Blood-cell research receives ERC funding
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Irish scientist Professor Valerie O’Donnell €3m to progress her research into lipids (molecules our bodies use to regulate normal processes, including blood clotting, fighting infection and development) and blood cells.
O’Donnell’s research – ‘Development and application of global lipidomic arrays to inflammatory vascular disease’ (‘LIPIDARRAY) – will investigate the total number of lipids in two types of blood cells so as to understand how such fats help human beings fight infection and prevent bleeding.
In diseases such as heart disease, cancer and dementia, lipids are not regulated as normal and this can contribute to disease progression through processes that are still often poorly understood.
Making the announcement of the overall 284 projects, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, said this ERC fund goes to researchers who are “at the top of their game.”
Along with her team, O’Donnell is now hoping to find new families of lipids that have never been seen before.
Quoted by Silicon Republic, she said: “We will then study plasma samples from humans and mice who are genetically predisposed to developing cardiovascular disease and dementia, with the aim of discovering new lipids that are involved in the disease process themselves.”
This research will happen in collaboration with O’Donnell’s colleagues in the schools of computing, chemistry, psychology and medicine at Cardiff University, University College London, King’s College London and University of Colorado, USA.
