The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland accords research a pivotal status. This enables its staff and students to remain at the cutting-edge of knowledge.

According to Kevin Nolan, vice-dean of the Medical Faculty (research) and professor of chemistry, research in the RCSI and its associated hospitals is flourishing. There are over 100 postgraduate research students registered for NUI (RCSI) higher degrees of PhD, MD, MCh, MAO or MSc.

The college has been highly successful in competing for external funding over the years. "When RCSI developed its current research strategy in the mid-1990s, biopharmaceutical research was identified as a key area for development," says Prof Nolan. "This was reflected in the appointment of Professor Desmond Fitzgerald, a leading cardiovascular researcher, to the chair of clinical pharmacology in 1995.

"As a measure of his outstanding research contribution in the field, Professor Fitzgerald was the recipient of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Cardiovascular Research Grant for 2001, ($500,000 over five years), an award of high prestige among the international biomedical community and one which has come to Ireland for the first time."

The RCSI has so far been successful in all of the Government Programmes for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), he continues. In the inaugural PRTLI in 1998 funding was obtained for the establishment of a Biopharmaceutical Sciences Research Resource (BSSR), encompassing several core facilities to develop molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics with the important intent of improving understanding of how drugs work.

In the 1999, cycle one Programme, funding of £8,662,000 was obtained to enable the expansion of BSSR into an Institute of Biopharmaceutical Sciences (IBS) consisting of a series of biotechnology cores applying genetics and proteomics (a survey analysis of proteins in cells) towards a better understanding of how drugs work in humans.

Among its cores is a Clinical Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital, a unique facility in Ireland which combines research beds with highly sophisticated cell and molecular biology laboratories. The Bioinformatics Core is developing programmes to analyse the growing databases of protein and gene sequences. By examining the evolution of genes and the regions of protein they encode it may be possible to identify areas which are conserved and hence required for activity.

Funding under the 2000, cycle two programme of £7,375,000 was for a Biopharmaceutical Sciences Network formed by RCSI with TCD, UCC and NUI Maynooth. "One feature of this is a transgenic facility which is helping the development of gene therapy for the treatment of diseases such as inherited blindness and Parkinson's Disease," explains the professor.

The development of novel strategies for cancer therapy, detection and prognosis forms an extensive research programme led by professors David Bouchier Hayes and Mary Leader. The development of gene and protein therapeutics to prevent pulmonary inflammation in cystic fibrosis is a research area led by Professor Gerry McElvaney.

The Health Services Research Centre (HSRC), based in the Department of Psychology, was established in 1997 as the first such centre in Ireland to meet the growing need for research relevant to Irish services. It comprises a multi-disciplinary team led by Professor Hannah McGee and Professor Ciaran O'Boyle, and exists to promote quality health care delivery to the Irish public through research, training and policy evaluation. A recent research programme on how people accidentally affected with Hepatitis C are coping with their illness has led to recommendations for high quality health service provisions.

Research on inherited metabolic disorders and "genetic archaeology" focuses on the study of the genetic basis of a number of inherited metabolic disorders in Ireland and its neighbouring European populations. Inherited metabolic disorders, for example phenylketonuria (PKU) and in galactosaemia (GALT), are severe genetic diseases of childhood, passed down from generation to generation in families, which impair the ability of a child (or adult) to handle a component of their diet. These can be managed by appropriate dietary regimes.

Research in the RCSI, led by Dr David Croke, focuses on the identification of the defects in patients' DNA (mutations) which cause them to have these diseases, thus facilitating diagnosis by rapid and accurate DNA-based diagnostic testing. Research in the new discipline of "genetic archaeology" assesses, by DNA studies, the genetic diversity of the Irish and neighbouring populations and provides insights into past events and factors which have shaped the modern human population; studies of PKU and GALT in Ireland and neighbouring populations have identified gradients of genetic variation across Europe peaking in Ireland. The findings suggest that the major contribution to the Irish gene pool was made during the initial human colonisation of the island, approximately 9,000 years ago.

"Subtle differences in facial shape between schizophrenic patients and control groups have been found using conventional measurements, and these suggest that schizophrenia may result from developmental events which also affect the formation of the face," Dr Croke points out.