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Biosciences | FEATURE


Understanding Diseases

(Photo of Professor Kingston Mills)

Autoimmune Diseases

Professor of Experimental Immunology, Kingston Mills B.A., PH.D. (1976) and his research team at TCD have discovered new information on how autoimmune diseases develop. The research found that the source of a particular messenger molecule (in technical terms this molecule is a cytokine called IL-17), which is the major cause of cellular inflammation, was produced by a heretofore unsuspected group of cells. These cells called gamma delta T cells orchestrate the inflammatory process. Autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease affect 20 per cent of the population worldwide. The findings were published in the cell press journal, Immunity.

(Photo of Dr Aoife McLysaght)

Discovery of Human-Specific Genes

Six million years since we shared a common ancestor with the chimpanzee, researchers at TCD have made the first discovery of original human-specific genes. The DNA of human and chimpanzee is 99 per cent identical. The small genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees have a major role in determining what it is to be human. Dr David Gonzalez Knowles and Dr Aoife McLysaght B.A., Ph.D. (1998) of the School of Genetics and Microbiology and the Smurfit Institute of Genetics have identified for the first time human-specific genes that originated during the evolution of humans following the separation from chimpanzees. These findings were published in Genome Research.

(Photo of Dr Aiden Corvin)

Genetics of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

New evidence suggests that many common DNA variants contribute to a person’s risk of schizophrenia. Surprisingly, many of the same DNA variants also appear to be involved in bipolar disorder. The findings, reported by the International Schizophrenia Consortium that includes TCD scientists, were published in the journal Nature. The study found evidence that many DNA variants, commonly occurring in the population, combine to increase the risk to develop the disorder. The TCD team is led by Dr Aiden Corvin Ph.D. (2006), Head of the Psychosis Research Group. The other TCD researchers are Professor Michael Gill B.A., M.D., M.R.C. Psych., F.T.C.D. (1981), Dr Gary Donohoe and Dr Derek Morris.

(Photo of Professor Padraic Fallon)

Potential for New Therapies in the Treatment of Eczema

An international collaboration between TCD scientists and researchers in Scotland and Japan has developed a new animal model that reproduces a major genetic cause of human eczema. The TCD team was led by Professor Padraic Fallon, Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Professor of Translational Immunology at the Institute of Molecular Medicine and School of Medicine. This new discovery, which has the potential of assisting the development of new therapies in the treatment of the disease, was published in Nature Genetics.


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