Team

Dr Joe Byrne (PI)

Joe has been leading the team since April 2019. He is Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry at University College Dublin since January 2023. Prior to this he was an Honorary Research Lecturer (and now Adjunct Lecturer) at University of Galway. He has previously worked as a postdoc in University of Bern, Switzerland, and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He did his PhD in Trinity College Dublin (2010-15) and his undergraduate studies in Maynooth University (2006-10).
See more about Joe at this link.

PhD Students

Thomas Rabbitte	PhD start date: February 2023 Previous Education: BSc and MSc (University of Galway) Funding: Irish Research Council (Laureate Award) Project: Link4Lectin – supramolecular platform for antimicrobial drug candidates
Sophie Kavanagh	PhD start date: September 2023 Previous Education: BSc (UCD) Funding: Irish Research Council (Laureate Award) Project: Link4Lectin – supramolecular platform for antimicrobial drug candidates
Wanyujin Wang	PhD start date: September 2024 Previous Education: MSc (UCD), BSc (Beijing Technology and Business University / UCD) Funding: China Scholarship Council Project: Lanthanide complexes for sensing Previous research experience in the group: Research Assistant (06/24-08/24 SugarCoat, 11/23-02/24 SIRG); MSc project student (05/23-08/23)

Postdoctoral Researchers

There are not currently any postdoctoral researchers in the group

Visitors and project students

Hubert Rebow Stage 4 Project Student	Project start date: September 2024 (UCD Stage 4 project) Project end date: April 2025 Project: Synthesis of boronic acid glycan-sensors
Tristan Roche Stage 4 Project Student	Project start date: September 2024 (UCD Stage 4 project) Project end date: April 2025 Project: Lanthanide complexes for sensing

Graduated PhD students

Dr Karolina Wojtczak	Previous education: BSc (Maynooth University) PhD start date: September 2019 PhD end date: March 2024 Funding: SFI SIRG Project: Luminescent glycoclusters for bacterial lectin sensing Publications: 2023 ChemComm; 2022 ChemMedChem. Tagged News Items Karolina completed her PhD in University of Galway and was co-supervised by Prof Paul Murphy. Karolina is now a Postdoc in Marseille.
Dr Rosy Poisicchio	PhD start date: 2019 PhD end date: April 2024 Funding: Irish Research Council GOI-PG; NUI Galway Hardiman Scholarship Project: Luminescent imaging agents for cancer Tagged News Items Rosy was a member of the Ronconi Group (University of Galway), co-supervised by Joe. Rosy now works as a R&D Scientific Communication Advisor at Unilever

Former Postdocs

Dr Hannah Crory NSRP Postdoctoral Fellow	Previous Education: PhD (Queens University Belfast) Project start date: November 2022 Project end date: April 2024 Funding: HEA North South Research Programme Project: SugarCoat – smart coatings for medical devices Tagged News Items Collaborative research with Queen’s University Belfast and CÚRAM Centre for Medical Device Research
Dr Garret Dee SIRG Research Scientist	Previous Education: PhD (Trinity College Dublin) Project start date: November 2023 Project end date: March 2024 Funding: SFI SIRG Project: Luminescent materials for bacterial lectin sensing

Other former group members

Silvia Cimi Politi Erasmus+ Student	Project start date: July 2024 Project end date: September 2024 Home university: Universita de Parma, Italy Project: Lanthanide complexes for sensing
Jiaqi Zuo Visiting Graduate Student	Project start date: June 2024 Project end date: August 2024 Home university: Zhejiang Normal University, China Project: Luminescent lanthanide amphiphiles for imaging
Emma Madsen Summer Research Intern (Arcadia)	Project start date: June 2024 Project end date: August 2024 Home university: Yale, USA Project: Synthesis of boronic acid glycan-sensors
Matthew Yacoub Summer Research Intern (Arcadia)	Project start date: June 2024 Project end date: August 2024 Home university: University of Michigan, USA Project: Synthesis of boronic acid glycan-sensors
Romain Neveu Erasmus+ Intern (ENSI CAEN, France)	Project start date: April 2024 (Internship) Project end date: August 2024 Home university: National Graduate School of Engineering of Caen (ENSI Caen), France Supervisors: Sophie Kavanagh Project: Synthesis of boronic acid glycan-sensors Read Testimonial
Sean Dolan Stage 4 Project Student	Project start date: September 2024 (UCD Stage 4 project) Project end date: April 2024 Supervisors: Thomas Rabbitte, Joe Byrne Project: Synthesis of boronic acid glycan-sensors
Ioannis Mylonas-Margaritas Research Assistant	Previous Education: PhD (NUI Galway); MSc and BSc (University of Patras) Project start date: November 2021 Project end date: January 2022 Funding: Enterprise Ireland Horizon Europe Support Grant
Shivon Karundu Undergraduate project	Project start date: September 2022 (Galway Chemistry final year project) Project end date: December 2022 Supervisor: Joe Byrne Project: Preparation of glycocluster ligands for surface functionalisation
Tiernan Taylor Undergraduate project	Project start date: October 2021 (School of Chemistry final year project) Project end date: March 2022 Supervisors: Karolina Wojtczak & Joe Byrne Project: Synthesis of glycoconjugate metal complexes
Patrick Dowling Undergraduate project	Project start date: October 2021 (School of Chemistry final year project) Project end date: March 2022 Supervisor: Joe Byrne Project: Preparation of glycocluster ligands for surface functionalisation Next position: Pharmaceuticals
Mairéad Ó Meara Undergraduate project	Project start date: October 2020 (School of Chemistry final year project) Project end date: March 2021 Supervisors: Karolina Wojtczak & Joe Byrne Project: Synthesis of new ligands for antimicrobial metal-centred glycoclusters Next position: Environmental Services
Ian Murphy Undergraduate project	Project start date: October 2019 (School of Chemistry final year project) Project end date: April 2020 Supervisors: Karolina Wojtczak & Joe Byrne Project: Synthesis of divalent luminescent glycoclusters Next position: Chemical industry

Funding and support

Collaborators

The group is based in UCD School of Chemistry and we have several internal collaborations in the School and the Conway Institute. The group was previously based at University of Galway where students were co-supervised with Prof Paul V. Murphy and Dr Luca Ronconi. We collaborate with a number of researchers at the CÚRAM Centre for Medical Device Research.

Other collaborators include:

• Dr Gordon Cooke (TU Dublin)
• Prof. Colin McCoy (Queens University Dublin)
• Prof. Alexander Titz (Helmholtz Institute)
• Dr Kevin Kavanagh (Maynooth University)
• Dr. Trinidad Velasco-Torrijos (Maynooth University)
• Prof. Anne Imberty (Grenoble-Alpes)
• Dr. Matthew Wylue (Queens University Belfast)
• Prof. Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson (Trinity College Dublin)
• Dr. Jose Mata (Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM), Castellón)