Professor Helen McCarthy

As Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Professor McCarthy leads the Postgraduate Research Solutions Centre.

The Postgraduate Research Solutions Centre (PGRSC) offers a range of services for PGR Directors and Administrators to support action at School level.  This includes the provision of statistics, advice and support throughout the academic year and the identification of bottlenecks and processes for improving turnaround times on PGR applications.

The Centre promotes the use of Course Finder to advertise projects (funded and unfunded) for potential PhD applicants and manages academic staff profiles on the University’s ‘Find a PhD’ webpages.

Going forward, the Centre will be involved in the identification and Management of new International Distance Learning PhD Projects, enhancing the growth of PGR cohorts to meet current and future strategies.

Contact the Postgraduate Research Solutions Centre: pgrsc@qub.ac.uk.

Prof McCarthy’s research team have focused on the development of non-viral delivery systems for nanomedicine applications in the School of Pharmacy. These biomimetic peptide systems are designed to overcome the extra and intracellular barriers, so that the macromolecular payload can be delivered at the destination site in order to exert the optimal therapeutic effect. Helen has designed and patented three delivery systems. Current research projects involve gene therapy for metastatic deposits; miRNA therapeutics for oncology and wound healing applications; mRNA and DNA vaccination strategies; and regeneration of bone by increasing the bioavailability of ceramics. The wide-spread utility of these delivery systems has led to a spin-out company Phion Therapeutics www.phiontx.co.uk. Phion currently has three internal projects funded by Innovate UK, several commercial partners, one of which includes Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult for ex vivo applications of their technology.

Helen has published over 100 scientific publications, edited a book and has given many conference presentations. Research grant income from the National Science Foundation, Invest Northern Ireland, Cancer Research UK, Prostate Cancer UK, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, The Royal Society, BBSRC, MRC, EPSRC, and Versus Arthritis have supported this research. Helen currently sits on the editorial board for Cancer Nanotechnology and the Journal of Material Science and is an external examiner  for Pharmacy at RCSI and Translational Oncology in TCD.