Research
Bringing together academic institutions and health systems to work in a unified, comprehensive approach for addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes
The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital has a merited reputation for delivering high quality research that delivers real and meaningful impact to its patients and to healthcare generally. Since 1852 we have worked hand in hand with our partners in UCD to deliver the very best clinical research and innovation as well as in education and training. In fact, UCD has been ranked in the top 100 globally for pre-clinical, clinical and health sciences, in no small part due to its partnership with the Mater Hospital. The pace of scientific research is continually accelerating and we have an engaged and supportive clinical workforce that helps make the Mater campus exceptional.
Conducting Research
Infrastructure
Core research infrastructure has been created and sustained to support clinical investigations at MMUH. Through our partnerships with UCD and other academic institutions, we have a strong track record of producing high quality research that delivers real and meaningful results to our patients and their healthcare.
Clinical Research Centre (CRC)
Clinical trials are a complex part of our industry and the Clinical Research Centre at the Mater Hospital was established in 2002 to provide support for experimental medicine and clinical trials. The Pillar Centre for Transformative Healthcare is, in collaboration with academic partners and the Clinical Research Centre, establishing a Clinical Translational Unit to provide _ outpatient facilities for patient research _ a broad range of services to off er complete clinical trial coordination _ assistance in all stages of the clinical and translational research process (regulatory compliance, quality assurance, implementation, data storage and analytics) _ critical infrastructure directly or through partnership
Genomics Initiative
The Genomics Initiative integrates several strands of activity, including molecular medicine laboratory, molecular pathology and a Next Generation Sequencing Laboratory. The Pillar Centre for Transformative Healthcare and the Ireland East Hospital Group are developing a comprehensive clinical genetics programme to support key services including cancer, cardiovascular disease, immunology, metabolic diseases, neurology and rare diseases. The opening of the Next Generation Sequencing Laboratory in the Mater has enabled us to move from experience-based medicine to a precision medicine approach by identifying driver mutations in the NGS laboratory. The laboratory now has the capacity to introduce testing across multiple clinical specialties, including cardiology and ophthalmology.
Biobanking Facilities
With the development of Clinical Academic Directorates, clinical research and clinical trials facilities, the Innovative Genomics Initiative and partnerships with industry, there will be a growing demand for an accredited, curated bio-banking facilities, specifically sample processing, quality control, tagging, monitoring and storage. This requires a dedicated facility, with state-of-the-art sample curation and storage using a secure and rapidly accessible facility with alarmed freezer system and liquid nitrogen back-up. The resource will prove invaluable for the future, for research and for partnership with industry.
Library Support Services
The Mater library hosts a valuable core collection of books and journals which reflect the areas of operation of the hospital and meet the information and continuing education needs of hospital staff and students in addition to access to computerised databases of the health literature e.g. Medline, CINAHL and the Cochrane Database. The next development phase will see a Research Repository established in MMUH.
