undergraduate student – Byrne Research Group

27 July, 202527 July, 2025 Joe Team, Visitors

Catherine completes RISE internship

Catherine Chaita, a third-year Pharmaceutical Science students from TU Dublin in Tallaght, joined the lab for two-weeks this summer as part of the RSC RISE Programme, designed to retain, inspire, support, and enhance ethnically-underrepresented groups in the chemical sciences. Catherine had a placement at TU Dublin last summer and came to us this summer. She fit in really well and quickly picked up a lot of skills under Thomas’ tutelage (and contributed to the Link4Lectin project). Catherine had the following to say about her experience:

In the second year [of the RISE programme], I was offered a two-week summer internship at University College Dublin (UCD), where I had the opportunity to work in the laboratory of Professor Joe Byrne, whose research focuses on sugars and inorganic/organic chemistry.
During the internship, I worked under the mentorship of PhD graduate Thomas Rabbitte who guided me through a variety of hands-on experiments. I was actively involved in various research projects. This experience greatly enhanced my technical and analytical skills, as I was introduced to a range of instruments and laboratory techniques relevant to pharmaceutical science. I carried out several chemical reactions, including alkylation, click chemistry, and amide coupling reactions.
The lab environment was collaborative and inspiring, with a team of postgraduate researchers and undergraduate interns all contributing to ongoing sugar-related research. My time at UCD provided me with a solid foundation of practical skills and deeper insight into real-world pharmaceutical and chemical research, and it further fueled my interest in pursuing a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

We wish Catherine every success with the rest of her studies and her future career in chemistry and hope to see her again.

Well done to Catherine Chaita for completing an intership with us as part of the RISE programme

8 September, 202114 February, 2022 Joe Outreach, Team

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.

20 March, 202114 February, 2022 Joe Team

Farewell to BSc student Mairead

Well done to Mairead on her project carried out in the group over the last few months. Good luck with everything in the future.

November 2020 (Joe, Mairéad and Karolina)

27 March, 202029 April, 2020 Joe news, Team

Well done, Ian – and now the shutdown!

Congratulations to Ian Murphy on submitting the thesis for his undergraduate research project in the group. He was a great addition to the team and achieved far and beyond what was required. We’ll miss having him in the lab. Best of luck in your exams!

That said, we’ll miss having a lab at all. The end of the 4th year projects co-incided with the shutdown of non-COVID-19 related research as we all transition to working from home for the forseeable future, in order to flatten the curve of the pandemic in Ireland. Here’s a photo of the team, snapped after one of our last group meetings before the shutdown

Research groups around the world will be reducing their research activity a lot over the coming months, just like everyone else, but hopefully it will be worth it and will keep many people safe.