Prof. Ohlendieck, Head of the Department of Biology in NUI Maynooth, has completed the second year of this project, jointly funded by MDI and the Medical Research Charities Group / Health Research Board Joint Funding Scheme.

 

The aim of this research is ultimately to understand which heart and muscle proteins are affected in Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (conditions known as dystrophinopathies), and to identify new biomarkers involved in tissue degeneration.

 

The first year of the research was an optimisation phase, to establish the techniques used in the comparative proteomic analysis of control versus dystrophic heart and skeletal muscle fibres (including high resolution 2-D gel electrophoresis, fluorescent tagging of muscle proteins and mass spectrometric fingerprinting analysis).

 

Proteomic analysis of the dystrophic heart has identified a list of cardiac proteins. The main future objective is the comparative isolation and separation of the total cardiac muscle protein complement from normal and dystrophic specimens, followed by scanning for major changes in the expression patterns of major muscle proteins in diseased muscle fibres. The long term aim is that this will lead to the establishment of novel biomarkers for Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy.

 

Research has been published in the journal “Proteomics – Clinical Applications” in 2007, and presented at the Life Sciences 2007 Meeting of the Biochemical Society in conjunction with the British Pharmacological Society and the Physiological Society.

 

In October 2008, group from MDI attended NUI Maynooth to present Prof. Kay Ohlendieck with the second installment of funding for this project. An update on this project was presented at the MDI AGM in April 2009.  Click here to download a summary of this presentation.  Thank you to Prof. Ohlendieck and his team for inviting MDI to tour their laboratory and see the work that they are doing.  (Hold mouse over photo for details)