Frank on a mission to rid the world of pain

City Lives – Denise McNamara meets Professor Frank Barry, whose work in stem cell research will transform lives

Frank Barry is a man driven by a single vision: to create a stem cell therapy that can be injected into the human body to take away pain and improve people’s quality of life permanently.

The Professor’s career, largely spent locked behind laboratory doors, has been building up to this pivotal point for the last 20 years. Now he stands on the threshold of achieving a goal, that just a generation ago would have been the stuff of science fiction.

“I believe we’ll be there in five years. The first clinical trials will likely be happening in two years, hopefully by 2016, and in five years it will be available in hospital. By 2021 you could go to the GP who would have the stem cell therapy in their fridge.”

Using stem cells to stimulate the repair of tissues and to fix the body when things go wrong is an entirely new concept.

When a knee is damaged by arthritis or injury, often the only option is to replace it, which is a very complex operation that involves a long recovery time if successful. But if stem cell therapy is developed on plan, patients will get an injection into the knee which will see the body repair its own damaged tissue.

“All joints are susceptible to arthritic damage and of course we’re a very arthritic country. The reason why we focus on knees is it’s easier to access but this could be developed to treat other areas such as the spine,” Frank explains.  

The scientific director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) and director of the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science (NCBES) at NUIG is now leading a team of 70 researchers at the Orbsen building, which opened in 2005. Their work has been so successful that they have outgrown their home and will be moving to a new purpose-built research building on the campus next year, which will accommodate over 200 scientists.

He hopes to conduct some of the clinical trials in the laboratories in Galway. In their most recent research award, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) provided funding of €2.5m over five years for cell-based therapies and manufacturing techniques centred on osteo-arthritis, chronic wounds caused by diabetes and skin burns.

A native of Cobh in Co Cork, Frank was the youngest of a family of four whose father died when they were young. Their mother was a housewife who was determined her children would get a good education.

From a young age, he was interested in science and natural history.

“As a small kid I was always messing around with stuff. I would be dissecting snails, finding out about their internal organs. I had this curiosity about what was inside them, I still have it today.”

Biochemistry was the subject he found most exciting in college in 80s in University College Cork (UCC), where he stayed on after his degree, doing masters and a PhD.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.