Congrats to new Biomedical Science MSc graduates!


 

On Thursday November 25th, the second class of MSc students to complete the MSc in Biomedical Science (via distance learning), graduated.  We missed Eimer O' Halloran, Mark Brassil and Tina Harte, who were unable to attend.  The other graduates are pictured here. We want to wish all of you the best of luck for the future and hope that you will keep in touch!

Left to right, back row: Teresa Considine (Secondary School Teacher, Ennis), Patrick Power (Aerogen, Galway), Markus Fischer (UHG, Galway); Caroline Glynn (Channelle Medical, Loughrea).
Left to right, front row: Michelle Freeburne (Elan, Athlone), Una FitzGerald (course Director), Carolan Barrett, Adrian McNeill (Cook Ireland), Peter Daly (Allergan), Eddie McSherry (Stryker, Limerick).

 


The rise and rise of Aerogen

If you're in need of reassurance that Irish innovation is alive and well, look no further than Aerogen, a small company based on the edge of Galway in the west of Ireland. Company founder, John Power explains in a 'case studies' video available for viewing on the Ernst and Young entrepreneur of the year website (http://www.eoy.tv/) that innovation is at the core of their novel aerosol-based drug delivery systems. He's clearly doing something right as Aerogen is a world leader in this technology, holding 40 international patents. At a time when members of the Irish Government are questioning continued investment in research, it's heartening also to learn that John Power spends 40% of Aerogen's annual operating expenditure on research and development. With a target population of patients on nebulisers in intensive care units, it's not hard to see how important innovation in this area of medical device techology is. For more information on Aerogen go to http://www.aerogen.com/.

Ireland needs more companies like Creganna!

Browsing the daily broadsheets can be a depressing activity these days, with not much to suggest that this country will exit a recession any time soon. Some rays of hope, however, may be illuminating the way to a more vibrant and sustained economy. Creganna, with Helen Ryan (photo) recently at the helm, has acquired Avalon Medical Services Pte Ltd, to become Creganna TACTX Medical. Aimed primarily at the medical device sector, Creganna supports the provision of minimally invasive devices for a range of clinical applications including cardiology and neurology. The growth of Creganna, alongside giants of the medical device sector like Boston Scientific and Medtronic, also based in Galway, is heartening and demonstrates what can be achieved by a home-grown company. For more information of Creganna and its activities, visit their website at: http://www.creganna.com/index.aspx

3D structure of DNA

The puzzle of how 2 metres of double-stranded DNA is packaged into the nucleus of cell of the order of tens of microns, is a step closer to being solved. Professor Job Dekker of The University of Massachussets Medical School led the study which showed that DNA is tightly packed into a ball. The following link will lead you to a video explaining (in lay terms) the structure of the human genome, as explained by Professor Julian Parkhill: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8294817.stm

If you'd like to learn more about the history of the discovery of DNA, its structure and how the DNA code is turned into protein, you should browse the DNAi website. This is an excellent educational resource run by Cold Spring Harbour Labs in the US. Further details can be found at http://www.dnai.org/.

Welcome to the second year!

Friday August 28th is the first day of the second year for our distance learning students. We will welcome them back to the NCBES and kick off the year's lectures with a module on Molecular and Regenerative Medicine. Of the 6 modules to be completed by the students over the next two semesters, Mol and Regen Med has the most academic contributors (6 all together!). This is because of the wide range of topics covered, from Cancer to Immunology, Apoptosis, neurodegenerative disorders and regenerative medicine. The rest of the year will be taken up with completion of six out of 9 other specialist modules including Biomechanics, Tissue Engineering, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Stereology, Product Development, Validation and Regulation, Project Management, Experimental Design and Data analysis and Lasers. Staff at the NCBES are looking forward to helping the students through the year and guiding them through completion of their research project. More on these in future postings!

MSc course update May 8th 2009

You can here some updates and tips for completion of practical write-ups and preparation of research project outlines on this video.

Students recover after intense practicals module at NCBES!

Completing 4 8-hour practicals over the period of 5 - 8 days would make anyone tired! That's how the MSc students enrolled on our distance learning programme in Biomedical Science are feeling this week. It was intense, but by all accounts, educational and quite exciting at times. Heavily supported by technical staff (huge thanks to Enda O' Connell, Dave Connolly, Eadaoin Timmins, Brendan Harhen for all their efforts) and postgraduate demonstrators, 9 different kinds practical sessions were organised, with each student completing 4 each. Areas covered were tissue culture, mass spectrometry, anatomy, polymer characterisation, scanning electron microscopy, microbiology and cloning, real-time PCR, Lasers and applied therapeutics. Some practicals had to be run 3 times in order to allow the maximum number to do them and to accomodate student interests. Have a look at the image here to see the beautiful results obtained by Micheal Kelly! Micheal is an engineer working in Creganna here in Galway, but he took some time out to learn how to culture neuroblastoma cells and how to visualise actin and nuclei using fluorescently tagged phalloidin and DAPI. See how nicely he has picked up the ruffling at the lefthand edge of the cell and how intense the actin staining is. Actin is one of the proteins responsible for maintaining the shape of the cell and for helping it to move around.