Professor Helen Sheridan

Helen Sheridan BSc (UCD), PhD (UCD), is Professor in Pharmacognosy and former Director of Research at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SoPPS) at TCD. She is the academic founder and director of the TCD centre for natural product research, NatPro. She is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Society of Chemistry; a recipient of the TCD Provost's award for teaching excellence and a recipient of the TCD Innovation Award for 'Societal Impact'. Helen has over 100 publications including 7 international patents. She has mentored 35 PhD/ MSc students and 26 postdoctoral researchers. She was awarded 19 million euro in grant income from national and international sources. Helen's collaborative and interdisciplinary research is in Natural Product (NP) chemistry; Traditional Medicine (TM); ethnopharmacology; global health and bioeconomy. Her research focusses on finding new therapies for disease and addressing global issues that may be resolved using NP approaches. During her career she identified a lead molecule which her team advanced from discovery to human clinical trials. Helen co-founded the TCD Campus company, Trino Therapeutics Ltd, and was co-PI on funding of approximately 13 million euro. She was also co-applicant on seven patents in the US, EU and Asia. In later years Helen has become involved in global ethnopharmacology, investigating quality, safety and efficacy of TMs, and the link between the established use of TM and its role in international development. She has supervised 5 research projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Helen was recently awarded €6M to direct a project entitled 'Unlocking Nature's Pharmacy from Bogland Species' focused on the therapeutic and economic potential of the Irish bog land plants, from scientific and educational perspectives. She is a collaborator on the HEI funded IKC3 project €3.5m. Helen was the Phytochemical expert to the Irish Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) for over 20 years and remains as a clinical advisor. She is on the Board of the International Natural Product Sciences taskforce (INPST); the Board of the GP-TCM Research Association; and most recently was appointed by the Cross-Government Bioeconomy Implementation Group (BIG) to the Expert Advisory Group (CECC and DAFM), as the expert in NP science, to support the National Bioeconomy Forum. Helen holds a TCD award for excellence in teaching. She has taught at all levels across the SoPPS curriculum and has contributed to courses across faculties. Her teaching is research led, maps frontier developments, is informed by government policy and international regulation, and is aligned with global development goals. Her course design and delivery involve synergy at the interfaces governing her discipline. She has recently been funded by the IRC New Foundations scheme, to build educational and research collaborations between TCD, and Maseno University (Kenya). This project which involves bi-lateral travel, is on hold until the Covid situation has stabilised. Helen has held senior administrative positions in College, including Director of Research SoPPS (2016-9); Academic Disability Liaison Officer (2006-To date); positions in safety at school, faculty and college level and is the faculty representative on the College Safety Committee. She was faculty representative on the Trinity International Development Initiative steering committee. Helen has acted as external examiner to the School of Pharmacy in UCL (2015-8); has examined at masters and PhD level nationally and globally; has acted as an international grant reviewer on several programmes. Helen is engaged in outreach with a range of stakeholders. Most recently she and her group have launched a national programme for Transition Year students looking at biodiversity and scientific potential of bogland ecosystems. Over 8,000 students have engaged with this programme. Helen hopes her research, teaching, and outreach will make a difference to society.

  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.