A NEW DNA sequencing laboratory enabling research into possible causes of psychiatric disorders, cancers, infectious diseases and conditions affecting the immune system, was opened at Trinity College Dublin yesterday.
The laboratory, based at the college’s Institute of Molecular Medicine at St James’s Hospital, houses next-generation genome sequencing equipment. This was purchased with funding of more than €500,000 from Science Foundation Ireland, which allows scientists to undertake studies in molecular biology and genetics research which were previously not technically or economically feasible. It is the only such technology in the State.
Prof Michael Gill, head of the neuropsychiatric genetic research group, said the new technology would greatly accelerate the search for risk genes for schizophrenia. It would do this by allowing staff to sequence many genes in many patient samples to identify subtle changes to the DNA code that results in a gene not functioning properly and thus contributing to the development of the illness.
Prof Dermot Kelleher, director of the institute of molecular medicine and head of the TCD school of medicine, said he was extremely proud of the research being carried out at the facility. Examples of this included work on the identification of genes related to eczema, coeliac disease, diabetes, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism which had been published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics and the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The new technology in this laboratory will not only accelerate our rate of discovery of genetic involvement of disease, it will also facilitate new understandings of the mechanisms involved in disease at a functional level and ultimately will help us to translate such knowledge into the development of new therapeutics for the common diseases that affect the Irish population,” he said.
Conor Lenihan, Minister of State with responsibility for Science, Technology and Innovation, opened the laboratory and said it was doing hugely important work. He referred in particular to its work in relation to eczema, a condition from which he himself suffers.
“It’s a dreadful thing to have. Lots and lots of people in Ireland have eczema. I’ve been to several consultants, and still can’t find a cure because there is no cure. There’s only ongoing treatment and perhaps the hope in the future is that some geneticist, maybe in this institution or somewhere else, will come up with something that would explain all of that to me and the thousands like me who have that particular disorder,” he said.
“It’s a particularly bad disorder by the way if you’re in politics, I can tell you this. I’ve been accused of so many things as a result of being in politics and having this particular disease. I’ve been accused of drinking too much because my face gets . . . all red and they say, ‘God that man, he must be drinking an awful lot’.
“I have to wear all sorts of daft make-up and cover-up technology or cosmetics when I appear in public sometimes because of . . . aspects of it,” he added.