Funding and Publication Success for Lipid Research Facility
Research group of Prof Valerie O'Donnell celebrates Wellcome Trust award and Nature Protocols paper
The Lipid Mass Spectrometry laboratory based in the School of Medicine recently celebrated the award of a new Equipment Grant from the Wellcome Trust of almost £380K. The laboratory, run by Prof. Valerie O’Donnell was established in 2005 through SRIF2 and a previous Wellcome Equipment Grant and has gone on to become one of a handful of lead centres for analysis of lipids, in particular eicosanoids and related species in the UK.
Lipids are essential building blocks for cells in all organisms, and they participate in signaling pathways in both health and disease. Understanding their behaviour is key to unlocking some of the major events in human pathology, for example in cancer, cardiovascular disease and inflammation. Current state-of-the-art research requires access to specialised mass spectrometry facilities, such as this one in Cardiff.
“The awarding of this grant represents a major milestone for us”, said Prof O’Donnell, “since it allows us to greatly increase our capacity through acquisition of another specialised instrument and dedicated technical support. We analyse samples for numerous outside groups and have been struggling very hard to keep up with demand. We feel especially fortunate in this current climate where equipment funding is becoming increasingly hard to obtain”
The group is also celebrating the recent acceptance of a paper in Nature Protocols, which describes new methods developed by the facility in collaboration with scientists in Denver and Nashville for quantitation of novel lipids identified in immune cells such as platelets and monocytes.
http://medicine.cf.ac.uk/en/research/research-groups/i3/research/eicosanoids/
