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Smooth Muscle Research Centre (SMRC)

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The Smooth Muscle Research Centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology was founded in 2005 by researchers recruited from Queens University Belfast. It is the largest group of researchers in physiology and electrophysiology of smooth muscle in Europe.

Uniquely for Ireland, the entire research programme at the SMRC focuses on the cellular mechanisms that control smooth muscle function in health and disease. 

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Research Centre Members

Keith Thornbury - Centre Director

Mark Hollywood

Gerard Sergeant

Bernard Drumm

Caoimhin Griffin

Additionally, SMRC has a diverse group of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and research assistants.

Why Smooth Muscle

Smooth muscle is a major constituent of the internal muscular organs of the body including the airways: urinary tract; arteries and veins; the stomach and intestines; erectile tissue. Abnormal regulation of contraction of smooth muscle underlies many disease states such as: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), urinary incontinence, high blood pressure (due to excessive smooth muscle contraction in arterioles); intestinal motility disorders and erectile dysfunction.

The aim of our research is to elucidate the ionic basis of excitation and the way in which calcium levels are controlled in smooth muscle cells. The results of these studies have enabled us to better understand smooth muscle function and to identify therapeutic targets and design novel treatments for conditions such as COPD, overactive bladder and erectile dysfunction.  

Also, our expertise in ion channel biology has broadened our scope to the study channel dysfunction in neurological disorders such as Physiological Tremor and Parkinson’s disease. 

Aims:

  1. To elucidate the mechanisms involved in contraction and relaxation in smooth muscle cells in health and disease.
  2. To investigate the role of ion channels in health and disease and how they can be targeted with novel drugs.
Dundalk Institute of Technology

Research Facilities and Equipment

The SMRC laboratories (500m2) are equipped to study biological processes from the molecular level through to whole tissue. We utilise patch clamp electrophysiology, live cell confocal Ca2+ imaging, molecular biology, tissue culture, tension recording and medicinal chemistry.  

We are very well equipped, with 8 patch-clamp rigs, 5 confocal microscopes, and 4 tension recording rigs.  We have excellent facilities for cell culture, RT-PCR, qPCR, synthetic chemistry and everything required for molecular and mutagenesis studies.  We have excellent animal facilities for housing and breeding normal and transgenic mice.

DkIT is a 3rd level educational establishment with a broad infrastructure in terms of library facilities, IT support and student support services to provide for PhD students. 

Outputs and Outreach

  • 90+ International publications since 2005 in peer-reviewed journals, including PNAS, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, The British Journal of Pharmacology, The American Journal of Physiology, The European Journal of Pharmacology, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Cell Calcium, Function and more
  • PhD student graduations
  • Undergraduate student lab projects
  • SMRC researchers are all involved in teaching within the School of Health and Science
  • US Patent: US Patent No: 9,877,940: Anthraquinone compounds and their uses, January 2018

Current Research Centre Projects

  • Targeting M2 muscarinic receptors for treatment of COPD.
  • Targeting ion channels to develop new treatments for erectile dysfunction.
  • Regulation of purinergic contractions of the murine detrusor.
  • Modulation of BKCa channels by the novel regulatory subunits Lingo 1-4.
  • Regulation of contractions of the vas deferens.
  • Neural regulation of urethral smooth muscle.
  • Role of intracellular organelles in regulating sparks in bladder myocytes.

Funding Success

The Smooth Muscle Research Centre Principal Investigators have attracted in excess of €15,000,000 in competitive funding from a variety of private companies, charities and organizations including Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, Medical Research Council (UK), Diabetes UK, Research into Ageing, Action Medical Research (UK). Most recently, we have received funding of €8.9M for the EU funded BREATH Project via Interreg VA https://www.breath-copd.org and an SFI Frontiers for Partnership €1M. In addition since 2019 we have received approximately  €1.4M through HEA and IRC-funded PhD studentship and postdoctoral researcher fellowship schemes.

Commercialisation of Research and Industrial Engagement

Industrial Collaborations:

  • Almac Discovery
  • pHion Therapeutics
  • Omnispirant
  • Raptor Photonics

We also carriy out Cardiac Toxicity testing on hERG channels for a variety of drugs companies and have generated in excess of €250,000 in funding from this.

Academic Collaborations

Clinical Collaborations

More Information

Prof. Keith Thornbury

keith.thornbury@dkit.ie

Prof. Mark Hollywood

mark.hollywood@dkit.ie

Prof. Gerard Sergeant

gerard.sergeant@dkit.ie