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/ bio-technologists/ botanists/anthropologists and sociologists and is recognised at a national and inter-national level. The driving force behind my work is to find new therapeutic treatments for unmet clinical need and to finding meaningful uses for natural molecules, and to improve the position on communities in the developing world who have a cultural and financial reliance on Traditional Medicine. I have 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 my group is working on have real therapeutic potential and have been designed to eliminate some of the insurmountable obstacles to drug development. My drug discovery focus, has been informed by the natural world, ethnomedical practice across the globe; molecular design, based on hybridised natural molecules; and using computer modelling to find natural molecules that target important receptors. In my natural product research I have engaged with International, multidisciplinary Consortia establishing good practice and gold standards for quality, safety and efficacy of complex natural medicines as nutraceuticals, and as food supplements. 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'. My current research falls under four main themes. 1) Multidisciplinary approach Drug discovery for the treatment of inflammatory disease and cancer Finding new therapies targeted at diseases with unmet clinical need. Currently I am PI on an SFI TIDA award and have 50 molecules being tested at level 2 in the Lilly Open Innovation Platform, with six significant nanomolar hits against a key target in Chemotherapy and radiation resistant cancer cells. 2) Drug discovery from the natural world is still ongoing. We use of natural materials (plants, cell cultures, microalgae) for the discovery of novel bio-active materials. 3) Traditional Herbal Medicine. 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 Medicine by large populations (Asia and Africa). Utilising metabolomic techniques to establish best practice for the determination of quality, safety and efficacy of herbal medicines for human and veterinary use. 4) Exploring traditional medicine (TM) in Ireland and in Sub-Saharan-Africa in the context of a changing global healthcare landscape, using a community in West Pokot, Kenya as a case study. I am Co-founder of Trino Therapeutics (Formerly Pharmatrin ltd), a TCD campus company whose activities are centered on drug discovery/development. Through this vehicle my research progressed through a significant Medicinal Chemistry programme of lead optimisation, GMP synthesis of lead, pre-clinical evaluation, regulatory approval and progression through Phase 1 Clinical trials. My ethnomedical research was presented in Harvard (2018), and my overall research work has been presented internationally and most recently on an invited lecture tour in China.