by Xinhua writers Zhao Jiasong, Gao Wencheng
GALWAY, Ireland, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Medical cooperation between Ireland and China can promote joint clinical trials and develop treatments for diseases challenging both populations, Timothy O'Brien, co-director of Rinn Medical Devices at the University of Galway, said Thursday.
"Aging populations, diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease are problems that affect citizens in China, Ireland and across the world," O'Brien, a clinician-scientist, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in Galway, Ireland. "When I visit hospitals in Ireland and China, the patients have the same problems."
Rinn Medical Devices is part of the Rinn Network, a national research initiative linking universities, industry and government in strategic technology fields. The medical devices center focuses on developing technologies for healthy aging and chronic illnesses, with an emphasis on translating laboratory research into clinical applications.
O'Brien said Chinese and Irish researchers bring complementary strengths to medical research. China has developed modern hospitals, advanced infrastructure and extensive clinical expertise, while Ireland has built a system in which many medical specialists combine patient care with university research.
The next stage of cooperation, he said, should move beyond education and laboratory research into joint clinical trials, commercialization and product development.
His team has worked with Chinese partners on stem-cell therapies, including mesenchymal stem cells. While the field has advanced, O'Brian cautioned that a limited number of stem-cell products have received regulatory approval, underscoring the need for rigorous clinical trials.
European clinical data cannot automatically be used to seek approval in China, so studies must also be conducted among Chinese patients. O'Brien said this created an opening for the two sides to design parallel studies and trials together, evaluate therapies across different populations and build stronger clinical evidence.
O'Brien has worked with Chinese institutions for about a decade and visited China more than 30 times. During that time, he has helped train Chinese doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in Galway, many of whom have returned to China to establish research programs at universities and in industry.
"People form the bridges," he said, adding that long-term cooperation depends on lasting friendships and continued academic exchanges.
O'Brien said Chinese doctors often work with large numbers of patients and encounter a broad range of complex conditions, giving them substantial clinical experience.
These strengths could support cooperation in cell and gene therapies, regenerative medicine, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, he said, noting that Ireland, meanwhile, could provide research expertise and a gateway to the European market.
Looking ahead, O'Brien said priority should be given to diseases that have been global burdens, particularly diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease. He said that technologies such as gene editing, cell therapy, biomaterials and artificial intelligence could play an important role in addressing these challenges.
He further noted that traditional Chinese medicine is a promising area for cooperation, provided that potential treatments are evaluated using modern scientific methods.
O'Brien cited Chinese scientist Tu Youyou's discovery of artemisinin as an example of how traditional knowledge can lead to treatments of global importance.
"We would like to use modern cellular and molecular biology tools, marry them to Chinese medicine and identify molecules of therapeutic benefit," he said.
The University of Galway and Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine established the Confucius Institute of Chinese and Regenerative Medicine in 2020. Under this partnership, researchers are using stem-cell models and molecular biology to study compounds found in traditional remedies.
The purpose of cooperation is "to make life better for patients who are suffering from the problems that we are seeking solutions to," O'Brien said. ■