Prof Timothy O’Brien is Established Professor of Medicine at the University of Galway and Consultant Endocrinologist in University Hospital Galway, (Ireland). Prof. Timothy O’Brien trained in internal medicine and endocrinology in Cork, Milwaukee, Rochester and San Francisco. Prior to joining NUI Galway, he worked at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2001 he was appointed as Head of Medicine at NUI Galway and Consultant Endocrinologist at Galway University Hospital. In 2004 Prof O’Brien established the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) at the University of Galway with funding from Science Foundation Ireland and currently holds the position of Director.

Prof. O’Brien’s research explores the synergies between gene therapy, stem/stromal cell therapy and biomaterials science with a key interest in the development of cell therapies for vascular disease and diabetic complications in partnership with industry and the health service. The objective of his research is to translate research findings in the laboratory to clinical trials. He is co-director of the GMP cell manufacturing facility at the University of Galway and has been a PI on gene therapy and cell therapy clinical trials in Galway and Europe. Professor O’Brien has coordinated two EU consortia; EU FP7 REDDSTAR which is developing and testing a novel stromal cell therapy to treat complications of diabetes mellitus and the EU H2020 NEPHSTROM, which will clinically validate a novel stromal cell therapy for the stabilization of progressive diabetic kidney disease. He was also the lead principal investigator on a phase 1b trial of autologous delivery of MSCs in patients with no option chronic limb-threatening ischaemia (CLTI) co-funded by a Translational Award from SFI and Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland. Prof O’Brien also established partnerships with multinational and indigenous companies as part of SFI-funded programmes and is the co-founder of spin out company, Orbsen Therapeutics Ltd. This company has patented technology for stem cell isolation and currently has 18 employees in Galway.

Furthermore, Prof O’Brien is co-Director of the Joint Stem Cell Research Facility of Hebei Medical University and University of Galway and Irish Director of the Confucius Institute of Chinese and Regenerative Medicine, which is a partnership between the University of Galway and The Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. The goal of this programme is to discover molecules from Chinese Medicine products with regenerative capacity.