Recent news and events from the Byrne Research Group. [Browse by category: Awards, Outreach, Team, Publications ] See also: Press Archive
News items (click on images for full posts)
Joe speaks at European Glycoscience Community webinar series
Joe was invited to present recent results from the group as part of the EGC webinar series. A video of the webinar is available on YouTube.
Welcome to Rosa, Finn and Hubert
The group now has 6 full-time researchers, with the arrival of postdoc Rosa and two new PhD students Finn and Hubert. [click for details]
Catherine completes RISE internship
Well done to Catherine Chaita for completing an intership with us as part of the RISE programme
Lab Awarded Sustainability Certificate
The Byrne, Hooper and Phillips Groups were awarded Green Certification by MyGreenLabs as part of a Research Ireland pilot programme on sustainability [click for more]
New publication: Metallodrugs in OBC
In this article, we show how metal complexation can modulate biological activity of glycoconjugate ligands against pathogens. Well done to Karolina and our collaborators on this work [click image for more]
Rosy graduates!
Congratulations to Dr Rosy Polisicchio on graduating from University of Galway, completing her studies on lanthanide-functionalised vitamin B21 probes. [click for more…]
Romain completes his Erasmus+ internship with the group
Farewell to Romain Neveu, who is returning to his home university in France after a 4-month training mobility visit to our lab. Romain became a well-integrated member of the group and helped progress our investigations into fluorescent boronic acid derivatives. [click to see a quote]
Thomas & Joe speak at EuChemS-9, Sophie and Hannah present posters
Thomas & Joe gave talks at ECC-9, while Sophie and Hannah presented their research in poster sessions at this major international conference. [click image for more…]
Welcome to our summer students!
This summer we are joined by two visiting students from Arcadia University Study Abroad Programme and one student from Zhejiang Normal University (as part of UCD Chemistry’s ZJNU Summer School). Wanyujin is also back with us as a research assistant on the SugarCoat project. We hope it is a productive exchange for everyone!
Karolina defends her PhD thesis
Congratulations to Dr Karolina Wojtczak, the first PhD student from the Byrne Group to defend her thesis [click image for more…]
Irish Language-Ceimic as Gaeilge 2024
Ar 1 Márta, d’eagraigh Joe agus Cathal Kelly imeacht á phlé cúrsaí thaighde ceimice trí mheáin na Gaeilge. | On 1st of March, Joe and Cathal Kelly organised an event discussing chemical research through the medium of the Irish language. [click for full report]
Sophie leads student visit as part of CuriosiTY programme
Sophie Kavanagh wrote about her experience hosting TY school students on the CuriosiTY programme in our lab for some engaging science outreach as part of Systems Biology Ireland’s blog. [click to read more]
Hannah wins poster prize at ICI Congress
Members of the group attended the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland’s Congress in Queens University Belfast this week. Two projects were presented as posters and Hannah won a poster prize for her work! [click image for more]
Conway Institute 20th Birthday
Joe chaired a Conway Institute Alumni careers round-table session at the event celebrating 20 years of the Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research. [click image for more details]
Start of the new academic year
The group went out for dinner at Farmer Brown’s to celebrate Wanyujin finishing her MSc research project, Sophie joining the group as a new PhD student, and Karolina starting to work in the UCD lab more often.
ChemComm: Terbium-based lectin sensors
Congratulations to Karolina on her first article published in Chemical Communications. The article has been included in the HOT Articles 2023 Collection as well as a themed collection on Chemosensors and Molecular Logic. We present glycoconjugate lanthanide complexes with ‘switch on’ in emission when they detect characteristic carbohydrate-binding proteins.
Irish Chemistry Colloquium in Galway
Members of the group attended the annual Institute of Chemistry of Ireland event, hosted this year in Galway. Joe was a judge for the student awards at this event, and – as advisor to the ICI Young Chemists Network – had various meetings about the future direction of the organisation for young chemists.
Group meeting at UCD and lunch
For the first time since the group moved to UCD, we had an in-person meeting of members from Galway and UCD. Karolina was returning from a research stay in Grenoble (funded by the French embassy in Ireland) and updated us on some exciting results, which Thomas, Hannah and Wanyujin gave updates on their work. Afterwards…
Joe speaks at “Inorganic Ireland”
Joe delivered an oral presentation at the annual Inorganic Ireland Symposium in Trinity College Dublin on 18 May 2023. In his talk, “Carbohydrate-functionalised metal complexes: targeting pathogens for therapeutic and sensing applications”, he spoke about the latest work from the group in using metal complexes to target bacteria and fungi.
Hannah and Joe attend COST Meetings in Romania and Greece
Hannah attended the International Meeting of Young Researchers (Iasi) and Joe attended the Closing Meeting of InnoGly COST Action (Heraklion) recently [click image for more…]
Karolina visits Kavanagh Lab, Maynooth
Karol set up a collaboration with Prof Kevin Kavanagh in Maynooth to investigate the effects of carbohydrate-functionalised metal complexes on Candida albicans. She spent 10 days working in the Kavanagh lab recently, carrying out her own biological assays and collecting some very promising results of the impact on yeast cells. There will be further updates…
Joe moves to UCD as Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry
In January 2023, Joe joined the Faculty of UCD School of Chemistry as Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry, and the Byrne Group will be moving to Dublin as well, and expanding.
Christmas lunch!
We brought the year to a close with a Christmas group lunch in Hyde, Galway. We also celebrated the completion of the fourth year undergraduate research projects. Shivon Karundu, who carried out her project in our lab celebrated with classmates at the research poster session in the School. Well done on a productive year!
Rosy wins a prize in Threesis Contest
Rosy won second place in the 2022 Threesis Contest, where researchers present their thesis to a lay audience in 3 slides and 3 minutes. Rosy’s talk, titled “Tumours play hide and seek; how do we win?” was received very well by the judges and audience and was a well-deserved prize winner. [click image for more…
RSC Carbohydrate Meeting in Belfast and first SugarCoat Team Meeting
Joe spoke at this RSC/ICI joint event at Queens University Belfast and also had the first in-peron meeting of the SugarCoat North South Research Project team. [Click photo for more]
Joe awarded IRC Laureate Starting Award
Joe has been awarded an IRC Laureate Starting Award (€399k) for a new project “Mechanically linked molecular strategy for novel antimicrobial agents, pairing bioactive metal complexes with targeting of the carbohydrate-binding proteins of bacteria”. [click for more info]
Joe interviewed in The Irish Times
Claire O’Connell interviewed Joe for a write-up in the Irish Times about his recent trip to Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings in Germany, meeting chemistry Nobel winners, and my current research programme in into sensors for bacterial infections. Click on photo to read the full article.
Joe interviewed on Galway Bay FM about SugarCoat
Joe and his colleagues in Queens University Belfast and CÚRAM were recently awarded a North South Research Programme grant to develop smart coatings for medical devices to protect from bacterial infections. Joe was interviewed on Galway Bay FM about the promise of this project in the context of antimicrobial resistance. [click to listen]
Team present at three international conferences
Joe and Karolina presented their work at conferences in Dublin, Grenoble and online this summer. [click for details]
Joe attends Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Germany
Joe attended the prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Chemistry this June. It was an excellent experience, where he met several Nobel laureates including Dick Schrock and Benjamin List, and had dinner with Jean-Marie Lehn and William Kaelin.
Joe summarised his experiences at the meeting in a blog [click for link], which the Irish…
Karolina wins prize for talk at ICI Colloquium
Karol delivered an oral presentation at the Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium in UCD on 15 June 2022 entitled “Shining a Light on Bacteria : Lanthanide- based Glycoconjugate Molecular Sensors for Lectins”. The talk was very well received, with lots of discussion arising afterwards. The judges at the Colloquium, the highlight of the ICI’s scientific…
May Outreach Activities
In May, Karolina engaged the public with a “Pint of Science” talk in Massimo’s Bar, Galway and at the START Competition, aimed at schoolchildren. [click for more details]
Article on lectin-inhibitors published in ChemMedChem
Our new review article highlights the structural considerations for building synthetic glycoconjugates as inhibitors for Pseudomonas aeruginosa lectins, and is a thorough overview of the field to date.
Shared Island Funding awarded to medical device coating project
A new collaboration between NUI Galway and Queen’s University Belfast has been awarded €193k as part from the Shared Island fund. The SUGARCOAT team will design functional coatings for medical devices to prevent and detect bacterial infections.
New article on carbohydrate-NHC iridium catalysts
New article reports carbohydrate-NHC hybrid complexes capable of hydrogenation catalysis with enantiomeric induction.
Group Christmas Lunch
The Byrne group made it out for a Christmas lunch to celebrate the year’s work!
Joe gives seminar to MIT Glycobiology Club
ecent article in RSC Advances, along with other work from the group. Carbohydrate researchers from MIT and other institutes in the Cambridge area tuned in to watch the talk and ask questions.
Joe awarded Enterprise Ireland funding
Joe has been awarded funding by Enterprise Ireland to support the preparation of a competitive application for the European Research Council Starting Grant.
Karolina gives talk about undergraduate research to Maynooth University
Karolina was invited back to Maynooth University to talk about the impact of SPUR Summer undergraduate research internship had on her career.
ISMSC Poster receives commendation
Joe’s poster at the Int’l Symposium of Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry ’21 was recognised for highly commendable work.
Joe attends Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting
Joe attended the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting where he discussed science with young scientists and Laureates including Grubbs, Schrock, Yonath and Perlmutter.
New article in RSC Advances: Glycoclusters with anti-biofilm activity
Ruthenium-centred glycoclusters based on carbohydrate-functionalised bis(triazolyl)pyridine ligands show Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm inhibition, with activity that is dependent on ligand structure.
Farewell to BSc student Mairead
Congratulations to Mairead on finishing her 4th year project in the group!
Invited seminar at Keele University
Joe delivered a seminar to postgraduate students and academic staff at Keele University as part of their annual Seminar Series. Joe was invited to speak by Dr Chris Hawes, Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at Keele. The seminar was entitled “Sweetness and light: a journey towards diagnostic tools” and described the research which underpins the current…
Karol speaks at Le Chéile Conference Cork
Karolina gave a research presentation at a conference aimed at improving the visibility of women in chemistry research and industry.
Joe speaks at Irish Biological Inorganic Chemistry Symposium
Joe gave an oral presentation about his work with carbohydrate-functionalised metal complexes at the 2020 Irish Biological Inorganic Chemistry Symposium in November. The annual IBICS meeting, and subsequent AGM, were held online this year and were well attended. Before his talk, Prof Celine Marmion, the president of IBICS, drew attention again to his role in…
Chemistry talks now supported on ResearchSeminars
A listings site for online scientific talks now supports chemistry content. Click for more information.
ICI Postgraduate Symposium a success
The ICI Postgraduate Chemistry Research Symposium took place successfully. Click the image to read more about the event.
New organocatalysis paper in OBC
In new research, carried out in University of Bern, we have shown that triazolium iodides are excellent catalysts for the oxidative coupling of benzylamines, due to a synergistic cation/anion effect, with iodide acting as I−/I2 redox manifold and the triazolium cation facilitating the iodine reduction and concomitant substrate oxidation. [Click for more]
Karolina presents project at ICI Postgraduate Symposium
Karolina presented a flash talk about her research at the 1st ICI Postgraduate Chemistry Research Symposium with two very colourful slides [click for more].
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