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bs VOLUME 17, 2013

Please send photos and news items to heather.wood@ucd.ie for inclusion in our website or newsletter

Dr Kevin O’Connor secures funding for the investigation of the

conversion of municipal waste to biodegradable plastic

Dr Kevin O’Connor ‘s laboratory is part of a consortium that has received funding as part of an €8 million grant to investigate the conversion of municipal solid waste into biodegradable plastic. The project, which has the acronym SYNPOL, is led by Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain and UCD is one of 12 partners (both academic and industrial). It is funded under the EU seventh framework programme. SYNPOL’s aim is to drive the sustainable production of new biopolymers from complex biological and chemical materials found in municipal waste. The SYNPOL partners aim to optimise efficiency of all stages of the process from the production of synthetic gas (syngas) derived from the initial raw material to the fermentation of this gas by microorganisms to produce novel biopolymers which can be converted into biodegradable plastics. The project will include construction of efficient strains of microorganisms, optimising the process of syngas production, fermentation, downstream processing and biopolymer synthesis with respect to increasing yield and reducing environmental impact. Ultimately it is hoped to demonstrate commercial viability and sustainability of the SYNPOL technology. Bioplastech, the UCD spin out company, founded by Dr O’Connor, is also funded in this project. The Kick-off meeting of the SYNPOL participants was held on 23

rd November in Madrid. www.synpol.org.

Other Grants Awarded

Professor Therese Kinsella has been awarded an Irish Cancer Society Prostate Cancer Research Project Grant 2013 -2016 which is co-funded through the Health Research Board (HRB), Medical Charities Research Group (MCRG) co-funding scheme. Funding was secured for studies on: ‘Thromboxane (TX) A2 –mediated PRK1 signalling in Prostate Cancer: Does the TXA2 Receptor serve as a Chemotherapeutic Target? ‘

Dr Cormac Murphy was recently awarded an EPA STRIVE grant on the project ‘Fungal biofilm as a novel biocatalyst for the production of important pharmaceutical compounds.’

Dr Darran O’Connor has received an SFI Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) entitled "Development of a Novel Antibody for the Cocaine and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript". It builds on previous work carried out as part of the SFI Strategic Research Cluster "Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer Ireland" and aims to develop a novel diagnostic test for CART, a breast cancer biomarker.

Dr Keith Murphy has also received an SFI TIDA award for the project ‘Characterisation of a novel biomarker panel for clinical and preclinical neurotherapeutics.’ His Group have identified a ‘cognition cluster’ of proteins that show dramatic up-regulation in the brain during normal memory processing and hope to develop this cognition cluster into the first neurotherapeutics biomarker panel.

Dr Kevin O’Connor, fifth from left , with his research team

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SBBS NEWS VOLUME 17, 2013

Conferring of MSc Degrees in Biotechnology and Biotechnology and

Business

Congratulations to SBBS students conferred with MSc Biotechnology and MSc Biotechnology & Business degrees, at a ceremony in O’Reilly Hall on 7

th December. In this, the

second year of these programmes, eleven students graduated with an MSc in Biotechnology and a further nine with an MSc in Biotechnology and Business. The latter is run in association with the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. The ceremony was followed by a reception in the school.

The recipient of the school’s first medal for the MSc in Biotechnology and Business (2012) was Orla Moore. This was awarded by Dr Tara McMorrow, the director of the Masters’ programmes. Meg Walsh was awarded the Catherine Renée Kelly Medal for the MSc in Biotechnology (2012). The late Catherine Renée Kelly was a former head of the Microbiology department. who retired in 2004. Catherine’s husband Mr Michael Kelly presented the prize, which is sponsored by the Food Safety Authority.

The MSc Biotechnology Class of 2012, pictured at their graduation

The MSc Biotechnology and Business class of 2012

Meg Walsh, recipient of the Catherine Renée Kelly Medal, pictured with Mr Michael Kelly., husband of the late Catherine Renée Kelly

From left: Dr Patricia Kavanagh (Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School), Dr Gethin McBean (SBBS, Head of School) and Dr Tara McMorrow (MSc Programme Director) at the School’s reception for Graduates.

Left: Dr Tara McMorrow, MSc Programme Director, with Orla Moore who was awarded the Biotechology and Business medal.

Photographs by Craig Slattery : www.craigslatteryphotography.com

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SBBS NEWS VOLUME 17, 2013

Farewell to Dr Jim O’Gara

On Friday 14th December the School bade its farewell to Dr Jim O’Gara. Dr O’Gara joined UCD from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland as senior lecturer in 2005. He served as the School’s Head of Graduate Studies from 2007 to 2012. His research interests lie in the area of the genetics, physiology and pathogenesis of Staphylococcal biofilm infections, infections acquired through the use of medical devices in hospitals. Dr O’Gara moves to University College Galway where he has been appointed Professor of Infectious Disease Microbiology. Hannah McCarthy, Dr O’Gara’s PhD student also departs to Galway to complete her PhD there.SBBS would like to wish Dr O’Gara and his family all the best for their future in Galway.

PhD and MSc degrees conferred on SBBS Students

Fifteen SBBS students were conferred with PhD degrees in a conferring ceremony on 7th December. These were Daniel Cara, Maciej Guzik, Garret Keating, Rut Klinger, Bartlomiej Lukasz, Karl McEvoy, Charles Metais, Aleksandra Miranda, Susan Molloy, Declan Mooney, Eamon Mulvaney, Darragh O’Donovan, Robert Radford, Beata Sapetto-Rebow and Elaine Waters. In addition two students, Sudhakar Deeti and Christian Foley-Fisher were conferred with MSc degrees (by research).

Dr Eamon Mulvaney enjoying the SBBS reception to mark the conferral of higher degrees on Friday 7th December. Dr Mulvaney’s PhD supervisor was Prof Therese Kinsella

Dr Tara McMorrow with her newly conferred PhD student, Dr Robert Radford

Dr Charles Metais, who was conferred with the degree of PhD. Dr Metais’ supervisor was Dr Caroline Herron

Dr Garret Keating,, whose PhD thesis was supervised by Prof Therese Kinsella, at the SBBS reception.

Photographs courtesy of Dr Craig Slattery. Craig is available for weddings, baby portraits, family photoshoots etc.

Website: www.craigslatteryphotography.com. E-mail: info@craigslattertyphotography.com. Phone: 087 9719844

Right: Geraldine Neylan (SBBS Graduate administrator), saying farewell to Dr Jim O’Gara

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Selected Recent Publications

Petrillo T, O'Donohoe C, Howe N, Malthouse JPG (2012)The importance of tetrahedral intermediate formation in the catalytic mechanism of the serine proteases chymotrypsin and subtilisin. Biochemistry 51, 6164-6170.

Ceruso M, Howe N, and Malthouse JPG (2012). Mechanism of the binding of Z-L-tryptophan and Z-L-phenylalanine to thermolysin and stromelysin-1 in aqueous solutions. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins & Proteomics 1824, 303-310.

Limonciel A, Wilmes A, Aschauer L, Radford R, Bloch KM, McMorrow T, Pfaller W, van Delft JH, Slattery C, Ryan MP, Lock EA, Jennings P (2012). Oxidative stress induced by potassium bromate exposure results in altered tight junction protein expression in renal proximal tubule cells. Archives of Toxicology 86(11): 1741 – 1751.

McCarthy C, Duffy MM, Mooney D, James WG, Griffin MD, Fitzgerald DJ, Belton O (2012). IL-10 mediates the immunoregulatory response in conjugated linoleic acid-induced regression of atherosclerosis. FASAB J. Oct 15. [Epub ahead of print]

Macaulay IC, Thon JN, Tijssen MR, Steele BM, MacDonald BT, Meade G, Burns P, Rendon A, Salunkhe V, Murphy RP, Bennett C, Watkins NA, He X, Fitzgerald DJ, Italiano Jr. JE, Maguire PB. (2012). Canonical Wnt signaling in Megakaryocytes regulates Proplatelet formation. Blood. Nov 16. [Epub ahead of print].

Turner EC, Kinsella BT (2012). Regulation of the Human Prostacyclin Receptor Gene by the Cholesterol-

responsive Sterol Response Element Binding Protein (SREBP) 1. Journal of Lipid Research 53(11) 2390 -

2402.

Reid HM, Turner EC, Mulvaney EP, Hyland PB, McLean C, Kinsella BT (2012). Interaction of the human prostacyclin receptor and the NHERF4 family member intestinal and kidney enriched PDZ protein (IKEPP). Biochim Biophys Acta (Mol Cell Res) 1823(10):1998-2012.

Mulrane L, Madden SF, Brennan DJ, Gremel G, McGee SF, McNally S, Martin F, Crown JP, Jirström K, Higgins DG, Gallagher WM, O'Connor DP (2012). miR-187 Is an Independent Prognostic Factor in Breast Cancer and Confers Increased Invasive Potential In Vitro. Clin Cancer Res. 18(24):6702-6713.

Staff News

At the recent Retina 2012 meeting held in Dublin in November, Dr Alison Reynolds won the Geraldine Duggan Young Investigator of the Year Award 2012, for her poster presentation.

Dr Craig Slattery from Dr Tara McMorrow’s Renal Disease Research Group was a keynote speaker at the annual Irish Society of Toxicology, 'Toxicology of Mixtures' Conference, Kildare, on November 1

st 2012.

Dr Tara McMorrow and Dr Oliver Blacque were 2 of 16 featured academics in the inaugural UCD Science Showcase Publication which was officially launched on November 20th 2012. Dr McMorrow’s article was entitled 'Keeping an eye on kidneys' and Dr Blacque’s article was entitled ‘Worming out answers about cilia and disease’.

Congratulations to Professor Geraldine Butler who was recently promoted to the status of full Professor.

We welcome Dr Jan Rosier who will, on February 1st, take up position in UCD as Elan Professor of the Business of Biotechnology. This is a joint appointment between SBBS and the School of Business. Dr Rosier will be based in the Conway Institute.

Professor Paul Malthouse has developed a new app which is available on the iPhone app store. It can be used for interconverting metric and imperial weights and lengths. Useful if cooking as it will convert grams and ounces. It will also calculate your BMI if you are watching your weight on a post-Christmas diet! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weights/id577974449?ls=1&mt=8