SBBS Postgraduate Conferring Reception 15th June 2018

SBBS celebrate conferring of PhD & MSc students Friday 15th June 2018 

The School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science (SBBS) held a reception on Friday 15th of June 2018 in the O’Brien Centre for Science to celebrate our sixteen postgraduate students who were conferred with their MSc by Research and PhD degrees that day.

 

Prof Wim Meijer, Head of School, opened the reception, which was attended by the graduates, their families, friends, research supervisors and SBBS staff, with a speech acknowledging the years of hard work, commitment and dedication in reaching this major milestone in their careers. He commended the three MSc by research and 13 PhD graduates for completing a journey which, without a doubt, encompassed experiences of joy, disappointment and frustration but through their vision and will to persevere ultimately led to new insights and discoveries and shifted the boundaries of knowledge and research. During his speech, Prof Meijer quoted President John F Kennedy’s famous statement about the effort to reach the moon, “We choose to go the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard,” as well as George Mallory’s response when asked why he climbed Mount Everest, “Because it is there.”

To conclude the event, Prof Geraldine Butler presented a slideshow with photos of the graduates and highlights from their respective research journeys.

‌

 

Photos by Craig Slattery. 

The full list of graduates and their theses are listed below. For more details on SBBS research programmes click here.

Degree of Master of Science- Research

Mark Gallagher, MSc  

Thesis title: Synaptic Plasticity and Epileptiform Activity Models: Hippocampal Slices and Zebrafish

Supervisor: Caroline Herron

Hilary Cassidy, MSc, PhD

Thesis title: In Vitro and In Vivo strategies for the analysis of novel biomarkers of diabetic nephropathy

Supervisor: Tara McMorrow

Rebecca Ward , MSc  

Thesis title: Investigation into the underlying aetiology of a visual function defect in a zebrafish model of von-Hippel Lindau disease

Supervisor: Breandán Kennedy

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Michael Higgins, PhD

Thesis title: Assessment of the Impact of Ciliary Loss on the Epithelial Phenotype in RPTEC/TERT1 cells and Investigations into the Development of a High-Throughput Carcinogenic Screening Method

Supervisor: Tara McMorrow

Ismael Obaidi, PhD

Thesis title: Investigation into the chemopreventive and anti-cancer effect of natural products: Insight into the carcinogenic inhibit ion and trail-sensitizing effects of curcumin in human kidney models

Supervisor: Tara McMorrow

Paulina Szklanna , PhD

Thesis title: The Platelet Releasate in Preeclampsia

Supervisor: Patricia Maguire

Sarah Al Mahboub, PhD

Thesis title: The design of a biocatalyst for the synthesis of small molecules for biomedical application

Supervisors: Kevin O’Connor and Tanja Narancic

Carolina Ruiz, PhD

Thesis title: Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates from waste resources

Supervisor: Kevin O’Connor

Paul Donovan, PhD

Thesis title: Comparative genome analysis of non-coding RNAs in fungi.

Supervisors: Geraldine Butler and Des Higgins

Siobhan Turner, PhD

Thesis title: Post-genomic analysis of metabolism and biofilm formation in the pathogenic yeast Candida parapsilosis

Supervisor: Geraldine Butler

Sarah Eivers, PhD

Thesis title: Regulated Expression of the PTGIR and TBXA2R Genes:

Implications in Human Health and Disease

Supervisor: Therese Kinsella

Dearbhla Lenehan, PhD

Thesis title: Characterisation of Gram-negative bacteria binding to platelets and the CD36 receptor

Supervisor: Jennifer Mitchell  

Gavin McGauran, PhD

Thesis  title: Development of new methods for the study of protein-protein interactions using a calcium dependent fragment complementation based platform.

Supervisor: David O’Connell

Noemie Scheidel, PhD

Thesis title: Characterisation of endocytic and IFT-A pathways controlling cilia compartmentalisation and functions using Caenorhabditis elegans

Supervisor: Oliver Blacque

Laura Bel, PhD

Thesis title: Identifying novel Ciliary Membrane Trafficking Genes using Forward Genetics in Caenorhabditis elegans

Supervisor: Oliver Blacque

Kontxi Martinez de San Vicente, PhD

Thesis title : Analysis of virulence in the pathogenic yeast Candida parapsilosis

Supervisor: Geraldine Butler