Dr. Helen Sheridan

Helen Sheridan is an Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SoPPS) at TCD where she holds the position of Director of Research. Her personal research interests lie in the broad area of Natural Product (NP) Chemistry and Traditional Medicine (TM), with an emphasis on Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM), Ethnopharmacology and Global health. Her work focuses on finding new therapies targeted at diseases with unmet clinical need, in addition to finding natural products suitable for use as nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals. Helen, with international collaborators, is also involved in establishing global standards for the quality, safety and efficacy of TMs including TCM; activities that are supported through her work as part of a Sino-European Consortium (previously funded by EU-FP7; http://www.gp-tcm.org/), her role on the Board of the International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST) society (The International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST) society), in her position as NP expert on the Irish medicines Board (HPRA: Health Products Regulatory Authority) and membership of NPRONET - Natural products discovery and bioengineering network UK. Helen has supervised 21 research students (PhDs and MScs) to completion, as well as 15 post-doctoral fellows. She currently have 7 researchers in her group. Helen is an NP/ organic chemist and has carried out research on a range of plant and fungal species. During her career she successfully identified a lead molecule from TM which her team brought through a programme of medicinal chemistry, through all preclinical stages of development into human clinical trials. During this period Helen co-founded a TCD Campus company, Trino Therapeutics Ltd and was co-PI on funding of approximately €13 million. The funding for this work began with a grant of €500 from the Royal Irish Academy, progressed to funding from EOLAS (the precursor of SFI) and then this work received significant translational investment from Venture Capital and the Wellcome Trust with €3.5 million as co-PI for a highly competitive Wellcome Strategic Translation Award (STA grant. Helen currently holds an SFI-TIDA award and is collaborator in a second TIDA. During this time she has also been co-applicant on seven published patents in the US, EU and Asia and has acted as patent expert on these projects with patenting agents in Ireland and the US. In latter years Helen has become more involved in ethnopharmacology on a global level, in particular the link between the established use of traditional medicine and its role in international development. She has supervised 5 research projects in this field in sub-Saharan Africa. The driving force behind her work is to find new therapeutic treatments for unmet clinical need and to finding meaningful uses for natural molecules. She has learned a lot about the journey from therapeutic drug discovery to human trials, and the challenges and obstacles that line the road. However, experience led decision making about research is invaluable. Through this lens of experience, the molecules Helen's group is working on have real therapeutic potential and have been designed to eliminate some of the insurmountable obstacles to drug development.

  ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE   Antiinflammatory drugs   Autoimmune Diseases (Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis)   Biotransformation   Chemical Biology   Development of drugs for malaria, Cancer and inflammatory diseases   Drug discovery   Fungi   Herbal medicine   In Vitro Testing, Trial Methods   Indanes, indanones, muscel, nast cell stabilisation, immunosuppressants   Inflammation   Inflammatory Bowel Disease   Medicinal plants   Multiple Sclerosis   Natural Product Chemistry   Organic chemistry   Over-the-Counter Drugs   Pharmacognosy   Phytochemical and pharmacological evaluations of native and foreign plants   Phytomedicines   Plant and algal cell monocultures   Secondary plant metabolism   The use of cell cultures for the discovery of novel drugs   Traditional and Indigenous health systems in developing countries   Traditional Chinese Medicine

My research has always been multidisciplinary built on collaboration with pharmacologists, molecular biologists, biotechnologists and botanists, and is recognised at a national and inter-national level. I believe interdisciplinary research is the key requirement for Novel Drug Discovery, where a range of expertise is required to bring therapeutic discoveries from concept to execution. My post-graduate students have benefitted from this approach, learning early in the process, to work in a team with joint, or multiple supervisors, at the interface of many areas of expertise. I am not afraid to lead in this area, and believe that multi-component therapeutics from natural sources will be in use clinically, globally, in my lifetime. This is why I have engaged with the International, Multidisciplinary TCM Consortium establishing good practice (GP-TCM) and gold standards for quality, safety and efficacy of these complex medicines, as determined by 2004/24/EC. Ireland and TCD need to be involved in the critical mass of this complex Drug Discovery platform. One of my core research and teaching beliefs is that 'it is at the interface of disciplines and expertise that new ideas and creativity emerge'. Due to my research led teaching in Natural Products Chemistry, the interdisciplinary nature of this area is constantly underlined at all levels. . Multidisciplinary approach to drug discovery and development. . The use of plants and cell cultures (plant, fungal and animal), for the discovery of novel bio-active materials. . Preparation of novel anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and immunomodulatory compounds by chemical and biological means. . Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Overview the best practice methodology, recommend applications, and future directions for metabolic profiling, component analysis and purification of secondary metabolites in preparations utilised in Traditional Chinese Medicine. . Traditional Herbal Medicines. Collaborative analysis of Bioactive Brazilian and Pakastini plant species. . Co-founder of Trino Therapeutics (Formerly Pharmatrin ltd), a TCD campus company whose activities are centered on drug discovery/development. . Finding new therapies targeted at diseases with unmet clinical need. . Drug discovery from the natural world, inspired by Ethnopharmacology . Drug discovery and optimised production:- plants; fungi; marine species. Use of biotechnology to modify biosynthesis and to generate biomass . Utilising metabolomic techniques to establish best practice for the determination of quality, safety and efficacy of herbal medicines for human and veterinary use. . Global health in a Development context: Impact on Health. (Rwanda, Malawi, Kenya).