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€2.1m Wellcome award for UCC research into why MS affects more women
A University College Cork (UCC) researcher has received a prestigious €2.1 million Wellcome Trust Award to help uncover why women are up to three times more likely than men to develop multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system damages the protective coating surrounding nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Approximately 160,000 people across Ireland and the UK are living with MS, which can significantly affect quality of life and reduce life expectancy.
Women are up to three times more likely than men to develop MS, yet the biological mechanisms behind this striking difference remain poorly understood. Understanding why women are more susceptible to the disease could provide important new insights into its causes and potentially identify new approaches to treatment.
UCC researcher Dr. Éanna Fennell has been awarded €2.1 million by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation supporting scientific research, to investigate why MS is much more common in women than in men.
His research will examine whether the X chromosome plays a role in this difference by influencing the immune response to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is strongly linked to the development of MS.
Wellcome Trust Awards are highly competitive awards supporting outstanding researchers with the potential to become international research leaders. They support ambitious and innovative research programmes designed to deliver significant shifts in understanding of human life, health and wellbeing.
A new framework for understanding sex difference in MS
Dr. Fennell, who is based in the Department of Pathology within UCC’s School of Medicine, will together with his team study immune cells from people with MS and use genetic engineering to introduce or correct specific genetic differences in laboratory-grown cells.
"By bringing together genetics, immunology and sophisticated models, we hope to better understand the mechanisms driving the disease and identify new opportunities for therapeutic intervention," states Dr. Fennell.
Professor John F. Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation, said: "I would like to congratulate Dr. Éanna Fennell on joining an elite list of Irish based researchers to receive this prestigious award, made possible by the Wellcome Trust. His work will combine research in genetics and immunology to give a better understanding of MS, provide a new framework for understanding sex differences in MS and lead to new pathways that can be targeted for more effective therapeutic strategies."