DrTom Flanagan
Lecturer/Assistant Professor
School of Medicine
Orcid identifier0000-0002-5701-795X (opens in a new tab)
- Lecturer/Assistant ProfessorSchool of Medicine
- 01 716 6631
- University College Dublin, School of Medicine, Health Sciences Centre Belfield Dublin 4
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Cardiovascular disease, congenital heart defects
- Cardiovascular tissue engineering
- In vitro models of disease (myxomatous mitral valve disease, breast cancer)
- Valvular and vascular cell populations / mesenchymal stem cells
- Biological scaffold technologies / electrospinning / 3-D bio-printing
- Bioreactor design & development
Dr. Flanagan's research interests lie in the fields of cardiovascular disease and tissue engineering, and in particular the development of novel heart valve prostheses. Heart valve disease has a devastating effect worldwide, and current treatment options, while enhancing the quality of life of a patient, are not ideal. Mechanical heart valves are associated with long-term anti-coagulation therapy, as well as infection, structural failure and emboli, while biological prostheses are prone to calcification in juveniles and tissue deterioration. Tissue engineering has emerged as a potential approach to combat these inadequacies, by developing living replacements which are constructed using cells and materials derived from the patient, removing the potential for graft rejection. Dr. Flanagan's research has spanned from the characterisation of heart valve cell populations for identifying potential cell sources for tissue-engineered valves, to scaffold development (collagen-glycosaminoglycan composite, fibrin) for valve construction, through to the in vivo application of autologous valves in an adult sheep model. The Tissue Engineering Research Group is currently coordinating a highly, multi-disciplinary project (funded by the National Children's Research Centre (NCRC)/Children's Medical & Research Foundation (CMRF)), which is aimed at developing & testing a novel, stented tissue-engineered heart valve with growth potential in paediatric patients.
The group is also developing a novel, autologous elastogenic vascular grafts for the repair of congenital heart defects.
Congenital cardiovascular defects are present in about 1% of all live births. Children born with a single pumping chamber, for example, are considered a mortality risk. The treatment of choice for such defects is staged surgical reconstruction, with the final stage involving connection of the inferior vena cava to the pulmonary artery with a vascular graft conduit. A significant limitation in this field is the inability of current graft materials to grow and remodel as the patient grows. Tissue engineering has emerged as an exciting alternative for the production of living vascular conduits with the potential for growth and remodelling within the patient. A significant limitation with current tissue-engineered conduits is stretching of the wall after implantation with a consequent risk of graft rupture. The current study aims to produce a novel vascular conduit that can be constructed from materials isolated from the infant, removing the potential for graft rejection, and providing the patient with a living, elastic conduit amenable to growth. It is anticipated that the results of this study will form a substantial basis for the clinical application of patient-grown tissue-engineered vascular conduits in the repair of congenital cardiovascular defects.
- Cardiovascular tissue engineering
- In vitro models of disease (myxomatous mitral valve disease, breast cancer)
- Valvular and vascular cell populations / mesenchymal stem cells
- Biological scaffold technologies / electrospinning / 3-D bio-printing
- Bioreactor design & development
Dr. Flanagan's research interests lie in the fields of cardiovascular disease and tissue engineering, and in particular the development of novel heart valve prostheses. Heart valve disease has a devastating effect worldwide, and current treatment options, while enhancing the quality of life of a patient, are not ideal. Mechanical heart valves are associated with long-term anti-coagulation therapy, as well as infection, structural failure and emboli, while biological prostheses are prone to calcification in juveniles and tissue deterioration. Tissue engineering has emerged as a potential approach to combat these inadequacies, by developing living replacements which are constructed using cells and materials derived from the patient, removing the potential for graft rejection. Dr. Flanagan's research has spanned from the characterisation of heart valve cell populations for identifying potential cell sources for tissue-engineered valves, to scaffold development (collagen-glycosaminoglycan composite, fibrin) for valve construction, through to the in vivo application of autologous valves in an adult sheep model. The Tissue Engineering Research Group is currently coordinating a highly, multi-disciplinary project (funded by the National Children's Research Centre (NCRC)/Children's Medical & Research Foundation (CMRF)), which is aimed at developing & testing a novel, stented tissue-engineered heart valve with growth potential in paediatric patients.
The group is also developing a novel, autologous elastogenic vascular grafts for the repair of congenital heart defects.
Congenital cardiovascular defects are present in about 1% of all live births. Children born with a single pumping chamber, for example, are considered a mortality risk. The treatment of choice for such defects is staged surgical reconstruction, with the final stage involving connection of the inferior vena cava to the pulmonary artery with a vascular graft conduit. A significant limitation in this field is the inability of current graft materials to grow and remodel as the patient grows. Tissue engineering has emerged as an exciting alternative for the production of living vascular conduits with the potential for growth and remodelling within the patient. A significant limitation with current tissue-engineered conduits is stretching of the wall after implantation with a consequent risk of graft rupture. The current study aims to produce a novel vascular conduit that can be constructed from materials isolated from the infant, removing the potential for graft rejection, and providing the patient with a living, elastic conduit amenable to growth. It is anticipated that the results of this study will form a substantial basis for the clinical application of patient-grown tissue-engineered vascular conduits in the repair of congenital cardiovascular defects.