December 2021
November 2020
April 2020

Dr Joe Byrne (PI)

Joe has been leading the team since April 2019. He is an Honorary Research Lecturer in the School of Chemistry. 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.

Karolina Wojtczak (PhD student)

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

Rosy Polisicchio (PhD student in Ronconi Group, co-supervised)

Photograph of Joe and Rosy

PhD start date: 2019
Funding: NUI Galway Hardiman Scholarship
Project: Luminescent imaging agents for cancer

Ioannis Mylonas-Margaritis (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

Tiernan Taylor (undergraduate project student)

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 student)

Project start date: October 2021 (School of Chemistry final year project)
Project end date: March 2022
Supervisors: Karolina Wojtczak & Joe Byrne
Project: Preparation of glycocluster ligands for surface functionalisation

Mairéad Ó Meara (undergraduate project student)

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 student)

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

The Byrne Group is hosted by the group of Prof. Paul V. Murphy at NUI Galway.

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. Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson (Trinity College Dublin)
  • Prof. Colin McCoy (Queens University Dublin)
  • Dr. Trinidad Velasco-Torrijos (Maynooth University)
  • Dr. Idalina Goncalves (University of Aveiro)
  • Dr. Jose Mata (Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM), Castellón)