Joe Conferences, Presentations, Team

Group members present at conferences around Europe

The Byrne Group have had a busy summer attending various Conferences and Summer Schools.

  • Finn attended the 3rd International Supramolecular Chemistry Summer School in Cagliari, Italy, with a bursary from the LUCES COST Action. He presented a poster titled “Lanthanide Glycoconjugate Complexes as Luminescent sensors for P. aeruginosa”.
  • Sophie presented a poster entitled “Thread-and-Click Assembly of Dual-Active Glycoconjugate [2]Rotaxanes for Selective Lectin Binding” at the International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry in Bordeaux during the week of the 6th July.
  • Meanwhile, Thomas presented a poster on mechanically interlocked glycoconjugates at the 32nd International Carbohydrate Symposium (ICS) in Bratislava.
  • At the ICS Joe was a proxy national delegate to the International Carbohydrate Organisation Board Meeting and also gave a talk about luminescent lectin-sensing approaches.

The Irish delegates at the ICS are pictured below, including members of the McGarrigle group (UCD) and Paul Murphy’s group (University of Galway).

Joe Conferences, Presentations

Joe speaks at Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers in Dublin

Joe delivered an oral presentation at the joint ACSMEDI-EFMC Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers conference, hosted in Trinity College Dublin from 22-24 June 2026. The event, organised by Marina Rubini, Isabel Rozas and Trini Velasco-Torrijos gathered around 400 researchers from academia and industry from the US, Europe and further afield. Joe spoke about luminescent glycoconjugate metals complexes and materials as well as some of their antiadhesive properties from lectin-targeting. This was the final talk in a Carbohydrates in Health session, featuring Prof Paul Murphy (Galway) and Prof Carmen Galan (Bristol).

Joe Conferences, news, Presentations, Team

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.

Joe Awards, Conferences, Presentations

Hannah wins poster prize at ICI Congress

Members of the group attended the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland’s Congress in the Great Hall of Queens University Belfast this week. Two projects were presented as posters: Hannah gave some updates on SugarCoat, while Sophie and Thomas shared a poster highlighting the design of the Link4Lectin IRC Laureate project. Hannah also did an ‘elevator pitch’ for her project and was winner of a poster prize!

It was a very interesting event focussing on sustainability, and also featured the Eva Philbin Award Lecture from our UCD colleague Prof. Susan Quinn.

Joe Conferences, Presentations, Team

RSC Carbohydrate Meeting in Belfast and first SugarCoat Team Meeting

Members of the team attended the RSC Carbohydrate Interest Group Annual Meeting at Queens University Belfast. Joe gave an oral presentation in the Great Hall. There were many interesting international speakers including Alexander Titz and Ulf Nilssen, as well as contributors from the UK and Ireland. The event was co-sponsored by the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland also (Division on Medicinal Chemistry), making it an excellent all-island event. Thanks to Gerd Wagner and Aisling Ní Cheallaigh, among others, for organising.

This meeting also gave an opportunity for the first in-person meeting of the full team of the SugarCoat North South Research Programme project – funded by the Shared Island Fund and the HEA. Postdoc Dr Hannah Crory has been working in the Wylie/McCoy lab in the School of Pharmacy, QUB.

Joe Awards, Presentations

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 Institute of Chemistry of Ireland’s scientific calendar, awarded her a prize for her talk.

Prof. Declan Gilheany (UCD) awarding Karolina a prize for her presentation at the Colloquium
Joe Presentations

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 work in the Byrne group as well as some recent results.

Joe Conferences, Presentations

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 organising the ICI Postgraduate Chemistry Research Symposium in September. The talk was followed by a number of questions from the attendees.