Garry Duffy Professor

Garry Duffy graduated in 2008 with a PhD in cell therapeutics for cardiovascular disease from the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) at University of Galway. He is a two-time Fulbright Scholar. In 2006 he was awarded a scholarship to carry out research in cardiovascular tissue engineering and stem cell biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology with Prof. Robert M. Nerem. His second Fulbright Scholarship was awarded in 2013 to carry out research in advanced materials for cardiac regeneration at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in collaboration with Prof. Jeffrey Karp.

He is currently Professor of Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine and leads the Duffy Lab within the School of Medicine at the University of Galway. His current research focuses on advanced biomaterial, drug delivery and cell based therapies for chronic diseases and is funded by Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programmes.

Duffy has a keen interest in developing minimally invasive medical devices to enable the future translation of biomaterial based cell and drug therapy products. In 2016, he completed a SFI-funded Academia to Industry Fellowship with Boston Scientific Corporate Research. As part of the Corporate Research team, he contributed to new intellectual property which was recognised by an internal IMAGINEIF innovation award. In 2021, this collaboration won the SFI Industry partnership prize as part of the annual SFI Science Awards which recognise key leaders in Irish research. The exposure to the industrial mindset early in his academic career gave him the confidence to lead the development and commercial translation of device-based solutions for disease. He is a co-founder of 2 spin-outs (www.feeltect.com & www.fadamedical.com) and 1 early-stage campus company and a co-inventor on technology supporting one other. Duffy Lab researchers have produced over 75 papers in leading journals, and submitted 21 invention disclosures leading to 11 patent applications.