Frank Barry is Professor of Cellular Therapy at the National University of Ireland Galway and a principle investigator at the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI). Here he directs a large group of researchers who focus on the development of new repair strategies in stem cell therapy and gene therapy in orthopaedics. REMEDI includes a GMP stem cell manufacturing facility for the preparation of stem cells for use in human clinical studies.Frank Barry has contributed to the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine by developing innovative and successful cellular therapies for the treatment of acute joint injury and arthritic disease. This has included the generation of a large body of new data in groundbreaking preclinical studies, and has lead to the first phase of clinical testing of mesenchymal stem cells in clinical trials for joint injury. In addition he has developed new techniques for the isolation, characterization and commitment of bone marrow stem cells and has described the phenotypic changes seen in these cells in patients with advanced osteoarthritis. These studies indicated that patients have functionally depleted reservoirs of stem cells in the marrow. These data suggest that stem cells may be a component of the diseases process and at the least will influence future strategies in cell-based repair for these patients.In a career that has spanned both industry and academic research, he has been a driver in the development of cellular therapy as a biological repair strategy. It is his belief that the application of new technologies in regenerative medicine, including cellular therapy, gene therapy, growth factor augmentation, implantable scaffolds and nanomaterials, will have a profound impact in Orthopaedics. Frank Barry was the recipient of the 2012 Marshall Urist Award for excellence in tissue regeneration research from the Orthopaedic Research Society. In 2013 he was elected Senior Fellow of the International Cartilage Repair Society.

His current research interests include the basic biology of the cell and therapeutic applications of stem cells in the areas of arthritic diseases and joint injury, tissue engineering applications in orthopedic medicine, cartilage biology and extracellular matrix biology. He has published extensively in scientific journals, book chapter, conference and workshops, many of which were invited papers and reviews. In addition, he acts as a referee for several prestigious International Scientific Journals such as Biochemica Biophysica Acta, Nature Biotechnology, the Journals of Biological Chemistry, Orthopaedic Research and Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, as well as specialist scientific journals including Tissue Engineering, Arthritis and Rheumatism and Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. He has organized a number of prestigious stem cell conferences such as the Webex Conference on Stem Cells in Cartilage Repair. Dr. Barry is involved in several international and national research projects with leading scientists in cellular therapy and arthritis. He is a member of the NIH SBIR Study Section for Orthopaedic Tissue Engineering and the Corporate Relations Committee of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities. He sits on the Advisory Boards of the MIT Centre for Biomedical Engineering and the International Cartilage Repair Society. He is a member of a number of Learned Societies including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Biochemistry Society and the Tissue Engineering Society International, and the Orthopaedic Society. He continues to lecture on Basic and Advanced Biochemistry, Protein Chemistry, Enzymology, Industrial Biochemistry, Biochemical Techniques, Extracellular Matrix Biochemistry, Stem Cell Therapies, Biomedical Engineering, and Societal and Ethical Issues in Biotechnology at both graduate and post-graduate level on the Graduate Programme in Biotechnology at John Hopkins University.