Professor Therese Kinsella wins 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Award
Posted 15 April, 2024
Professor Therese Kinsella, CEO and founder of (opens in a new window)ATXA Therapeutics, has won this year’s NovaUCD Innovation Award.
ATXA Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing life-changing treatments for cardiopulmonary diseases.
A spin-out from the UCD School of Molecular and Biomedical Science based on over 20 years of research carried out by Professor Kinsella and her team, the company’s focus is the development of its lead candidate drug NTP42 for the treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH).
PAH is a devastating disease of the lungs and heart with an urgent unmet need for new improved therapies.
While the condition itself is classed as a rare or orphan disease, affecting some 15-50 patients per million, it carries an enormous health burden with an annual spending in excess of €7.5 billion globally on prescribed medicines.
Through NTP42, ATXA aims to offer improved treatment options to prescribing physicians.
“It is indeed a great honour for me to accept this Award from UCD both personally and on behalf of everyone on the ATXA team who have been part of our success journey so far,” said Professor Kinsella.
ATXA has already successfully completed First-in-Human Phase I clinical trials for NTP42 in healthy male volunteers, and has completed a bridging clinical trial testing of a novel oral capsule formulation of the drug in men and women.
“[We’re] working towards commencing Phase II clinical trials in PAH patients to demonstrate NTP42’s clinical efficiency. Depending on securing approval from the EMA and FDA regulatory agencies, as well as the necessary inward investment, the Phase II trials are due to run from 2025 through to late 2026,” added Professor Kinsella.
ATXA Therapeutics, headquartered at the UCD Conway Institute, has raised over €17 million in grants and equity funding to date, and Professor Kinsella and ATXA have 16 granted patents, in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia, with numerous others filed globally protecting their drugs out to the mid-2040s.
The NovaUCD Innovation Award recognises excellence in innovation and of successes achieved in the commercialisation of UCD research or other intellectual activity over several years.
Pictured at the UCD University Club Prof. Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact; Assoc. Prof. Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Prof. Jonathan Drennan, UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems; Prof. Nick Holden, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering; Prof. Orla Feely, President, UCD; Prof. Therese Kinsella, founder and CEO of ATXA Therapeutics; Hugh Sheehy, co-founder and CEO, Go Eve; John Byrne, founder and CEO; Corlytics; Assoc. Prof. Antoinette Perry, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and co-founder, EpiCapture and Tom Flanagan, UCD Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation Photo: Nick Bradshaw
A total of seven awards were presented by (opens in a new window)UCD President Professor Orla Feely who said the NovaUCD Innovation Awards were a “key annual event highlighting the University’s commitment to innovation and recognise the achievements of our research, innovation and entrepreneurial communities and I congratulate all who have received this year’s Awards.”
“I would also like to wish the Awardees future success as they continue to work towards delivering economic and societal impact in Ireland, and further afield, through their commercialisation, consultancy, entrepreneurial and innovation activities.”
Winners of the 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Awards:
- Professor Therese Kinsella - NovaUCD Innovation Award
- Associate Professor Nan Zhang - NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award
- Professor Fiona Timmins - NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award
- Professor Nick Holden - NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award
- Go Eve - NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award
- EpiCapture - NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award
- John Byrne, CEO and founder of Corlytics - NovaUCD Founder of the Year Award
The recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award was (opens in a new window)Associate Professor Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, in recognition of a patented microfluidic system and process for the formulation of nanomedicines developed by him and his research team.
The system is designed to accelerate formulation screening and to enhance formulation optimisation, crucial for the development of gene therapy, cell therapy, and vaccines.
The 2024 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award was received by (opens in a new window)Professor Fiona Timmins, UCD Dean of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems and Head of the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.
An active researcher within the field of nursing and nurse education, Professor Timmins has carried out, or is carrying out four consultancy projects, through ConsultUCD, for clients including Irish Hospice Foundation, UniGe (the University of Genoa) and the HRB.
These consulting projects resulted in a high level of national and international collaboration that served to increase the reputation of UCD, while also upskilling nursing professionals and providing robust evaluations of health-related projects.
EpiCapture, which is focused on developing accurate and non-invasive liquid tests for the early detection and prognostic assessment of high-grade cancers, was named recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award.
The company was co-founded in 2021 by (opens in a new window)Associate Professor Antoinette Perry, Co- Director of the (opens in a new window)UCD Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Lab, and Edward Simons, as a spin-out from the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science.
The recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award was (opens in a new window)Nick Holden, Professor of Biosystems Engineering in the UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering.
His research interests are focused on the sustainability of agriculture, food systems and the bioeconomy, with a particular focus on using life cycle assessment, systems analysis and remote sensing.
Go Eve, an electric vehicle charging start-up and a joint UCD and Imperial College London spin-out was named the recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award.
Meanwhile John Byrne, CEO and founder of Corlytics, was named the recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Founder of the Year Award.
Corlytics, headquartered at NexusUCD in Dublin, enables customers to stay ahead of regulatory demands and is the only solution with a fully integrated end-to-end offering, from regulatory horizon scanning to policy management and through to attestation.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation).
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
