Trinity College Dublin

<p><strong>Overview:</strong> As Ireland’s university on the world stage, Trinity is recognised for academic excellence and a transformative student experience. The historic campus is located in the heart of Dublin city centre at the meeting place of the retail and cultural districts. With a tradition of scholarship spanning more than four centuries, Trinity is home to talented and inquiring minds, a liberal education, and research conducted at the frontiers of disciplines.</p>
<p><strong>Research:</strong> Trinity’s position as one of the world’s leading universities is defined by our research, scholarship, and capacity to address issues of global, societal and economic importance. Our strength lies in the breadth and excellence of our expertise; from individual-scholars and thought-leaders, to large multidisciplinary teams, each delivering research of national and global importance.</p>
<p>Trinity’s research themes address issues of immediate and long-term concern for society and offer opportunities for future economic development. They are supported by a set of research institutes that provide the infrastructure that is required to support multi-disciplinary research as well as partner engagement.</p>
<p><strong>Industry Partnerships:</strong> Trinity is committed to supporting industry — from SMEs to MNCs, from short term projects to long term on-going collaborative projects. In a national or international context, we work collaboratively with industry stakeholders and agencies to share infrastructure and expertise, tackle industry relevant research challenges, problems, or address grand challenges.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>The pathogenesis of 15% of human cancers has been linked to inflammation. One of the most prevalent inflammation driven cancers is colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CRC). Annually in Ireland - CRC is responsible for 15% of all cancer related deaths with an average of 1445 cases (<img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/technologies/figures/SICnkkv8RuywKiL9X4jI_colorectal_cancer_1.png" alt="Figure 1." />).</p>
<p>Early stages of progression to CRC, particularly distinguishing between inflammation and true dysplasia, is not as straightforward, and there is a large amount of variation between pathologists identification and grading of dysplasia. Patients who have had colitis for &gt;10 years are advised to undergo regular colonoscopy to detect preinvasive neoplastic lesions. High grade inflammation is also regarded as an indication for colectomy.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>Trinity College have identified caspases-4 and -5 as potential targets for limiting intestinal inflammation and, furthermore, identified epithelial-expressed caspases-4 and -5 as novel targets with diagnostic and therapeutic potential for CRC.</p>
<p>Technology Status:</p>
<p>Inflammatory caspase expression has been examined in IBD patients, an examination of adjacent-normal, inflamed and tumour tissue from patients with ulcerative colitis-associated CRC confirmed that stromal expression of caspases-4 and -5 is increased in inflamed and dysplastic tissue, while epithelial expression is restricted to neoplastic tissue.</p>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<p>There is a serious requirement for an additional early marker of dysplasia in this context, and the role and expression of enzyme proteins involved in inflammation has been examined. The increased expression of enzyme proteins ‘caspase-4’ and ‘caspase-5‘ correlated to inflammation and disease activity in irritable bowel disease and CRC patients. This technology allows improved accuracy of diagnosis, early treatment, reduction in colectomies and improvement in quality of life.</p>
