Research Updates

MPS Research

Research Grants

The Irish MPS society provides funding for research into MPS diseases and the following information outlines recent areas.

Research Area 1: Development of Gene expression-targeted isoflavone therapy for MPS III (Sanfilippo)

The Irish MPS society has collaborated with MPS societies from Several countries (Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA) to fund a fourth year of research in the above titled project led by Prof Wegrzyn University of Gdansk, Poland. He found that long-term experiments are required in order to reach conclusions on the efficacy and safety of the use of genistgein in the MPS III mouse model. The Irish Society has contributed £2000stg to the project and we will receive a report upon conclusion of the project.

Research Area 2: Stem cell gene therapy for MPS IIA

The MPS Stem Cell Research Laboratory at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital was established by Drs Rob Wynn, Ed Wraith and Brian Bigger with funding from the UK MPS society and other National MPS and children’s charities. We have now funded a project for two years “Lentiviral mediated hameopoetic stem cell gene therapy for MPS IIA” . Alex Smith (PhD student) is developing a combined stem cell and gene therapy approach for MPS IIIA. This involves improving the delivery of the missing enzyme by modifying stem cells in the bone marrow to produce a large quantity of enzyme to correct the disease.

More details can be seen in the following files.