Lenihan opens Ireland’s first 'next-generation' DNA laboratory

Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation Conor Lenihan has today opened Ireland’s first genome sequencing laboratory.

The cutting-edge DNA laboratory, based in Trinity College Dublin’s Institute of Molecular Medicine, will enable research into psychiatric disorders, cancers, infectious diseases and conditions affecting the immune system.

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the facility houses an ‘Illumina Genome Analyzer II’, the first ‘next-generation DNA sequencing’ platform to be set up in Ireland.

Speaking at the opening of the new laboratory, Minister Lenihan said: "The myth that science is not really all that relevant to our day-to-day lives is dispelled by the capability of this impressive SFI funded facility which is the first of its kind in Ireland.

"This new resource enables advancement in research and further enhances Ireland’s international standing in the scientific sphere.

"The discoveries and breakthroughs that you and your peers are unearthing in the course of your day-to-day research activities will have very significant health, social and economic impacts in Ireland”

Commenting on the impact of the new technology for research into psychiatric disorders, Professor Michael Gill, head of the neuropsychiatric genetic research group stated: "These disorders have a very significant health, social and economic impact in Ireland.

"Identifying causative or risk genes will advance our understanding of the biology of these disorders and inform the development of new methods of diagnosis and new drug therapies."