Talk Title: “Mesenchymal Stromal Cell – Extracellular Vesicles for Immunomodulation and Tissue Repair”

Dr. Meadhbh Á. Brennan is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Regenerative Medicine with a co-appointment between the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine at University of Galway. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and their secretome, with a particular interest in tissue engineering, mechanobiology, and bone repair.

She earned her Ph.D. and B.Eng. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southampton, and NUIG, respectively. From 2017 to 2020, she was a Marie Skłodowska Curie global fellow in Prof. Mooney’s laboratory at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University, she also conducted research in the Breakefield lab at MGH, Harvard Medical School. Prior to this she was a postdoctoral researcher in INSERM, Faculty of Medicine, Nantes, France, working in the lab of Pierre Layrolle.

Research currently ongoing in Dr. Brennan’s group is centred on MSC‐secreted factors, particularly extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the physical and chemical cues that can regulate their secretion and immunomodulatory roles. Her team’s research goals also include uncovering the mechanisms underpinning EV action on cells involved in the tissue healing cascade, and the development of therapeutic EV delivery strategies using biomaterials. Her current research is funded by a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Starting Investigator Research Award (SIRG) award and a European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant.