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Led by Prof Breandán Kennedy, the research project will bring together 21 institutions from 11 countries.
An EU project coordinated from University College Dublin (UCD) will aim to revolutionise biomedical research by exploring the potential of extracellular vesicles (EVs).
EVs are small particles that act as messengers between cells. The research project strives to “transform early diagnosis and targeted treatments for diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular conditions”.
The project, titled Everest, is coordinated by Prof Breandán Kennedy, a professor at UCD’s School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme under Horizon Europe.
Both Kennedy and project manager Dr Yolanda Alvarez, from the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, have extensive experience managing European projects, such as the Crystal3 consortium, which focused on commercial and research opportunities of a relatively unexplored inflammation-related signalling pathway.
The Everest research project has a budget of €1.311m and will run for 48 months, starting in January 2025, and will focus on regulating methods for isolating and characterising these EVs, as well as facilitating their use in non-invasive diagnostics and personalised therapies to improve the precision and effectiveness of treatments for complex diseases.
Kennedy elaborated: “By harnessing the power of EVs, we hope to pioneer new diagnostics and treatments that can transform lives.
“I am thrilled to lead this world-class consortium and look forward to the groundbreaking discoveries we will achieve together”, he added.
Principal of UCD College of Science, Prof Jeremy Simpson, also welcomed the news: “Extracellular vesicles hold immense promise for a variety of biomedical applications, and the interdisciplinary and international nature of the consortium that he [Kennedy] has brought together embodies everything that we continually strive for in the UCD College of Science.”
Academic members of the Everest research project include: UCD (Ireland), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), University of Vigo (Spain), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Luxembourg), Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany), South East Technological University (Ireland), Linköping University (Sweden), Comenius University Bratislava (Slovakia), Queen’s University Belfast (UK), State Research Institute Centre for Innovative Medicine (Lithuania), and Fundación Progreso y Salud GENYO (Spain).
Non-academic partners include: SiriusXT (Ireland), Bioreperia (Sweden), Fox Biosystems (Belgium), Pharmahungary (Hungary), Acousort AB (Sweden), Mursla (UK), Xenopat (Spain), De Rotos y Descosidos (Spain), and Vesiculab (UK).
In related UCD news, a research collaboration between scientists at University College Dublin (UCD) and the University of Sheffield made headlines last week after it led to a massive discovery regarding the superbug MRSA.
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