Garry Duffy is currently Professor of Anatomy and Regenerative Therapies at University of Galway and leads the Duffy Lab within the School of Medicine. His research has resulted in a range of transformative technologies that allow for therapeutic agents and devices to be deployed in a precise, safe, minimally invasive and maximally efficacious manner. Through leading the AMCARE, DRIVE and DELIVER FP7/H2020 programmes with combined funding of €24.3M the Duffy Lab has developed: 1) Implantable reservoirs for a range of disease indications for local delivery and replenishment of therapeutic hydrogels 2) Injectable hydrogel systems to promote post-infarct regeneration and normoglycemia in diabetes.

He has led the complementary development of delivery devices and catheters for these hydrogels, which have been tested in GLP large animal models. Through the AMCARE and DRIVE projects, he has contributed to CMC teams with representatives from the medical device and pharmaceutical industry and liaised with the Committee for Advanced Therapies at the EMA to develop the regulatory path for these cell/gel combination products. These programmes focussed on hydrogels incorporating advanced therapeutic delivery features, such as on-demand and multimodal delivery, and have been scaled to commercial production with SOPs transferred to GMP production. These gels are currently used across five sites in Europe and four sites in the US.