Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD has announced that a special Science Foundation Ireland Future Innovator Prize of €500,000 has been granted to University College Dublin researcher, Professor Dominic Zerulla.
Highly innovative imaging solution
Prof Zerulla, UCD School of Physics, and his team at PEARlabs Technologies, have received the prize in recognition of the potential impact of their project to develop a highly innovative imaging solution that enables ultra-fast video-rate nanoscale optical microscopy.
PEARlabs, a UCD spin-out company was founded by Professor Zerulla in 2018, with the support of NovaUCD.
The PEARlabs technology aims to transform the understanding of processes such as cell signalling and cell proliferation in cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Conventional optical microscopes
The patented technology can therefore aid early diagnostics, precision medicine and the delivery of improved drug treatments. It also has the potential to be used as an add-on to conventional optical microscopes opening up access to ‘nm resolution imaging’ for many fields of science.
The prize fund will be used to further develop this solution and enable the PEARlabs team to progress their research towards having a positive impact for society.
The SFI Future Innovator Prize, funded by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation through Science Foundation Ireland, is part of an overall government plan to cultivate challenge-based funding in Ireland.
Potentially disruptive technologies
This prize challenges the country’s best and brightest unconventional thinkers and innovators to create novel, potentially disruptive technologies in collaboration with societal stakeholders and end-users.
The UCD PEARlabs team is led by Prof Zerulla together with Dr Dimitri Scholz, UCD Conway Institute, societal impact champion, Peter Doyle and research team members, Dr Irina Kühne, Dr John Gordon and Silas O’Toole. Their SFI Future Innovator Prize project was entitled, Enabling Next Generation Biological Imaging.
Prof Zerulla said: “I am delighted to receive this award, which is verification that the transformative potential of our disruptive imaging method has been recognised.
"Our PEARlabs technology will allow life science researchers to understand biomedically relevant mechanisms to enable an unparalleled in-depth understanding of life-threatening diseases such as cancer and pandemic viral infections, including the coronavirus. This will in turn facilitate the development of faster drug delivery and testing.
'Extremely exciting'
“Our journey to the SFI Future Innovator Prize was extremely exciting. Successfully getting through the rigorous evaluation process, consisting of three competitive rounds and being able to enthusiastically demonstrate our research to national and international expert panels was quite an experience.
"This external validation has been very important for PEARlabs, a UCD spin-out supported by NovaUCD, which is currently in negotiations with international investors and global companies.”
Professor Orla Feely, UCD vice-president for research, innovation and impact, and Engineers Ireland vice-president, said: “I would like to congratulate Prof Zerulla and his PEARlabs team on receiving €500,000 in funding through the highly competitive and prestigious SFI Future Innovator Prize programme.”
Improved drug treatments
“Winning this funding is testament to the world-class research taking place at UCD and the innovative start-ups which are spinning out from such research activities. I wish the team every success as they further advance their nanoscale biological imaging technology which will impact society by advancing our understanding of many diseases and lead to the development of improved drug treatments.”
In addition to the special prize to Prof Zerulla, Minister Humphreys TD also announced Dr Alison Liddy and her project team at NUI Galway as the inaugural winner of the SFI Future Innovator Prize.
Dr Liddy and her team have been awarded €1 million for their Hydrobloc project, a novel and transformative treatment for people suffering from chronic neuropathic pain.