Multiple Sclerosis Ireland is delighted to announce a Telstart biosafety cabinet, with a retail value of over €7,000 was given to the University's Multiple Sclerosis and Stroke Research Group. The cabinet will be used to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying nerve damage in multiple sclerosis and to develop novel ways of achieving nerve repair.
Chemical Systems Control is based in Ashbourne, Co. Meath and since 1980 has been designing, manufacturing and distributing an extensive range high quality laboratory equipment. Staff at Telstar, NSP Lab Services and CRIL Ltd also played a significant role in organising the donation.
Dr Fitzgerald and her team are currently conducting a research project funded through MS Ireland. The project is looking at the role of a particular type of cellular stress has on myelin loss. Dr Fitzgerald’s project was selected by MS Irelands research committee in 2011 and funded through a joint partnership with the Health Research Board.
The name of the project is: Polymer-mediated delivery of endoplasmic reticulum stress-altering siRNA to oligodendroyctes in a cerebellar rat brain slice model of de-and remyelination.
Pictured demonstrating the biosafety cabinet is NUI Galway PhD student Michelle Smith, with the University's VP for research Professor Terry Smith, Head of Multiple Sclerosis and Stroke Research Group at NUI Galway, Dr Una FitzGerald, and Declan Smith of Chemical Systems Control