


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)

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






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)