Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Trinity Menu Trinity Search



Dr. Bruce Murphy
Assoc Prof. in Biomechanical Engineering, Mechanical, Manuf & Biomedical Eng

Biography

Dr. Bruce Murphy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Biomedical Engineering, Deputy Director of the Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering, and Principal Investigator (PI) in the Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering and the Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) Centre at Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

He runs one of the most successful medical device design incubator labs in the World. To date his lab has spun-out 4 TCD spin-outs: Croívalve, Selio Medical, Proverum and One Projects. The spinouts from his lab have raised over €100M in capital, employ over 100 full time equivalents, and have two devices in clinical trials.

Current projects in his lab include: MitrAdapt " a new percutaneous solution for treating patients with mitral regurgitation, PLIO " a new laparoscopic solution to reduce the leakage rates of anastomosis in the GI tract, IndexiTap " a collaboration with TCD"s Academic Unit of Neurology and Beaumont Hospital to understand if enhanced measurement of patient dexterity can better track symptoms of Motor Neuron Disease.

His lab is not only involved in translational Biomedical Engineering, he has published in many top journals in Biomedical Engineering. Including the top journal in the field, Nature Biomedical Engineering (IF >25). He is open to collaboration with artists and other professionals if they would like to explore or link aspects of medical device design or biomedical engineering to their work.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Greg Campion, Kylie Hershberger, Alix Whelan, Jack Conroy, Caitr ona Lally & Bruce P. Murphy, A Biomechanical and Microstructural Analysis of Bovine and Porcine Pericardium for Use in Bioprosthetic Heart Valves, Structural Heart, 5, (5), 2021, p486 - 496 Journal Article, 2021 TARA - Full Text

Alix Whelan, Elizabeth Williams, David Nolan, Bruce Murphy, Paul Gunning, David O'Reilly, Caitríona Lally, Bovine pericardium of high fibre dispersion has high fatigue life and increased collagen content; potentially an untapped source of heart valve leaflet tissue , Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2020 Journal Article, 2020 TARA - Full Text

Curley, C.J. and Dolan, E.B. and Otten, M. and Hinderer, S. and Duffy, G.P. and Murphy, B.P., An injectable alginate/extra cellular matrix (ECM) hydrogel towards acellular treatment of heart failure, Drug Delivery and Translational Research, 9, (1), 2019 Journal Article, 2019 DOI

Dolan, E.B. and Hofmann, B. and de Vaal, M.H. and Bellavia, G. and Straino, S. and Kovarova, L. and Pravda, M. and Velebny, V. and Daro, D. and Braun, N. and Monahan, D.S. and Levey, R.E. and O'Neill, H. and Hinderer, S. and Greensmith, R. and Monaghan, M.G. and Schenke-Layland, K. and Dockery, P. and Murphy, B.P. and Kelly, H.M. and Wildhirt, S. and Duffy, G.P., A bioresorbable biomaterial carrier and passive stabilization device to improve heart function post-myocardial infarction, Materials Science and Engineering C, 103, (109751), 2019 Journal Article, 2019 DOI

Alix Whelan, Collagen fibre orientation and dispersion govern ultimate tensile strength, stiffness and the fatigue performance of bovine pericardium, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 90, 2019, p54 - 60 Journal Article, 2019 TARA - Full Text DOI

Whyte, W. and Roche, E.T. and Varela, C.E. and Mendez, K. and Islam, S. and O'Neill, H. and Weafer, F. and Shirazi, R.N. and Weaver, J.C. and Vasilyev, N.V. and McHugh, P.E. and Murphy, B. and Duffy, G.P. and Walsh, C.J. and Mooney, D.J., Sustained release of targeted cardiac therapy with a replenishable implanted epicardial reservoir /692/4019/2773 /639/301/54/152 /14/5 /14/35 /14/63 /59/5 /96/106 /96/100 /96/34 article, Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2, (6), 2018, p416-428 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Dolan, E.B. and Kovarova, L. and O'Neill, H. and Pravda, M. and Sulakova, R. and Scigalkova, I. and Velebny, V. and Daro, D. and Braun, N. and Cooney, G.M. and Bellavia, G. and Straino, S. and Cavanagh, B.L. and Flanagan, A. and Kelly, H.M. and Duffy, G.P. and Murphy, B.P., Advanced Material Catheter (AMCath), a minimally invasive endocardial catheter for the delivery of fast-gelling covalently cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels, Journal of Biomaterials Applications, 33, (5), 2018, p681-692 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Dolan, E.B. and Gunning, G.M. and Davis, T.A. and Cooney, G. and Eufrasio, T. and Murphy, B.P., The development and mechanical characterisation of a novel reinforced venous conduit that mimics the mechanical properties of an arterial wall, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 71, 2017, p23-31 Journal Article, 2017 DOI

Curley, C.J. and Dolan, E.B. and Cavanagh, B. and O'Sullivan, J. and Duffy, G.P. and Murphy, B.P., An in vitro investigation to assess procedure parameters for injecting therapeutic hydrogels into the myocardium, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part B Applied Biomaterials, 105, (8), 2017, p2618-2629 Journal Article, 2017 DOI

O'Neill, H.S., Gallagher, L.B., O'Sullivan, J., Whyte, W., Curley, C., Dolan, E., Hameed, A., O'Dwyer, J., Payne, C., O'Reilly, D., Ruiz-Hernandez, E., Roche, E.T., O'Brien, F.J., Cryan, S.A., Kelly, H., Murphy, B., Duffy, G.P., Biomaterial-Enhanced Cell and Drug Delivery: Lessons Learned in the Cardiac Field and Future Perspectives, Advanced Materials, 2016, p5648-5661- Journal Article, 2016 DOI

Gunning, G.M., Murphy, B.P., The effects of decellularization and cross-linking techniques on the fatigue life and calcification of mitral valve chordae tendineae, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 57, 2016, p321-333 Journal Article, 2016

van Elk, M., Murphy, B.P., Eufrásio-da-Silva, T., (...), Duffy, G.P., Ruiz-Hernández, E., Nanomedicines for advanced cancer treatments: Transitioning towards responsive systems, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 515, (1-2), 2016, p132-164 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

Gunning, G.M., Murphy, B.P., Characterisation of the fatigue life, dynamic creep and modes of damage accumulation within mitral valve chordae tendineae, Acta Biomaterialia, 24, 2015, p193-200 Journal Article, 2015

Sheridan, W.S., Ryan, A.J., Duffy, G.P., O"Brien, F.J., Murphy, B.P., An experimental investigation of the effect of mechanical and biochemical stimuli on cell migration within a decellularized vascular construct, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 42, (10), 2014, p2029-2038 Journal Article, 2014

Sheridan, W.S., Ryan, A.J., Duffy, G.P., O'Brien, F.J., Murphy, B.P. , An Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Mechanical and Biochemical Stimuli on Cell Migration Within a Decellularized Vascular Construct, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2014 Journal Article, 2014 DOI

Michael Burke, Bruce Murphy, Dermot Geraghty, Measurement of Sub-Bandage Pressure During Venous Compression Therapy Using Flexible Force Sensors, IEEE Sensors, Valencia, Spain, November 2-5, 2014, pp1623 - 1626 Conference Paper, 2014 DOI

Sheridan, W.S., Grant, O.B., Duffy, G.P., Murphy, B.P., The application of a thermoresponsive chitosan/β-GP gel to enhance cell repopulation of decellularized vascular scaffolds, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part B Applied Biomaterials, 2014 Journal Article, 2014 DOI

Alan A. Hopkins,, William S. Sheridan, Faisal Sharif, Bruce P. Murphy, The effect of a thermal renal denervation cycle on the mechanical properties of the arterial wall, Journal of Biomechanics, In Press, 2014 Journal Article, 2014 DOI TARA - Full Text

Gillian M Gunning, Bruce P Murphy, Determination of the tensile mechanical properties of the segmented mitral valve annulus, Journal of Biomechanics, 47, (2), 2014, p334-340 Journal Article, 2014 DOI

Murphy BP, Breen LT, The Design of an Improved Force Focused Angioplasty Catheter, Journal of Medical Devices, 8, (1), 2014, p1 - 5 Journal Article, 2014 URL

Gunning, G.M., Sheridan, W.S., Murphy, B.P., The chink in the armor of the mitral valve annulus: the irregular distribution of mechanical properties, ASME SBC 2013, ASME 2013 Summer Bioengineering Conference, SBC 2013, Sunriver; United States, 26-29 June, 2013, pp1A- Conference Paper, 2013 DOI

Sheridan, W.S., Grant, O., Lopez-Noriega, A., Duffy, G.P., Murphy, B.P., Towards a clinically applicable tissue engineered vascular graft, ASME , SBC 2013, 2013 Summer Bioengineering Conference, United States;, 26-29 June, 2013, pp1 A- Conference Paper, 2013 DOI

Sheridan, WS, Duffy, GP, Murphy, BP, Optimum Parameters for Freeze-Drying Decellularized Arterial Scaffolds, TISSUE ENGINEERING PART C-METHODS, 19, (12), 2013, p981-990 Journal Article, 2013 TARA - Full Text DOI

Coghlan, KM, Breen, LT, Martin, Z, O'Neill, S, Madhaven, P, Moore, D, Murphy, BP, An Experimental Study to Determine the Optimal Access Route for Renal Artery Interventions, EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF VASCULAR AND ENDOVASCULAR SURGERY, 46, (2), 2013, p236-241 Journal Article, 2013 DOI TARA - Full Text

Keady, F, Murphy, BP, Investigating the feasibility of using a grit blasting process to coat nitinol stents with hydroxyapatite, JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE-MATERIALS IN MEDICINE, 24, (1), 2013, p97-103 Journal Article, 2013 DOI

MURPHY BRUCE; VARD JOHN; BREEN LIAM, 'Intravasculature Devices and Balloons for Use Therewith', European Patent Office, EP2241284 (B1), 2012, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY [IE]; NAT UNIV IRELAND, Galway Patent, 2012 URL

W.S. Sheridan, G.P. Duffy, B.P. Murphy, Mechanical characterisation of a customised decellularized scaffold for vascular tissue engineering, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 8, 2012, p58 - 70 Journal Article, 2012 TARA - Full Text

WS Sheridan, GP Duffy, BP Murphy, Injection Techniques for Bulk Cell Seeding Decellularized Vascular Scaffolds, International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials, Vol. 4,, (No. 2 ), 2012, p96 - 107 Journal Article, 2012

Breen LT, McHugh PE, Murphy BP, HUVEC ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 synthesis in response to potentially athero-prone and athero-protective mechanical and nicotine chemical stimuli., Annals of biomedical engineering, 38, (5), 2010, p1880-92 Journal Article, 2010 DOI

Breen LT, McHugh PE, Murphy BP, Multi-axial mechanical stimulation of HUVECs demonstrates that combined loading is not equivalent to the superposition of individual wall shear stress and tensile hoop stress components., Journal of biomechanical engineering, 131, (8), 2009, p081001 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

MURPHY BRUCE; Lawlor Vincent, 'Minimally invasive intravascular treatment devcie', European Patent Office, EP1825824 (B1) , 2009, NAT UNIV IRELAND Patent, 2009 URL

Lenehan, B., Street, J., Murphy, B., Brennan, L., McHugh, P., Curtin, W. , A biomechanical study comparing the compressive forces generated by a conventional 4.5 AO/ASIF cortical lag screw with a differentially pitched cortical compression screw , Acta of Bioengineering and Biomechanics , 11, (1), 2009, p31 - 35 Journal Article, 2009

MURPHY, Bruce; (IE). BLOWICK, Ray; (IE). BREEN, Liam T.; (IE)., NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY [IE/IE], Intravascular Treatment Device Field of the Invention, 2009, PCT/EP2009/062919 Patent, 2009 URL

Murphy BP, Cuddy H, Harewood FJ, Connolley T, McHugh PE, The influence of grain size on the ductility of micro-scale stainless steel stent struts., Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine, 17, (1), 2006, p1-6 Journal Article, 2006 DOI

Breen, LT, McHugh, PE, McCormack, BA, Muir, G, Quinlan, NJ, Heraty, KB, Murphy, BP, Development of a novel bioreactor to apply shear stress and tensile strain simultaneously to cell monolayers, REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, 77, 2006 Journal Article, 2006

McGarry, J.P., Murphy, B.P., McHugh, P.E., Prediction of changes in cell-substrate contact under cyclic substrate deformation using cohesive zone modelling, Mechanics of Biological Tissue, 2006, p177-187 Journal Article, 2006

McGarry, JP, Murphy, BP, McHugh, PE, Computational mechanics modelling of cell-substrate contact during cyclic substrate deformation, JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS, 53, 2005 Journal Article, 2005

Breen, L.T., Murphy, B.P., McHugh, P.E., The development of a unique test RIG to simultaneously apply pulsatile and reversible shear and tensile forces to a monolayer of endothelial cells, Proceedings of the 2005 Summer Bioengineering Conference, 2005, 2005, p1372-1373 Journal Article, 2005

Savage P, O'Donnell BP, McHugh PE, Murphy BP, Quinn DF, Coronary stent strut size dependent stress-strain response investigated using micromechanical finite element models., Annals of biomedical engineering, 32, (2), 2004, p202-11 Journal Article, 2004

Stenson-Cox, C., Barron, V., Murphy, B.P., McHugh, P.E., Smith, T. , Profiling the shear stress of atherosclerosis; a genomic view , Current Genomics , 5, (4), 2004, p287 - 297 Journal Article, 2004

Murphy BP, Prendergast PJ, Multi-axial fatigue failure of orthopedic bone cement - experiments with tubular specimens., Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine, 14, (10), 2003, p857-61 Journal Article, 2003

Kingston, R., Noël, J., Murphy, B., Lee, T.C., Walsh, M.G. , Effects of Dall-Miles cables on the cement mantle in total hip arthroplasty: A cadaveric study , Hip International, 13, (1), 2003, p29 - 31 Journal Article, 2003

Stolk, J, Verdonschot, N, Murphy, BP, Prendergast, PJ, Huiskes, R, Finite element simulation of anisotropic damage accumulation and creep in acrylic bone cement, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 71, 2003, p513-528 Journal Article, 2003

Murphy BP, Savage P, McHugh PE, Quinn DF, The stress-strain behavior of coronary stent struts is size dependent., Annals of biomedical engineering, 31, (6), 2003, p686-91 Journal Article, 2003

Murphy, BP, Prendergast, PJ, The relationship between stress, porosity, and nonlinear damage accumulation in acrylic bone cement, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 59, 2002, p646-654 Journal Article, 2002

Prendergast, P.J., Murphy, B.P., Taylor, D., Cristofolini, L., Minari, C., Viceconti, M., Discarding specimens for fatigue testing of orthopaedic bone cement: A comment on cristofolini et al. (2000) Fatigue Fract. Engng. Mater. Struct. 23, 953-957 (multiple letters), Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures, 25, (3), 2002, p315-318 Journal Article, 2002

Prendergast PJ, Murphy BP, Taylor D, Discarding specimens for fatigue testing of orthopaedic bone cement: A comment on Cristofolini et al, Fatigue & Fracture Of Engineering Materials & Structures , 25, 2002, p315 - 316 Journal Article, 2002

Murphy BP, Prendergast PJ, On the magnitude and variability of the fatigue strength of acrylic bone cement, International Journal of Fatigue , 22, 2000, p855 - 864 Journal Article, 2000

Murphy BP, Prendergast PJ, Measurement of non-linear damage accumulation in PMMA bone cement under cyclic loading, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, 10, 1999, p779 - 782 Journal Article, 1999

Murphy, BP, Prendergast, PJ, Measurement of non-linear microcrack accumulation rates in polymethylmethacrylate bone cement under cyclic loading, Journal of Materials Science-Materials in Medicine, 10, 1999, p779-781 Journal Article, 1999

SHERIDAN WILLIAM STEPHEN [IE] MURPHY BRUCE PHILIP, 'A CATHETER BASED MEDICAL DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DELIVERY OF A THERAPEUTIC AGENT', European Patent Office, 29 November 2007, National University of Ireland, Galway Patent, URL

MURPHY BRUCE]; CROWLEY JAMES; BREEN LIAM; EARLY MICHAEL , 'Implant device', United States Patent Office, 8 October 2013, National University of Ireland, Galway Patent, URL TARA - Full Text

Research Expertise

Description

I am an expert in the process of innovating medical technologies. My research focus is the development of transformative medical technologies. In my lab this journey starts with a valid clinical need, to building and mentoring teams, and developing solid engineering solutions that address clinical needs. These solutions are designed to have the ability to enhance quality of life, prolong life, avoid adverse events and enhance patient outcomes. My lab has excelled in this field. For example, my lab has translated a heart valve concept from clinical need to forming the key asset of a TCD spin-out company. Croívalve has raised in excess of €18m in capital, employs 30 staff members, and has performed first in human implants, which have demonstrated transformative improvements in symptoms of patients. Another example of this type of translational research is associated with the clinical need of alleviating the symptoms of benign prostate hyperplasia. My lab developed the core technology that formed the technical assets of the TCD spin-out. Proverum has gone on to raise over €40m, employs 30 employees and has started to enrol patients into a prospective, multi-centre, double-blind controlled study to evaluate the safety, and effectiveness of the technology that was developed in my lab. In total four medical device TCD spin outs were established from research in my lab. These companies employ over 100 staff members and have raised over €100m in capital. My lab's solutions have a high profile in their respective medical fields, which has raised the profile of TCD in the field of medical device design. Demonstrating that my research has the ability to have a global impact on healthcare. In summary, my philosophy to Biomedical Engineering is that I believe I have a duty to use my substantial biomedical engineering knowledge to improve patient outcomes.

Projects

  • Title
    • The Development of a Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Repair System (CroiValve)
  • Summary
    • Bruce Murphy and consultant cardiologist Martin Quinn have devised an easy-to-use minimally invasive solution for treating patients with greater than moderate tricuspid regurgitation. This is a significant clinical need with up to 1.6m patients in the US eligible for this therapy. The tricuspid valve is often termed the forgotten heart valve, as surgical interventions are carried out on less than 1% (8,000) of the estimated 1.6m eligible patient population in the US. This is because patients with tricuspid valve disease often have significant co-morbidities and many patients are not candidates for surgery. Even in those who are fit for surgery the risks are high with an operative mortality of between 10% and 35%. Thus there is a significant clinical need for a minimally invasive solution. The technology that we propose to develop uses standard procedures and techniques that are used during pacemaker lead implantation. This approach will ensure safety, ease of use and a high physician adoption rate. The underlying technology relies on the development of an implant that can always be placed in the correct position to inhibit regurgitation of the tricuspid valve. The technology is currently the subject of an Irish patent filing (priority date Sep 2014) and a subsequent PCT filing in Sep 2015. The competitive landscape is reasonably limited. The Cleveland Clinic, Cardio Solutions and Edwards Lifesciences have initiated R&D programs that utilise a similar approach to the one proposed in this application. Galway based 4Tech have a unique solution. While the Mitralign system is a translation of their mitral system to the tricuspid position - this system has many intricacies and may have a low user adoption rate. In summary, the competitive products do not posses the desired user requirements of ease-of-use, adjustability and atraumatic properties that we are proposing. A considerable market opportunity exists in this field, for example: By 2020 there will be approximately 56 million US citizens over the age of 65, utilising a conservative figure of 1.5% of this population experiencing greater than moderate TR (estimated from the Framingham study) equates to 850,000 patients with greater than moderate TR. The cohort of this patient-set that could benefit immediately from treatment due to severe quality of life interfering disease can be determined from De Meester et al, whereby they observed that 10% of patients undergoing a diagnostic procedure had significant TR. Implying that 85,000 patients in the US would have immediate quality of life benefits from a tricuspid intervention. An estimated total US market of $1.7Bn exists. Potentially the OUS market would be another $1.7Bn, equating to a global market opportunity of approximately $3.4Bn. The overall objective of this proposal is to develop the CroiValve technology to the value add point that it has been verified in in vivo medium-term pre-clinical studies. Furthermore a robust regulatory, clinical, technical and business plan will be developed in parallel to assembling a rounded team to raise future finance and develop the device through a European regulatory submission and investigational device trials in Europe.
  • Funding Agency
    • Enterprise Ireland
  • Date From
    • 1 Oct 2016
  • Date To
    • 31 July 2018
  • Title
    • CTO Re-entry Device Design & Development
  • Summary
    • This collaborative research project will focus on the design and development of a re-entry device for the treatment of chronic total occlusions due to peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Currently, the company uses glass and/or silicone models to iterate designs at an early concept stage and this helps to evaluate product performance and product deliverability to the site of the CTO. However, the proposed solution for this project will be dependent on its ability to exit the vessel wall after crossing a CTO in the sub-intimal (SI) space. This is a very delicate procedure which requires both dexterity and finesses by the end-user and will require a novel solution to achieve this technically challenging endpoint. As a result, both the penetration capability and the trackability of the device will have to be developed using more clinically relevant models earlier in the NPD lifecycle. Utilising Prof. Murphy research group's expertise, particularly their capability to successfully penetrate the vessel wall and track though the SI space and their extensive knowledge of the mechanical characterization of vascular tissue will provide the Clearstream with the additional capability they require to develop a next generation CTO device.
  • Funding Agency
    • Enterprise Ireland
  • Date From
    • Dec 2015
  • Date To
    • Nov 2017
  • Title
    • AMCARE - ADVANCED MATERIALS FOR CARDIAC REGENERATION
  • Summary
    • AMCARE develops regenerative therapies which aim to circumvent some of the limitations of current treatments for MI patients. Our rationale is to use biomaterials to deliver cells or growth factors to the heart.Biomaterials are materials in which cells can be encapsulated or attached, can support delivered cell growth and which are tolerated by the body. In this way, delivered therapeutics are retained within the heart tissue for extended periods. In addition, biomaterials provide a protective environment for delivered stem cells and enhance stem cell survival in the harsh conditions of the infarct. By combining regenerative stem cells and growth factors within the same biomaterial, our aim is to maximise regeneration in the heart thanks to the synergistic effects of both therapeutics.
  • Funding Agency
    • European Commission
  • Date From
    • Dec 2014
  • Date To
    • Nov 2018
  • Title
    • Westland mitral valve
  • Summary
    • We have developed a minimally invasive mitral valve replacement device on a previous Enterprise Ireland commercialization fund. We have continued the development work on this medical device post the Enterprise Ireland funding to assess its safety and efficacy. The device's key attributes lie in the technical features that allow for safe and simple fixation of the prosthesis to the native mitral valve anatomy. The device is currently being tested in large animals and we are open to pursuing licensing agreements with structural heart medical device companies.
  • Date To
    • Dec 2017
  • Title
    • The in vivo evaluation of an easy to position transcatheter mitral valve repair/replacement device
  • Summary
    • A ssignificant number of individuals in the developed world suffer from moderate to severe mitral valve disease, however 50-80% of the patients that present themselves at surgical centres are denied surgery due to the high risk of intraoperative death. One of the reasons for a high death rate is the trauma that is associated with open heart surgery. There is a clinical need to treat these patients with a less traumatic minimally invasive technology that will result in minimal post procedure mortality. To meet this need over the last 10 years there has been a drive to develop transcatheter technologies that are capable of repairing the mitral valve of these patients in a minimally invasive manner. These technologies have advanced mainly in two technology branches: (1) leaflet plication and (2) coronary sinus annuloplasty. However these two technologies have a number of drawbacks. Our "gap" or "angle" is that a safe effective technology that is low in profile and easy to deliver will be accepted by cardiologists and heart surgeons as the preferred device due to its user-friendliness. We are developing one of the most straightforward and easy to use devices in the arena of transcatheter mitral valve repair/replacement.
  • Funding Agency
    • Enterprise Ireland
  • Date From
    • July 2011
  • Date To
    • Aug 2013
  • Title
    • CardioColl - a collagen-alginate composite scaffold to enhance the cardiac stem cell response and promote healing in heart failure
  • Summary
    • This project is investigating the hypothesis that cardiac stem cells can repair damaged myocardium, once the correct biochemical signals can be delivered to the site of the damaged heart muscle.
  • Funding Agency
    • Enterprise Ireland
  • Date From
    • 16/01/2012
  • Date To
    • 15/01/2013
  • Title
    • Evaluating the safety and efficacy and commercial case for a new Chemical Renal DenervatioN (C-RDN) catheter
  • Summary
    • We are proposing to develop a new C-RDN catheter within the space of intravascular management of hypertension. The current leading CE approved technology in this space is the Medtronic/Ardian catheter. This device operates in the Thermal RDN (T-RDN) arena. Recent clinical trials of this device have proven the principal that renal denervation can reduce high blood pressure in patients with resistant hypertension. This catheter burns the nerve fibers that surround the renal arteries and disrupts the sympathetic nervous system, and the subsequent effect for the patient is a reduction in blood pressure. This result has been described as "remarkable" and opens up a new medical device market estimated to be in the region of $25-30Bn. Medtronic purchased Ardian for $800m in 2010 to achieve first to market in the T-RDN field, returning over 10 times the invested capital to the investors. Subsequent to these recent clinical trial results a number of "fast followers" are developing catheters in the T-RDN space. However, T-RDN has a number of major disadvantages: (i) Patients are in severe pain during the procedure. (ii) Collateral damage is caused within the arterial wall, this is in the form of burning the media of the renal artery. Potentially this collateral damage may cause future stenoses or aneurysm formation. To overcome these disadvantages we are proposing to develop a controlled C-RDN catheter.
  • Funding Agency
    • Enterprise Ireland
  • Date From
    • July 2012
  • Date To
    • Nov 2013
  • Title
    • Development of a custom decellularized vascualr graft.
  • Summary
    • 1.0 Introduction and objectives Numerous research groups have endeavoured to tissue engineer functional small diameter (<5mm) vascular grafts in an in vitro environment (see (Naito et al., 2011, L'Heureux et al., 2007, Daly et al., 2005, Mitchell and Niklason, 2003) for review articles in the field). However, to date, no research group has achieved the goal of producing a regulatory approved tissue engineered medical device during the 25 year period that the research field has been active. Considerable progress has been realized, and current research is incrementally progressing towards the ultimate goal. However, there is still considerable scope available to investigate novel methods that may achieve the goal of producing a safe and effective clinical product. Moreover, if this goal is achieved the end product has a secondary function - as a laboratory tool. This tool has the potential to be used to investigate the pathology of atherosclerosis and enable the development of new therapies to treat atherosclerosis and restenosis. To this end, we are proposing to develop a novel tissue engineered vascular graft utilising new methodologies for repopulating customised decellularized arterial segments. If successful, this tissue engineered arterial segment may lead to a new bypass graft therapy for small diameter blood vessels, or a standard laboratory tool that could be used to investigate the pathology and treatment of vascular disease. To advance the knowledge in the field towards the goal of achieving a new solution for revascularisation our research proposal aims to answer five specific questions: 1. Can decellularized porcine arterial tissue be modified to produce a scaffold with sufficient strength that will permit rapid smooth muscle cell (SMC) and endothelial cell (EC) repopulation? 2. What is the optimum cell source for repopulating our custom decellularized scaffold? 3. Can we achieve a stable/quiescent SMC populated media by determining the most favourable mechanical stimuli? 4. Will an in vivo model verify the approach? i. Utilising our optimised stable repopulated scaffold ii. Utilising our optimised cell-free scaffold 5. Can we successfully engineer a laboratory model that mimics in vivo restenosis?
  • Funding Agency
    • College award
  • Date From
    • Sep 2012
  • Date To
    • Sep 2013

Keywords

Bioengineering; Medical Devices

Recognition

Awards and Honours

KTI People's Choice Award Trinity College Dublin and ProVerum Ltd 2022

Trinity Invention Challenge Med Tech Prize 2021 2021

Trinity College Dublin Innovation Awards 2020 Winner of the inventor category 2020

Trinity Innovation Awards 2018 -Campus Company Founders Award 2018

CroíValve - Medtech Strategist 2018 Winner 2018

CroíValve - National Start Up Early Stage Category Winner 2018

Selio Medical - Medtech Strategist 2017 Winner 2017

Enterprise Ireland "one to Watch" award 2009 2009