August 2015 CÚRAM Researcher Awarded Industry Fellowship from Science Foundation Ireland

Dr Gerard Wall, a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at NUI Galway and investigator at the Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM), has received an SFI Industry Fellowship Award. The Fellowship will support the development of an innovative diagnostics platform for the detection of pathogens and other contaminants in biological samples, in collaboration with industry partner Snowy Range Instruments in Wyoming, USA.

The research will follow on from Dr Wall’s current work to develop an immunotest to detect marine neurotoxins that accumulate in shellfish and cause diarrhetic poisioning when ingested.

“Our work in Wyoming will focus on developing a user-friendly instrument to improve marine monitoring”, said Dr Wall, “but the technology will also be applicable to rapid, on-site diagnosis of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in biological samples such as serum and saliva.”

Professor Abhay Pandit, Director of CÚRAM, said: “The Fellowship allows the exchange of Dr Wall’s expertise in antibody engineering for the instrumentation and manufacturing know-how of a leading industry partner. The collaboration will also enable CÚRAM to access new technology pathways for commercialisation of our ongoing research.”

This research will be carried out in collaboration with Snowy Range Instruments who are leaders in developing innovative Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) platforms for researchers.

These hand held SERS platforms can be used for identification and analysis of a wide range of materials, and the goal of this research is to develop the capacity for their use in point-of-care (POC) clinical screening and diagnosis, such as primary care settings and in developing countries as well as in the potential identification of biothreat agents, monitoring of environmental pathogens and toxins and in sectors such as food safety monitoring.

The SFI Award will also generate benefit to industry by developing new expertise, up-skilling of staff in biological techniques and enabling it to access a new technology pathway for commercialisation of an elaborate range of sensor devices as well as supporting innovation and collaboration between scientists and industry.

-Ends-