Ireland to lead way in finding asthma cure

A Dublin hospital has been awarded a €600,000 grant for a project to help find a cure for asthma following an EU competition.

Dr Conor Burke, consultant at the department of respiratory medicine, Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, Dublin was awarded the initial grant for the GABRIEL Project, an EC-funded initiative bringing together over 150 scientists from 14 European countries.

“Our job now is to translate research laboratory findings in the field of asthma and develop them into new and better treatments. This opportunity also contributes hugely to the training of Irish doctors and scientists in research techniques not only relevant to asthma, but to all diseases,” he said.

Dr Burke and his team will examine the genetic information and the environmental situation that has brought on an asthma attack, and use that information in clinical trials with the ultimate aim of curing asthma.

It is hoped that the breakthrough research carried out in Connolly Hospital will help identify how genes and the environment cause the development of asthma, identifying both risk and protective factors, with the long-term aim of preventing asthma, a condition that costs the EU €17 billion every year and kills at least one person per week in this country alone.

This is the first time that an Irish hospital team joins a European research project of this magnitude.

Ireland has the fourth highest prevalence of Asthma worldwide. The Asthma Society of Ireland’s vision is for Ireland to take a leading role in Europe in the clinical management of asthma and research and development in asthma therapy.

Dr Jean Holohan, CEO of the Asthma Society, welcomed the news:

“At the Asthma Society we represent the 470,000 people who suffer from the disease and recognise the impact that this disease has on the patient’s quality of life. We are delighted that Dr Burke’s unit has been awarded this outstanding grant, it may bring a major breakthrough in new therapies for asthma,” she said.
 
For more on asthma, visit our clinic at http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/asthma/index.html.

[Posted: Tue 10/03/2009]