Winner of the AccesScience '07 poster competition (secondary school category) Isabel Kelly, Teresian School, Donnybrook
Talking science without using jargon was the order of the day for Elaine McSherry, doctoral student from UCD Conway Institute & School of Medicine & Medical Science, when she won the AccesScience ’07 Competition in O’Reilly Hall, UCD on Tuesday, February 27th.
Elaine clearly impressed the celebrity judging panel with an explanation of her research into how breast cancer cells spread when the linkages holding them together are missing.
AccesScience ‘07 finalists William Faller, Katrin Bender, Elaine McSherry (winner) and John Grealis
Chaired by Olympic medalist, John Treacy, the panel included RTE weather presenter, Nuala Carey; singer/ songwriter Juliet Turner and Nick Kelly, former lead singer with The Fat Lady Sings. They, along with 200 members of the general public, heard about the latest scientific research underway to combat kidney disease, skin cancer and diabetes as well as the advances in the design of new drugs to treat HIV and lung cancer.
The research that Elaine is carrying out for her doctoral thesis focuses on what gives some breast cancer cells the ability to invade through the ductal wall and then spread around the body while other forms of breast cancer that remain contained within the breast duct can be successfully treated. She believes the answer lies in the genetic differences between the cancerous cells. If this research can identify the genetic changes taking place, scientists may be a step closer to developing new and better treatments for breast cancer.
AccesScience Celebrity Judging Panel: L-R Nick Kelly, John Treacy, Juliet Turner, Nuala Carey
William Faller, UCD Conway Institute & School of Medicine & Medical Science took second place for his presentation entitled Figuring Out Melanoma: DNA Methylation. In third place was Katrin Bender, UCD Conway Institute & School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science with her presentation Diabetes and Nutrition: The Role of the Body's Sugar Shuttle.
Prizes were also presented to the winners of the AccesScience ’07 poster competition for the best visual presentation of ‘21st century science’:
Their posters will be displayed in DART trains and stations as part of the Science Track series, a joint initiative between Iarnroid Eireann and UCD Conway Institute.
