinical and human data demonstrating their effectiveness in the treatment of both hard and soft tissues. The RCSI licensing deal includes best in class, proprietary, natural collagen-based delivery technologies, which have been developed into products for the regeneration of bone, the treatment of infection and regeneration of cartilage tissues.

Locate Bio is currently seeking to establish a corporate presence in Ireland to further exploit these and future orthobiologic opportunities.

Successful Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Applications

Richard Costello: PhysicianScripts
Congratulations to Richard Costello, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at RCSI on being awarded a Commercialisation Fund grant of €374k by Enterprise Ireland to further develop his technology ‘PhysicianScripts’. PhysicianScripts is a digital health platform which leverages over a decade of clinical research at RCSI and Beaumont Hospital into novel methods of assessing, quantifying and feeding back information relating to adherence to inhaled therapy by patients.

The core of PhysicianScripts is a clinically validated suite of medical software which functions as a clinical support system to analyse data recorded via a variety of digital monitoring devices to enable the delivery of safe, cost effective care for patients with chronic respiratory diseases. This Commercialisation Fund will be used to obtain the regulatory approvals for this software and validate a business model for a spinout company to bring the technology to the international market.

The ORI supported Prof. Costello in obtaining initial feasibility funding from EI to scope out the commercial potential of the PhysicianScripts technology, filing patent protection for the associated intellectual property and supporting the submission of the Commercialisation Fund application via the invited call route.

Sally-Ann Cryan: StarMat
Congratulations to Professor Sally-Ann Cryan, RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, and Professor Andreas Heise, RCSI School of Chemistry, on being awarded a Commercialisation Fund grant of €400k from Enterprise Ireland to further develop their technology ‘StarMat’ which focuses on star-shaped polypeptide materials for biomedical applications.

The patented StarMat technology can be tailored to deliver specific drug payloads, integrated with medical devices when required to target specific tissues and cells, and may be particularly well suited to applications in biotherapeutic delivery in respiratory and regenerative medicine. The commercialisation funding will be used to support the development of scalable processes for drug payload incorporation, product refinement and further toxicology studies with the ultimate goal of creating an RCSI spin-out company to take the technology to market.

The ORI supported the team in identifying and patenting the core Intellectual Property and conducting a commercial feasibility study funded by Enterprise Ireland, through which the researchers worked with an external consultant and multiple industry partners to validate the market potential of the technology. The market analysis highlighted the demand for direct-to-cell delivery technologies, particularly advanced therapeutics medicinal products. This includes nucleic acid-based therapies, such as RNA-based technologies, which are being used in some of the Covid-19 vaccine technologies currently in development.

RCSI is Awarded Three Knowledge Transfer Ireland Grants to Support Innovation

The fund was announced to allocate funding to improve technology transfer supports in response to feedback in the mid-term reviews performed last year and in which RCSI scored an A grade. The three successful applications are:

Engaging with International Investors at BioEquity
Evaluation of Consultancy Potential at RCSI
Dissemination of Best Practices for the Incorporation of Design and Human Factor Analysis in Healthcare Research Commercialisation

Activity under these awards will commence in the coming weeks.

Science-Based Technology Company 3M Awards A Significant COVID19 Research Grant to RCSI Researchers

L-R: Prof. Fergal O’Brien, RCSI Director of Research; Prof. Steven Kerrigan; June Ryan, 3M Ireland Country Leader; Prof. James O’Donnell; Keith O’Connor, 3M Head of Business Development; Ms Aine Gibbons, RCSI Director of Development and Alumni Relations; and Chris Lessing, Medical Affairs Leader for 3M+KCI3M, which has operations in Dublin and Athlone, Co. Westmeath, recently awarded €420,000 for two COVID-19 research programmes at RCSI.Under the first programme involves a team of researchers at RCSI, the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology and St James’s Hospital, Dublin, led by Prof. James O’Donnell, will investigate the mechanisms through which COVID-19 triggers the formation of these micro-clots so that more effective treatments for patients can be developed, particularly for those in high-risk groups. Previous research by the team has shown that Irish patients with a higher level of blood clotting activity had a significantly worse prognosis and were more likely to require intensive care admission.The second study, led by Prof. Steven Kerrigan, will advance encouraging initial studies carried out by Prof. Kerrigan’s team uses a repurposed drug to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from attaching to human cells, therefore slowing or stopping the virus from causing severe and potentially long lasting damage to the body. This project builds on pre-clinical research carried out by Prof. Kerrigan’s team, supported by the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund programme, which demonstrated the ability of the repurposed drug to stop progression of bacterial induced sepsis to multiple organ failure. Plans to advance these findings into human clinical trials through an RCSI spin-out company, called InnovoSep, are currently underway.

RCSI Researchers Leads Projects in COVID-19 Rapid Response Research and Innovation Funding Call

RCSI leads projects in COVID-19 Rapid Response Research and Innovation funding call

Pictured at RCSI where the announcement was made were (l-r): Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General SFI and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government; Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, TD; Prof. Zena Moore; and Prof. Donal O’Shea.Two industry collaborations were funded under Science Foundation Ireland-led COVID-19 Rapid Response Research and Innovation programme.Professor Zena Moore, Professor and Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery and her team at the Skin Wounds and Trauma (SWaT) Research Centre, RCSI are carrying out a study to rapidly implement and evaluate a clinical solution specifically tailored for ICU healthcare staff to reduce the incidence of facial pressure ulcers and infection and to improve comfort when wearing PPE. In collaboration with Irema, the team will also investigate how the solution could be incorporated into the current facemask manufacturing and distribution chains.Professor Donal O’Shea, Professor and Head of Department, Chemistry, RCSI is leading a study, ‘National roadmap for facial PPE sterilisation’, in collaboration with the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Cappagh and Zehnacker Healthcare Ireland. This innovative research project, which will be guided by the views of healthcare staff surveyed as part of the project, will build the framework to deliver a national medical facemask sterilisation programme. As part of the project, the team will develop validated use of vapour hydrogen peroxide (VPH) and investigate the innovative use of steam sterilisation (autoclaving) for the decontamination of facial PPE.

In addition, Professor Bryan Hennessy, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine, RCSI is leading a project on ‘Detection of COVID-19 infection using exhaled breath condensate’. The study will investigate a non-invasive breath test for COVID-19 that has been used to detect biomarkers for other conditions. The new test may offer a more accurate alternative to nose and mouth swab tests in the diagnosis of COVID-19 and decrease the number of false negative results.

RCSI researchers are also collaborators on a further three funded projects:

AptaGold – a rapid saliva-based COVID-19 screening assay led by Dr Niamh Gilmartin and Dr Steve Meaney, TU Dublin in collaboration with Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Consultant Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital and RCSI and Dr Eoghan De Barra, Consultant Infectious Disease Physician, Beaumont Hospital and RCSI.
Safe PPE – tools for improved HCW safety led by Dr Joan Cahill, Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Consultant Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital and RCSI.
Irish Coronavirus Sequencing Consortium led by Prof. Paul Cotter Food Biosciences Teagasc in collaboration with Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Consultant Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital and RCSI.

RCSI Enters Collaboration with Phion Therapeutics

Congratulations to Prof. Tracy Robson of the RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences who recently secured funding from Science Foundation Ireland through Precision Oncology Ireland for a collaboration with Phion Therapeutics. Precision Oncology Ireland is a consortium of five Irish universities, six Irish cancer research charities, and ten companies aiming to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics for the personalised treatment of cancer.

Precision Oncology Ireland is supported by a €5 million Government investment through the Science Foundation Ireland Strategic Partnership Programme, matched by a €6.9 million investment from the charity and industry partners.

RCSI Enters Collaboration with Coroflo

Congratulations to Dr. Anne Doolin, Consultant Neonatologist at the Coombe Women’s hospital and honorary Senior Lecturer at RCSI, who recently secured funding from indigenous Irish Company, Coroflo, for an investigator initiated clinical study assessing the adequacy of breastfeeds involving the company device which provides giving accurate, precise, and real-time data for breast feeding babies. In the UK more than ¾ of women who start breastfeeding stop by 6 weeks.

Worldwide, the number one reason identified for premature weaning is fear of low supply. 60% of women give fear of low supply as the main reason for discontinuing feeding sooner than planned. The majority of women, even when provided with information about monitoring wet nappies, are not confident enough to recognise when their baby has had enough milk.

Venue: Microsoft Teams
Date: Monday 5^th October 2020
Time: 14:00-15:00
Register your interest by emailing innovation@rcsi.ie
At this event you will hear from Dr Andrew Cameron, CEO FeelTect who will talk about:

His journey transitioning from post doc to med tech entrepreneur
Learnings from the BioInnovate programme
Early stage company milestones, funding sources and challenges

Speaker Bio:

Andrew Cameron

Dr Cameron is Founder and CEO of FeelTect, a Galway-based start-up company developing Tight Alright – the first wearable, connected-health technology for measuring and monitoring sub-bandage pressure during compression therapy for venous leg ulcer treatment. He identified the unmet clinical need for Tight Alright during his time as a Fellow in the BioInnovate Ireland programme and has driven the technology’s development from concept to clinical studies.

He previously worked as a Commercialisation Lead at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, supporting the innovation pathways for several medical technologies. Here, he also worked as Research Fellow in the Tissue Engineering Research Group, primarily working on clinical corneal regeneration applications. His education qualifications include an Engineering degree, double majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering, a PhD in Tissue Engineering, a Graduate Certificate in Research Commercialisation, and a Diploma in BioInnovation.

Funding Opportunities

DTIF Call 3 Launch

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD, launched the third Call for applications to the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) on 24 September 2020.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 17 December 2020 (15.00 Irish Time).

How the Office of Research and Innovation can Help:

Shaping your idea
Identifying the right industry partners
Pitching to industry partners to secure their support
Advice on proposal development and content
Institutional profile, commercialisation and project management content
Budget review – RCSI Finance
Institutional sign-off required
Interview prep

Please register your “Intent to Submit” on RIMS ASAP
For queries, please contact Dr Seamus Browne seamusbrowne@rcsi.ie

IRC Enterprise Partnership Scheme

In line with the schedule on our funding page, the 2021 call is scheduled to open in Q4 2020 with the call outcome in Q2 2021 for awards commencing in September 2021 (TBC).

The Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme is a unique national initiative linking excellent researchers to enterprise. The scheme brings great research ideas into an enterprise partner with the support of a higher education institution.

The Irish Research Council partners with enterprises and jointly funds two-year fellowships to highly promising researchers in Ireland. Fellows will hold an Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Scheme Postdoctoral Fellowship.

RCSI Innovation Team:
Aoife Gallagher – Head of Innovation
Seamus Browne – Head of Industry Partnerships
Derek John – Technology Transfer Case Manager
Sarah Pryor – Research Contracts Officer
Shelia Young – Contracts Manager
Stephen Curran – Assistant Research Officer
Eamon Sheehy – Technology Transfer Case Manager
Contact the Innovation Team
Researcher Information and Resources
Stay informed with the Innovation Website designed to help researchers commercialise their research and engage with industry. In addition new resources are available on the Staff Portal and the Researcher Handbook which provides further clarity on the supports available from the ORI as well as guidelines for industry engagement and commercialisation.

Page Author(s) -

Rosemary McGarry