November CÚRAM Investigator wins European Research Council Consolidator Grant
Professor Michael Monaghan, Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, and a funded investigator at CÚRAM, has today been awarded a highly prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant. He will now use the funding of approximately €2.6 million to pursue ground-breaking research that will enable significant advances in scientific knowledge.
Michael’s project, called PiezoMac, will develop a new cardiac patch that uses electric field stimulation to boost the regeneration of the heart muscle.
Project PiezoMac
Michael will develop a new platform of biomaterials that, by virtue of their material chemistry and geometrical design, will treat patients with heart muscle injury after a heart attack. Extending to injuries and providing structural support to damaged tissues, the work will provide better quality of life to patients. The multidisciplinary approach where biomedical engineering, computer science, and immunology intersect, will employ novel imaging technologies for the first time in Ireland.
Hesaid: “I am incredibly grateful to receive this funding and the enormous opportunity it provides to pursue this project, while training talented PhD students and Post-doctoral researchers to work on a project that I have been building towards for the last few years. I’m especially thankful for the support of friends, colleagues, and collaborators who contributed during the development of the grant and to Trinity’s Research Development Office for their continued support.
“The ERCs support of ‘blue skies’ research offers a lifeline for pursuing this frontier work, which will have a significant impact in materials chemistry and medical devices. Previous internal funding support from Trinity and from our national agencies has led to this award, underlining the significance of national endorsement in securing non-exchequer funding. I’d like to specifically acknowledge past and present lab members who inspire me with their motivation, creativity and dedication, and I’m very excited for this next chapter in our lab.”
CÚRAM Director Professor Abhay Pandit said: “CÚRAM congratulates Michael on his success which is a strong indication of the world-leading quality of his research. Michael’s project is one of scientific excellence and promises to break new ground in the field.”
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Dr. Michael Monaghan is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. His group's primary research areas are in biomaterials (in particular electroconductive biomaterials), advanced processing and rational design of biomaterials, cardiac tissue regeneration, and real-time imaging of extracellular matrix components and metabolism in differentiation and disease. He leads a number of interdiciplinary projects between other academic groups and industry ranging from immunometabolism, evaluation of fibrosis, biomaterial synthesis and induced pluripotent stem cell derivitisation of cardiac organoids.