Events
In 2015, Phd student Mariana Di Luca received the School’s Orla Benson Award which allowed Mariana to undertake a research related visit to a laboratory abroad. Mariana travelled to the Research Centre CIT NOBA in Argentina where she carried out studies on tissue-specific linage tracing in Argentina in collaboration with the School’s Vascular Biology and Therapeutics research group. Mariana studies the role of Stem Cells in Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) such as Atherosclerosis, which represent over 50% of the annual deaths in Europe and approx. 31% of all global deaths according to last year’s review by World Health Organization. Mariana’s work in CIT NOBA represents the definitive validation of the studies undertaken throughout her PhD and hopes that the results will allow for the development of new therapies in the field of arteriosclerosis treatment.
Professor Richard O'Kennedy presented a lecture on "Issues related to exploiting the potential of antibody-directed therapies", and was part of a discussion panel, at the Immuno-Oncology Congress held on 13th-14th March 2017 in London.
Following on from her recent appointment as Biological Safety Advisor in DCU, Dr. Rosaleen Deveery was selected to join the Biological Safety Committee in Pfizer Ireland in March 2017.
PhD student Declan McGlade successfully defended his thesis “An investigation of graphene and a graphene-copper composite for use in the disinfection of drinking water” on Friday, 24th March 2017.
Spring Graduations took place on Saturday afternoon, 25th March 2017, in The Helix at which 11 MSc. in Bioprocess Engineering and nine MSc. in Biomedical Diagnostics were conferred. PhD student, Julia Zapatero received her Doctorate of Philosophy following the successful defense of her thesis “Generation and Application of Antibodies for Detection of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers”. A Graduate Diploma in Bioprocess Engineering was conferred upon Flavio Ferreria who is currently completing a PhD in the School.
January 2017 saw the publication of the following book -
Protein Chromatography: Methods & Protocols. 2nd Ed.
Springer Science + Business Media, New York. 2017.
Eds. Dermot Walls and Sinead T. Loughran
ISBN 978-1-4939-6412-3; DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-6412-3
http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781493964109
On 15th March 2017, the School held an official launch of the book. The book was officially launched by Professor Greg Hughes, Vice President for Research & Innovation Support and was attended by staff and students from the School of Biotechnology and National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB).
The book, which is part of the prestigious Methods in Molecular Biology Series published by Springer Science, was co-edited by Dr. Dermot Walls from the School of Biotechnology and ex-DCU graduate Dr. Sinead Loughran, now a faculty member at our linked college Dundalk Institute of Technology. More than half of the articles were authored by DCU scientists (undergraduate, graduate, research staff and faculty) from the School of Biotechnology and associated research centres (NCSR and NICB) with additional contributions from DCU alumini working in the Biopharmaceutical sector. The first edition (2011) ranked in the top 20% of all Springer Science volumes with over 250,000 article downloads. DCU/DCU alumini contributors were Niall Barron, Eva Campion, Jonathan Cawley, Keith Colliton, Philip Cummins, Elaine Darcy, Jenny Fitzgerald, Stephen Hearty, Michael Henry, Paul Leonard, Sinéad Loughran, Hui Ma, Paula Meleady, John Milne, Donal Monaghan, Brendan O’Connor, Ciarán Ó’Fágáin, Richard O’ Kennedy, Keith Rochfort, Barry Ryan, Shikha Sharma, Sinead Smith, Srinivas Suda and Dermot Walls.
On the 2nd edition ……this second edition expands on the previous edition with new chapters that are suitable for newcomers, as well as more detailed chapters that cover protein stability and storage, avoiding proteolysis during chromatography, protein quantitation methods including immuno-qPCR, and the challenges that scale-up of production poses to the investigator. Many of the chapters also discuss generation and purification of recombinant proteins, recombinant antibody production, and the tagging of proteins as a means to enhance their solubility and simplify their purification on an individual scale or in high-throughput systems. This book also provides readers with chapters that describe not just the more commonly used methods, but also recently developed approaches such as proteomic/mass spectrometric techniques and Lectin-based affinity chromatography. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and thorough, Protein Chromatography: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition is a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in the field of protein chromatography.