Welcome to Rosa, Finn and Hubert

This Autumn we welcome three new members to the Byrne Research Group. The group, at 6 full-time researchers, is the largest it has been to date! Welcome to Rosa, Finn and Hubert – we wish them every success.

Dr Rosa Fernandez Pison joins us as a postdoctoral researcher on the Link4Lectin project, where she will contribute to the coordination chemistry and organometallic components of the target molecules. She completed her PhD in UCD during the summer in organometallic catalyst development. She previously completed a Research MSc at University of Galway, and an undergraduate degree in her native Sevilla (with year abroad in University of York).

Finn Tlatlik holds an MSci from University of Glasgow in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry. His degree included a year of research placements in France as well as a project in Glasgow. He is joining us to complete his PhD with a Sir Walter Hartley Studentship, and will be working on optimising the photophysical properties of lanthanide complexes as lectin sensors.

Hubert Rebow is returning to the group, having secured a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. Hubert is a recent graduate of UCD’s Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology BSc programme, and completed a final year project in our lab. His project, developing supramolecular boronic acid-based glycan probes involves collaboration with Dr Aniello Palma and Prof Jeremy Simpson.

New publication: Metallodrugs in OBC

𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗴𝗹𝘆𝗰𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗷𝘂𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘀!
Delighted to have another article on glyco-metal complexes published in 𝘖𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤 & 𝘉𝘪𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺. This work was led by Karolina Wojtczak, PhD and involved contributions and support from lots of colleagues across disciplines including the teams of Trinidad Velasco-Torrijos, Anne Imberty, Gordon Cooke (TUD), Dr. Cristina Trujillo and Kevin Kavanagh who put lots of work into ideas, assays, measurements and calculations to support our hypotheses.

Please read the full article in the RSC journal Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, where it will be part of the 2025 New Talent Special Issue: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5OB00970G

Buíochas le Taighde Éireann Research Ireland as ucht tacaíocht.

Thomas & Joe speak at EuChemS-9, Sophie and Hannah present posters

Research from the group was presented in two oral presentations and two poster presentations which featured in the programme of ECC-9, held at Dublin Convention Centre 7-11 July 2024. This major European conference, the largest chemistry event ever held in Ireland, had more than 1500 delegates and a wide international audience.

On the Tuesday, Thomas presented his progress on “Self-templating mechanically interlocked systems as dual activity antimicrobial candidates”, as part of the Link4Lectin project, prompting several interesting discussions with leading supramolecular chemists in attendance. Joe presented “Carbohydrate-functionalised metal complexes: targeting pathogens for therapeutic and sensing applications” as part of the Chemistry Meets Biology for Health Theme on the Thursday.

All of the team attended the meeting, with Sophie and Hannah presenting posters on their work as part of the poster sessions, Wanyujin working as a conference volunteer, and Karolina also joined the conference representing her employer Sterling. Joe judged the posters in the Catalysis theme.

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

Very proud of my very first PhD student Karolina Wojtczak who successfully defended her thesis last Thursday. A lot of hard work has paid off and she has left the group lots of interesting starting points for future projects (in addition to a few more imminent publications). Her thesis was titled “Metal-based glycoconjugates as molecular sensors for lectins and anti-adhesives”.

Karol was an absolute pleasure to have in my lab and I wish her all the best with her bright future. I’m sure she will achieve great things. Congratulations!

A great celebration was had in Galway to mark the occasion.

Thanks to Research Ireland (formerly SFI) (18/SIRG/5501) for financial support and Paul Murphy for co-supervising her, particularly after I moved to UCD last year.

Karol has already started a position as a Development Chemist in Sterling Pharma Solutions.

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. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow the research group into the future and build on the SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant. Joe is very grateful to colleagues at NUI Galway for all their support in the last few years as he built independence – this was vital to securing his first academic post.

Dr Hannah Crory will also join the team at UCD and new PhD student Thomas Rabbitte, and we will be based in the Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry Lab in Science Centre South alongside the Phillips and Hooper Groups. Joe is one of 4 new Faculty members joining UCD at this time, part of an expanding team in the School of Chemistry (pictured below).

New staff at UCD: Dr Leila Negahdar, Dr Aniello Palma, Dr Joe Byrne, Dr Nadia Elgobashi-Meinhardt

Joe awarded IRC Laureate Starting Award

Minister Simon Harris recently announced the Irish Research Council’s €24m investment in fundamental research through the Laureate Awards, including a new project, designed by Joe: Link4Lectin – “Mechanically linked molecular strategy for novel antimicrobial agents, pairing bioactive metal complexes with targeting of the carbohydrate-binding proteins of bacteria”. €399,000 have been committed to this project, in which Joe will lead a team of researchers in discovery of new modular antimicrobial tools. This award will allow Joe to establish independence and expand the group as he moves from University of Galway to UCD.

Announcing the awards, Minister Harris said:

“I am delighted to announce the winners of the second round of the Irish Research Council’s Starting and Consolidator Laureate Awards Programme and I congratulate each of the awardees. It is a pleasure to also welcome the Ukrainian researcher who came to Ireland from the war in Ukraine, and who will collaborate on one of the newly funded projects through the IRC’s innovative Ukrainian Researchers Scheme.

These talented researchers will no doubt contribute hugely towards the world-class excellence that is the bedrock of our research system in Ireland, pushing the boundaries of research knowledge and finding new discoveries that deepen our understanding of the world around us, by looking to the past, questioning the present, and unlocking our future potential.”

Also commenting, Dr Louise Callinan, Director of the Irish Research Council, said: 

“The 48 researchers who will receive funding under the Starting and Consolidator Laureate Awards Programme have the potential to make ground-breaking advances in their respective fields and to bolster Ireland’s competitiveness in European research funding.

This is the second round of Laureate funding and many of the first-round awardees will be completing their research next year. It is testament to the success of the programme that three of the first-round awardees have already gone on to receive European Research Council funding, one as part of Ireland’s first ERC Synergy grant worth €10 million.

The winning projects were awarded on the basis solely of excellence, and applications were assessed through a rigorous and independent international peer-review process.

Keep an eye on our Vacancies page for recruitment as part of this award.

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 carry out the SugarCoat project, developing smart coatings for medical devices to protect from bacterial infections. Joe was interviewed by Keith Finnegan on Galway Bay FM this morning about the promise of this project in the context of antimicrobial resistance. Listen at the links below.

Press release: NUI Galway (“Researchers aim to give new layer of protection to medical devices”).
Radio Interview on Galway Bay FM: podcast (0:29:00-0:38:50); article summary; [audio file]
Coverage in Connacht Tribune, Daily Mail (UK), Irish Medical Times, and Galway Daily; SFI Research News