Pioneering genetic research in the US into heart disease may hold out the prospect of finding a means of regenerating heart cells, according to an Irish member of the research team involved.
New York based cardiologist Dr Carl J Vaughan has cautioned also against draconian diets as a means of preventing cardiac disease. He insisted that a lifestyle combining a balanced diet and physical exercise is the key to a healthy heart.
Dr Vaughan (37) was one of three graduates of University College Cork honoured by the college with Alumni Awards. The other recipients were Dr Edward Walsh, founding president of University of Limerick, and Mr James O'Callaghan, technical director of the London based John Murphy construction group. The UCC Alumni Achievement Awards are sponsored by Bank of Ireland.
Dr Vaughan and his colleagues at Cornell University Medical Centre are investigating the transfer of heart diseases from one generation to the next within individual families. They have already made a significant advance in identifying a gene mutation central to the development of heart tumours and, more recently, have isolated an area on an individual chromosome which contains a gene causing aortic aneurysms.
The research has been made possible in part by using DNA sequence from the human genome which is the blueprint for human life and, according to Dr Vaughan, the team is hoping that by identifying the causes of the conditions involved, it can contribute to the quest for appropriate gene based therapies.
Dr Vaughan, who graduated from UCC in 1989, received the Alumnus Merit Award at the 2002 Alumni Awards.
He is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Consultant Cardiologist at Weill Medical College Cornell/New York Presbyterian Hospital where his clinical role is currently taking precedence over research work. His duties also involve running a Heart
Disease Prevention Programme and, in that regard, he warned that changes in lifestyle rather than the adoption of draconian diets – which ultimately fail – are crucial to achieving sustainable results.
Meanwhile, Dr Walsh, chairman of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, warned that inter-university collaboration and partnerships with industry were essential if Ireland was to achieve scale and quality in world class research.
Strong partnerships had not featured between universities in the past and the opposite had often been the case, he said. But because UCC had already excelled in a number of key research areas, it had the opportunity to play a national leadership role in this regard under the Atlantic Alliance of third level institutions and by acting as a catalyst for closer links between universities in Dublin.
Dr Walsh, who graduated from UCC in 1961 with a degree in electrical engineering, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
The third recipient was Mr James O'Callaghan, Technical Director of the London based John Murphy construction group, who received the Excellent Contribution Award.
Mr O'Callaghan graduated from UCC in 1973 with a degree in civil engineering and has played an important part in maintaining a close association between the university and the Murphy group. The John Murphy Postgraduate Research Fellowship in Civil Engineering was established in UCC in 1977 and, in 1996, the John Murphy Laboratory of Civil Engineer Materials and Construction in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was dedicated by Mr O'Callaghan.
Mr O'Callaghan said he cherished the award as a recognition of his keen interest in civil and environmental engineering and his desire to help UCC and its graduates.
UCC President, Professor GT Wrixon, said he was delighted to present the awards to three recipients who had secured very significant achievements in their chosen fields of endeavour through which they had brought great honour to their alma mater.
ENDS
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