1 Million Euro Donated to NUI Galway for Breast Cancer Research Facility

NUI Galway's upcoming Translational Research Facility has recently received a €1 million donation for its development from the National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI), through the Galway University Foundation.

The facility will be on the grounds of University Hospital Galway, beside the Clinical Sciences Institute (where NBCRI is located). It will welcome ten main researchers, as well as 120 scholars specialising in cancer biology and other clinical disciplines.

The scientists will have an open-plan wet laboratory space, including a write-up area, in the facility; this is to ensure groups can come and go throughout their study, depending on their needs. Each office for the ten primary examiners and the varied support resources - for example, tissue culture and microscopy - will be based around the open-plan area. This design is to assist the multidisciplinary methods and approaches that it is hoped will be taken at the breast cancer research facility.

Established in 1991, the NBCRI has been fully supportive of the plan for the facility, their aim being "to conduct relevant, ethical research into the biology of breast cancer, to determine the cause of this disease and improve the treatment for patients."

They state, "Ongoing research is essential to ensure the optimal treatment for all patients, to reduce their side effects, to improve their quality of life and, primarily, increase their chance of survival."

NUI Galway alumnus and Professor of Surgery at the university, Professor Kerin, believes that "the key to managing breast cancer is to individualise treatment and to give each patient the therapies most likely to cure them yet spare the toxicity of the treatments." This result can be achieved by the creation of a first-class breast cancer research institute.

President James Browne affirmed NUI Galway's delight to obtain such a wonderful donation for the development of the University's Translational Research Facility. "[The service] will allow our researchers to ‘translate' their work into practical strategies, which will help patients and those facing currently intractable health problems. The cutting-edge work being done by Galway scientists and clinicians will be brought from ‘bench to bedside' in the new Translational Research Facility. "On behalf of NUI Galway, I would like to sincerely thank the NBCRI, who do such sterling work to raise awareness of breast cancer. Their generous support will enable cancer sufferers to benefit from innovative treatments to address their health concerns in the future."

16 Jan 2012

by Marése O'Sullivan