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.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr Hannah Crory
NSRP Postdoctoral Fellow

Previous Education: PhD (Queens University Belfast)
Project start date: November 2022
Funding: HEA North South Research Programme
Project: SugarCoat – smart coatings for medical devices

Collaborative research with Queen’s University Belfast and CÚRAM Centre for Medical Device Research

PhD Students

Karolina Wojtczak

Previous education: BSc (Maynooth University)
PhD start date: September 2019
Funding: SFI SIRG
Project: Luminescent glycoclusters for bacterial lectin sensing

Publications: 2022 ChemMedChem.
Tagged News Items

Location: University of Galway
Thomas Rabbitte

Previous Education: MSc and BSc (NUI Galway)
PhD start date: February 2023
Funding: Irish Research Council (Laureate Award)
Project: Link4Lectin – supramolecular platform for antimicrobial drug candidates
Rosy Poisicchio

Photograph of Joe and Rosy
Rosy is a member of the Ronconi Group (University of Galway), co-supervised by Joe

PhD start date: 2019
Funding: Irish Research Council GOI-PG; NUI Galway Hardiman Scholarship
Project: Luminescent imaging agents for cancer

Visitors and project students


Former members

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
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
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

Funding and support

SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant (18/SIRG/5501)
SUGARCOAT Project (with Queens University Belfast and CÚRAM)
IRC Starting Laureate Award (Link4Lectin)
Horizon Europe Support Grant 2021

Collaborators

A member of the Byrne Group is hosted by the group of Prof. Paul V. Murphy at University of Galway. The rest of the group is based in UCD School of Chemistry

We collaborate with a number of researchers at the CÚRAM Centre for Medical Device Research, including Prof. Abhay Pandit and Dr Gerard O’Connor.

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. AnneImberty (Grenoble-Alpes)
  • Prof. Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson (Trinity College Dublin)
  • Dr. Jose Mata (Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM), Castellón)