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.

Brain Awareness Week 2009

Earlier this week members of the Galway Neuroscience Group reported their experience of holding a public event as part of global 'Brain Awareness Week'. Supported financially by the Dana Foundation, BAW is a multi-national effort aimed at making as many people as possible interested in their own brains. Activities include visits to schools by neuroscientists, or information dissemination by various neurological organisations like Neurology Alliance Ireland, Dystonia Ireland, the Dublin Brain Bank and MS Ireland. Galway neuroscientists chose 'The beauty of neuroscience' as their theme, displaying beautiful prints of cells and tissue gnerated during the course of their own research activities. Poster stands and a microscope with sample tissue and cells for viewing, were set up at the Eyre Square Shopping centre on March 19th and 20th. A separate table dedicated to interactive questionairs and brain colouring booklets for children was also a feature. For more information about the activities of the Galway Neuroscience Group, go to http://www.ncbes.ie/research/NeuroscienceOverview.htm

New treatment for stroke patients?

Doctors in Glasgow are making controversial news with their proposals to use embryonic stem-cell-generated cultures to repair brain damage in stroke patients. Using a single aborted foetal donation obtained following strict adherence to guidelines, a company called 'Reneuron' has generated stem cell cultures which they believe have the potential to replace neurons lost following a stroke. Around 2 million cells will initially be implanted: the aim will be to test the safety of such a procedure and the trial will be carried out on 3 groups of 4 patients over 2 years. Dr. Keith Muir, a consultant at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow is leading the study, while Dr. John Sinden is the chief scientific advisor of 'Reneuron'. To see time-lapse footage of dividing stem cells go to the BBC weblink http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7834028.stm . You'll also find a short clip of Dr. Sinden's justification for this kind of work.

Podcast listening - a New Year's resolution that's easy to keep!

No doubt techno-savvy readers among you will already be benefiting from the wealth of science expertise and news updates freely available through the medium of podcasts. Take a moment to browse some of the links provided under the 'Podcasts' section here. A favourite of mine is the 'Brain Science' podcast hosted by Ginger Campbell, MD. Dr. Campbell has been broadcasting her series for the last couple of years, with an impressive range of topics covered and a large number of top-notch researchers interviewed. The link below will take you to the Brain Science website, where you'll find further links to helpful episode notes and many other neuroscience-related topics.

http://brainsciencpodcast.wordpress.com/

Why not make podcast listening a New Year's resolution!

Congratulations MSc graduates!

The sun shone in more ways than one in Galway last Friday the 28th of November, when the first graduates of our distance learning MSc programme were conferred with their degrees. In a packed conferring ceremony, President Browne handed out the degrees to both the full-time MSc graduates and those who undertook their studies part-time over two years, while somehow managing to hold down demanding jobs. Congratulations to distance learning students Dermot Hughes, Patricia Keary-McDermott, Sinead Mannion (who sadly was unable to attend on the day), Ciaran Driver, Catherine Dolphin, Kevin Kennelly, Deirdre Doherty and Mark Burke. We were delighted to welcome the students back to the NCBES for a reception to mark the occasion and thank BESTNET for funding the reception and for providing financial support in the form of a fee supplement, to Dermot Hughes and Kevin Kennelly, employees of Boston Scientific, a member of the BESTNET Skillsnet company network. Catherine Dolphin who worked for Pfizer, was also supported by the BESTNET fee scheme. The graduates in the photo, taken in from of the NCBES, are (from left): Mark Burke, Deirdre Doherty, Catherine Dolphin, Kevin Kennelly, Una FitzGerald (course coordinator), Dermot Hughes, Ciaran Driver, Patricia Keary-McDermott.