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Professor Vincent Kelly

Professor In/Academic Co-Ordinator (Biochemistry)
      
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Professor Vincent Kelly

Professor In/Academic Co-Ordinator (Biochemistry)

 kellyvp@tcd.ie

 3531896 3507


Vitamins, minerals and micronutrients are naturally occurring compounds with essential biological activities. Although their consumption does not provide any direct calorific return, as would be the case for macronutrients i.e. protein, fat, carbohydrate, their deficiency can have a major impact on human health. Understanding the role that such compounds play in human physiology can be greatly assisted through the study of transgenic animals which can be engineered to mirror the disease effects seen in humans. For the past decade, our laboratory has been pursuing a largely unexplored avenue of research, working on the queuine micronutrient. This molecule is made exclusively by bacteria but surprisingly is salvaged by plants and animals, including humans, for largely unknown reasons. Our efforts succeeded in identifying the mechanism that mammals use to obtain queuine from the diet and we have made substantial progress in understanding queuine's physiological role. Part of the attraction of working in the micronutrient field is the breath of physiological effects that these often-overlooked molecules can have in disease and human health. Sir James Black, Scottish physician, pharmacologist and 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, once famously stated that "The most fruitful basis for the discovery of a new drug is to start with an old drug". In this vein of thought, our group in collaboration with colleagues in Chemistry, have been developing mimetics of queuine to interrogate the possibility of using such compounds to treat disease. Recently, we have published the first of our findings, showing that queuine mimetics can drastically reverse the clinical disease process (i.e. paralysis and autoimmunity) associated with the animal model of Multiple Sclerosis. Based on these findings, my colleagues and I have co-founded a university spin-out company called Azadyne that is now developing queuine-based therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune disease. Arguably, above any other aspect of human physiology, the ability to give rise to offspring is paramount. There is now a growing awareness, as highlighted extensively in the media, that fertility in men is dropping drastically in the Western world. Sperm counts have more than halved in the past 40 years and it is estimated that the levels are continuing to fall by an average of 1.4% per year. Although there is no impending threat of human extinction, the impact can be tragic for those couples trying to conceive. Surprisingly, the underlying cause for this drop in fertility remains uncertain. Based on our laboratory's experience in fertility and transgenic technologies (see below) we have ongoing investigations on the use of micronutrients in male infertility, that are based on two commercial projects. Our group also has an ongoing research interest in developing natural anti-cancer agents for the treatment of oral and oesophageal cancer. With over 25 years of experience in transgenic technologies, our research group established the only transgenic facility on the island of Ireland (www.transgenics.ie) a little over 10 years ago. Presently, the transgenic facility offers a range of services including, rederivation, IVF, sperm and egg cryopreservation, dry-shipping and cold-shipping of germplasm and CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology to manipulate the mouse genome. Our transgenic facility has carried out hundreds of vital transgenic tasks for researchers in Trinity College and other universities nationally. As always, we are delighted to discuss new projects and provide advice to researchers on the optimal transgenic methods to address individual research questions.
  Animal Biotechnology   Animal Reproduction   Embryology   Immunology, Immunotherapy   Nutrition
Details Date
European Working Group on the creation, breeding, maintenance and reporting of genetically altered animals 26th Jun
Irish representative for the EMMA (European Mouse Mutant Archive), which is a repository and distributor of mutant mouse strains for basic biomedical research. 15th Jun
Lead administrator of the Irish Transgenic Network, which co-ordinates the transgenic activities of HEIs nationally. The group has helped shape national policy for the use of transgenic animals in research. 1st Oct
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Basic Basic Basic
Japanese Basic Basic Medium
Details Date From Date To
Biochemical Society 1st Oct 2000 To Present
Schaler, L. and Ghanim, M. and Guardiola, J. and Kaulsay, J. and Ibrahim, A. and Brady, G. and McCormack, W. and Conlon, N. and Kelly, V.P. and Wingfield, M. and Glover, L., Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on seminal and systemic inflammation in men, Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 164, (104287), 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Cotter M., Quinn S.M., Fearon U., Ansboro S., Rakovic T., Southern J.M., Kelly V.P., Connon S.J., A new class of 7-deazaguanine agents targeting autoimmune diseases: dramatic reduction of synovial fibroblast IL-6 production from human rheumatoid arthritis patients and improved performance against murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, RSC Medicinal Chemistry, 15, (5), 2024, p1556 - 1564, p1556-1564 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Browning J., Ghanim M., Jagoe W., Cullinane J., Glover L.E., Wingfield M., Kelly V.P., Membrane-bound receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is a stable biomarker of low-quality sperm, Human Reproduction Open, 2024, (4), 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Sake JA, Selo MA, Burtnyak L, Dähnhardt HE, Helbet C, Mairinger S, Langer O, Kelly VP, Ehrhardt C., Knockout of ABCC1 in NCI-H441 cells reveals CF to be a suboptimal substrate to study MRP1 activity in organotypic in vitro models., European journal of pharmaceutical sciences : official journal of the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences, 181, 2023, p106364 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Hung SH, Elliott GI, Ramkumar TR, Burtnyak L, McGrenaghan CJ, Alkuzweny S, Quaiyum S, Iwata-Reuyl D, Pan X, Green BD, Kelly VP, de Crécy-Lagard V, Swairjo MA., Structural basis of Qng1-mediated salvage of the micronutrient queuine from queuosine-5'-monophosphate as the biological substrate., Nucleic acids research, 51, (2), 2023, p935-951 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Zhang, Jilei, Zhang, Yongguo, McGrenaghan, Callum J., Kelly, Vincent P., Xia, Yinglin, Sun, Jun, Disruption to tRNA Modification by Queuine Contributes to Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2023, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Vincent P. Kelly, RNA modifications as targets for autoimmunity , RNA Associated Mechanism Conference: In Immunity and Disease, Steamboat Colorado, 28th Aug - 1st Sept , 2022, Uttiya Basa, Vincent Kelly, Nina Papvasilou, Jayantha Chaudhuri, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
McDonnell, C.M. and Ghanim, M. and Mike Southern, J. and Kelly, V.P. and Connon, S.J., De-novo designed β-lysine derivatives can both augment and diminish the proliferation rates of E. coli through the action of Elongation Factor P, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 59, (128545), 2022, Notes: [10.1016/j.bmcl.2022.128545 ], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Campiani, G., Khan, T., Ulivieri, C., Staiano, L., Papulino, C., Magnano, S., Nathwani, S., Ramunno, A., Lucena-Agell, D., Relitti, N. and Federico, S., Pozzetti, L., Carullo, G., Casagni, A., Brogi, S., Vanni, F., Galatello, P., Ghanim, M., McCabe, N., Lamponi, S., Valoti, M., Ibrahim, O., O'Sullivan, J., Turkington, R., Kelly, V.P., VanWemmel, R., Fernando Díaz, J., Gemma, S., Zisterer, D., Altucci, L., De Matteis, A., Butini, S., Benedetti, R., Design and synthesis of multifunctional microtubule targeting agents endowed with dual pro-apoptotic and anti-autophagic efficacy, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 235, 2022, p114274-, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Koen van Wijk, Takeru Akabane, Tomohiro Kimura, Shinichi Saitoh, Satoshi Okano, Vincent P. Kelly, Michiaki Takagi, Ken Kodama, Kiwamu Takahashi, Tohru Tanaka, Motowo Nakajima, Osamu Nakajima, Heterozygous disruption of ALAS1 in mice causes an accelerated age-dependent reduction in free heme, but not total heme, in skeletal muscle and liver, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 697, 2021, p108721 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
  

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Vincent P. Kelly, Why CRISPR is revolutionising animal research....and providing to be a regulatory headache, IAT Symposium, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, 24th May 2023, 2023, Sylvia Meaghan, IAT President, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Vincent P. Kelly, Genome engineering - Better humans.....and a better world?, UCC Technology Conference, University College Cork, 27th Nov, 2021, UCC MRT Society, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Vincent P. Kelly, Queuine-mimetics - hitting the reset button in autoimmunity, European Epitranscriptomics Network, Online (Trento Italy), 21st Sept, 2021, Prof. Alessandro Quattrone, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Vincent P. Kelly, RNA at the therapeutic frontier: Autoimmunity, cancer & neurodegeneration, UCC Biochemical Society, University College Cork, 1st Dec, 2021, Dr. Gary Loughran, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Vincent P. Kelly, The queuine micronutrient pathway as a therapeutic target in autoimmune disease, Translational Medicine Research Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Canada, 14th Jan, 2019, Dr. Colin McKerlie, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Innovation Awards: Winner 'Inventor' Category 1st Dec 2020
Innovation Awards: Nomiated 'Campus Company Founders' Category 1st Dec 2020
Innovation Awards: Nominated 'Inventor' Category 15th Nov 2019