Co-Directors
Matthew Griffin
Investigator
matthew.griffin
universityofgalway.ie
Matthew Griffin is Professor of Transplant Biology and Head of the Discipline of Medicine in the School of Medicine at University of Galway. Prof. Griffin is a Clinician Scientist specialising in kidney disease, transplantation and regenerative medicine with a common theme of investigating immune response and inflammation.
Professor Griffin’s research activities encompass clinical outcomes studies, immune-pathogenesis investigation in pre-clinical models and basic cellular studies of immune and inflammatory responses. His research is primarily focussed on improving the understanding and outcomes of inflammatory kidney injury, organ and tissue transplants and allogeneic stem cell therapies. He is also Scientific Director of the University of Galway Flow Cytometry Core Facility and has specialised in the application of flow cytometry, cell sorting and imaging cytometry to immunology and regenerative medicine projects.
His laboratory research group has established a range of in vitro and in vivo approaches to characterising innate and adaptive immune responses in primary cell and tissues sources from animals and human subjects. This has generated new insights into the pathogenesis of complex disease processes including organ and tissue transplant rejection, acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease and tissue ischemia. It has also contributed to a better understanding of the immune responses induced by therapeutic stem cells in the setting of inflammatory diseases. With clinical collaborators, he has established protocols for biological sampling of patient cohorts with kidney disease and transplants as a resource for immune profiling and biomarker discovery. He has also been involved in the development and performance of multiple clinical trials and leads the CÚRAM Clinical Translational Platform.
Professor Griffin’s current research activities focus specifically on acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, organ and tissue transplantation and diabetes complications.
Professor Griffin was Associate Professor with NIH-funded research programme at Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA from 1999-2008. He is a member, American Society of Nephrology; European Renal Association/European Dialysis and Transplant Association; American Society of Transplantation; International Society of Nephrology; The Transplantation Society. He is a Professor and Principal Investigator with the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI), School of Medicine, University of Galway from 2008 – present. He is the coordinator of the 11-partner, EU FP7 Collaborative Health Project VISICORT focussed on adverse immune responses to corneal transplantation from 2014 – present. He is a co-investigator of the University of Galway-coordinated, EU Horizon 2020 Collaborative Health Project NEPHSTROM focussed on mesenchymal stromal cell therapy for diabetic kidney disease.
Professor Griffin has published over 140 peer-reviewed papers and has a current h-index of 54 (Google Scholar, 2018). His research has been published in leading journals including Science, PNAS, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Journal of Transplantation, Stem Cells and Kidney International.
Professor Griffin has been the recipient of several awards and honours including; 2004: Standing Member NIH/NIDDK Subcommittee D, 2004: Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine New Investigator Award, 2013: Associate Editor, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 2014: Standing Member, NIH/NIDDK, KUH Fellowship Review Panel, 2014: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 2014: Member of the Association of Physicians of the UK and Ireland,2015: Deputy Editor, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Related Links
https://www.universityofgalway.ie/remedi/who-we-are/principalinvestigators/profmatthewgriffin/