People

Andrew Finnerty - General Manager 

Andrew has over 30 years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, having worked with several leading-edge pharmaceutical companies. He has held positions of increasing responsibilities, where he worked in QA/QC, Development, Validation, Fermentation and Aseptic Filling of vials and syringes. His primary experience is in both Validation and Operations Management. Andrew has a Graduate Diploma in Food Science and Technology, a Degree in Biochemistry, and a MBA.

Prof. Frank Barry

Frank has 25 years’ experience in Cell Therapy and has worked in industry and academic environments in Ireland, USA, UK and Canada.  He has extensive experience in cell technology, cell culture and therapeutic applications.  He is a graduate of University College Cork and has received postdoctoral training at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, London, Shriner’s Hospital, Florida, the University of South Florida and Case Western University, Cleveland, OH.   He was Director of Arthritis Research at Osiris Therapeutics, Baltimore, MD.  He has vast experience in cell manufacturing and GMP compliance and plays a senior project management role in a large EU-based cell therapy clinical trial.  He has contributed to the development of cell isolation, expansion and testing protocols that are widely used in many manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Prof. Timothy O'Brien

Prof. Timothy O'Brien - Director of REMEDI.  Professor O'Brien, along with Professor Barry, established the Regenerative Medicine Institute at NUI, Galway (REMEDI) in 2004. The focus of the Institute is to exploit the synergies between the technologies of gene delivery and stem cell biology to promote organ regeneration and repair. The principal initial disease targets of the Institute are ischaemic cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and osteoarthritis.  Professor O’Brien is the Established Professor of Medicine at NUI Galway and a Consultant Endocrinologist at Saolta University Healthcare Group.  His research interest is the development of novel therapeutic approaches to the complications of diabetes mellitus.

Prof. Matthew Griffin

Matt Griffin has been Professor of Transplant Biology at the NUI Galway’s School of Medicine and a Consultant Nephrologist at Galway University Hospitals since July 2008. Prior to this he was a faculty member of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and the William J von Liebig Transplant Centre at Mayo Clinic, USA from 1999 to 2008. His research interests include basic and transplant immunology, the pathophysiology of kidney disease and stem cell and regenerative therapies. He is a principal investigator at the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) and is also affiliated with the CÚRAM SFI Centre for Research in Medical Devices at NUI Galway. He is coordinator of the EU FP7 health consortium VISICORT and site PI for the EU H2020-funded NEPHSTROM clinical trial. Over the past several years, he has worked closely with the CCMI team to develop translational projects focussing on MSC therapies for immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases. 

Miriam Holohan - Qualified Person

Miriam has to date spent over 25 years working in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industry. Her background is primarily as a Qualified Person, Responsible Person and in Quality Assurance Management. Miriam has a BSc; HDipAppSc; Post Grad Diploma in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology and a Masters's in Pharmaceutical Sciences (TCD). Miriam has been involved with CCMI from its commencement, as an investigational medicinal product manufacturing site in 2011. Over this time, she has gained considerable knowledge and experience in the area of ATMPs. She has extensive experience in all aspects of GMP pharmaceutical manufacturing, including project management and providing Technical and Regulatory support.

Úna McCabe - QC Microbiologist

Úna joined CCMI team directly from her degree program at NUI Galway in July 2018, where she graduated with honors with a BSc in Microbiology. Úna is responsible for all aspects of the microbiological requirements within an ATMP aseptic manufacturing setting. This includes environmental monitoring of the cleanroom facility, performing microbiological testing of raw materials, QC and batch samples, as well as validating and implementing rapid microbiological methods for the in-house testing of ATMPs.

She also delivers lectures to the students of the MSc in Cellular Manufacturing & Therapy course on environmental monitoring, QC, and microbiological testing.

Matthew Duggan - Stem Cell Technologist 

Matthew has over 5 years of GMP experience working in the medical device/pharmaceutical industries and now with ATMPs here in CCMI. He joined the CCMI team in August 2017 and has gained experience in aseptic processing/environmental sampling/equipment and process validation/document control. He has a Masters in Regenerative Medicine and a degree in Biomedical Science.

 Dr. Shideh Maryam Sakhteh - Quality Control Analyst

More than 15 years of working in clinical and research laboratories. She has a Bachelor's degree in laboratory sciences, a Master's degree in Haematology, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Chromosome Biology).  She is familiar with GLP through working in clinical laboratories as a QC Manager and as part of the senior staff. Now she is working in the QC and R&D departments of CCMI since she joined in 2021.

Rossella Giannoccari - Research Assistant

Rossella obtained a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Piemonte Orientale and a MSc in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Milano Bicocca, Italy. As part of her studies, she undertook a research project with CÚRAM to investigate a neuroregenerative ECM-based hydrogel as a potential anti-inflammatory strategy for ischemic stroke treatment. Currently, Rossella is working with CCMI to develop cell manufacturing techniques suitable for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived MSC production.