A new five-year research initiative led by Professor Niall Barron at UCD’s School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering has received €2 million in funding from Research Ireland and APC Ltd, an Irish biopharmaceutical process development company. The TRANS-AM project (Transformation of Advanced Medicines Manufacture) aims to develop more efficient and cost-effective methods for producing and analysing gene therapies, medicines designed to modify a patient’s genes to treat or cure disease.

The project addresses one of the key challenges in the gene therapy sector: the high cost and complexity of manufacturing therapies delivered via viral vectors produced in living cell cultures. By streamlining production and analysis processes, the initiative seeks to make gene therapies more accessible to patients and strengthen Ireland’s biopharmaceutical capabilities.

TRANS-AM is a collaborative effort involving UCD, APC Ltd, and the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), with practical translation of research outputs supported by VLE Therapeutics, APC’s sister company. Co-principal investigators include Dr Jessica Whelan and Dr Ioscani Jimenez del Val from UCD, and Dr Jonathan Bones and Dr Colin Clarke from NIBRT.

Professor Barron emphasised the potential impact of the project, stating it aims to identify methods that reduce manufacturing costs while maintaining the efficacy of these revolutionary therapies. “Gene therapies can deliver life-changing outcomes, but high production costs limit accessibility. Our research seeks to overcome this barrier,” he said.

Minister James Lawless highlighted the importance of such collaborations, noting that partnerships between academia and industry are critical to advancing innovative research with tangible benefits for Irish society, the economy, and the nation’s global scientific standing.

Read the full article to discover how TRANS-AM could reshape gene therapy production and support Ireland’s growing biopharmaceutical sector.