Six research projects out of a total of 27 were awarded to UCC. 139 researchers across higher education institutions will carry out cutting-edge work that will generate new jobs in the ‘smart’ economy over the next five years.

UCC Projects:

Principal Investigator: Dr Simon Elliot, Tyndall National Institute, UCC
Title: ALDesign - Process design for atomic layer deposition
The ALDesign project led by Dr Simon Elliott will, in collaboration with the multinational companies Sigma Aldrich, Intel and Seagate, design new chemical processes that will be used in the development of electronics components significantly smaller and faster than those manufactured today.

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Principal Investigator: Dr Justin Holmes and Professor Michael Morris, UCC
Title: Novel Nanowire Structures for Devices
Holmes and Morris develop material platforms or templates which enable reproducible growth of arrays of nanowires. In this way nanowires can be synthesised from the bottom up instead of the existing top-down lithography approach. This technology will enable continued miniaturisation, energy efficiency and performance of electronic devices.

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Principal Investigator: Dr Paul Hurley, Tyndall National Institute, UCC
Title: Investigating Emerging Non-Silicon Transistors (INVENT)
The INVENT project will focus on the development of new materials to reduce the size and energy consumption of transistors which are the basic switching elements in computers. This research is of critical importance to multinational semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel Corporation, who are partners in the Invent project.

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Principal Investigator: Professor Michael Berndt, UCC
Title: A novel pathway initiating adhesion-dependent platelet thrombosis
This project centers on the function of circulating platelets in blood. Heart attack and strokes are caused by the sticking of blood platelets to damaged blood vessels. This project will endeavor to understand mechanisms by which this attachment occurs.

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Principal Investigator: Professor Mary McCaffrey, UCC
Title: Functional analysis of the Rab11 and Rab14 GTPases and their associated proteins in eukaryotic membrane trafficking, with potential identification of targets for therapeutic intervention in the treatment of human disease
The regulatory Rab proteins control how materials (eg nutrients) are transported in our cells. When switched on, Rab proteins cause an ‘effect’ on the transport of material between cellular compartments by physically binding ‘effector’ proteins. A newly discovered family of Rab effector proteins called the FIPs have been shown in an impressive range of cellular processes including cancer spread, sugar uptake by cells in response to insulin and memory acquisition. This research will study the function and structure of the Rabs when bound to FIPs to better understand diseases caused by defective transport processes and identify and develop better therapeutic drugs to such diseases.

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Principal Investigator: Dr Justin McCarthy, UCC
Title: Functional characterization of presenilin-dependent regulated intramembrane proteolysis of cytokine receptors: Relevance to presenilin biology and immune systems
Mutations in genes known as presenilins result in inherited forms of Alzheimers disease (AD). Presenilin proteins are part of a large complex of proteins, known as gamma-secretase (??secretase?, which cleaves amyloid beta precursor protein (APP) to produce amyloid beta (A?). Excess A? can form disease-causing plaques in patients with AD. The ?-secretase complex cleaves a large number of additional proteins in the body and has roles in the skin, gastrointestinal and immune systems. Dr McCarthy has identified two new families of proteins that are targets of ??secretase cleavage, known as the tumor necrosis factor/nerve growth factor (TNF/NGF) and interleukin-1 receptor/toll-like receptor (IL-1R/TLR) superfamilies. This research programme will study the biological role of these novel ?-secretase targets in the immune system.

See http://www.sfi.ie/

Pictured at the announcement were (l-r), Professor Peter Kennedy, VP for Research, UCC, Professor Frank Gannon, Director General, SFI, Batt O’Keeffe TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, and Professor Mary McCaffrey, UCC.

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