PResident's RePORt 2009/2010 - University College Cork

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UCC at a Glance
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IRIS Appendix
52
• Microbiology scientists publish in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. A team of scientists led by Dr Max Dow
from the Signalling and Pathogensis group at the BIOMERIT
Research Centre (Microbiology) UCC have had their recent
findings accepted for publication in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
• Scientific links established between UCC and China: The
Department of Microbiology welcomed Shi Qi An from The
Institute of Molecular Genetics, Guangxi University, Nanning,
PRC who visited the laboratory of Dr Max Dow at the BIOMERIT
Research Centre. Ms Shi Qi An was here on an extended research
visit as part of SFI-funded International Research Partnership
between the research groups of Dr Max Dow at UCC and
Chinese research group led by Professor Ji-Liang Tang at
Guangxi University. The emphasis of the International Research
Partnership programme is to support talented visionary scientists
in a bilateral exchange programme to the mutual benefit of
Ireland and the participating country. During her visit Shi Qi An
worked on a long standing joint project between the research
groups aimed at understanding the role cell-to-cell signalling
plays in virulence in plant pathogenic bacteria belonging to the
genera Xanthomonas.
• UCC Students selected for international research training
project: UCC students of Microbiology, Genetics and
Bioinformatics are involved in a project which is being led by
the internationally renowned US Department of Energy Joint
Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a world-leading institute in DNA
sequencing located in Walnut Creek, California. As a result
of an international competition, UCC is one of 16 universities
worldwide to be chosen to participate in an international project
to carry out scientific analysis of the DNA sequences of bacteria.
In fact, UCC is only one of three non-US universities selected for
the 2010 DOE Joint Genome Institute’s ‘Education Programme’
project, the other two being in Lund, Sweden, and in St George’s
in Grenada, West Indies.
Awards (staff and students)
• Saranna Fanning (PhD Microbiology) an NUI Travelling
Studentship funded Saranna to avail of the research knowledge
and expertise in the area of bifidobacteria at UCC and yeast
genetics expertise in the labs of Professor Aaron P. Mitchell,
formerly of Columbia University, NY, USA and now at Carnegie
Mellon University, PA, US, to explore two distinct research topics
as part of her PhD thesis.
• IDF Elie Metchnikoff Prize Four scientists have been awarded
the IDF Elie Metchnikoff Prize in Microbiology for 2010. The
Prize is named in honour of the recipient of the 1908 Nobel
Prize and is awarded in recognition of their contribution to the
study of lactic acid bacteria. The prize-winners are Dr Catherine
Stanton and Professor Paul Ross of Teagasc, Moorepark and
Professors Colin Hill and Gerald Fitzgerald (Microbiology). All
four scientists are Principal Investigators in the APC and in Food
for Health Ireland and each has recently been awarded a DSc
from the National University of Ireland for their published work.
• Heather McLoughlin (PhD Microbiology) received two awards
this year. She was the winner of the UCC Science for All
Postgraduate Student Public Presentation Competition, in
which young scientists have to explain themselves ‘without the
jargon’ to a live audience. She also received the PhD category
award for this year’s UCC BioSciences Institute Researcher of
the Year competition.
• Dr Robert Ryan who holds a position in the Signalling and
Pathogenesis Group led by Dr Max Dow at the BIOMERIT
Research Centre Department of Microbiology, UCC, was awarded
a Starting Investigator Research Grant in October 2009. Dr
Ryan was one of 15 highly-talented SIRG award recipients. The
funding, under a new Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) initiative,
will help researchers at an early stage in their careers to progress
towards a fully independent academic research career.
• Microbiology Academics elected to the Royal Irish Academy:
Colin Hill, Professor of Microbial Food Safety, and Principal
Investigator, APC, was elected a Member of the Royal Irish
Academy
• Professor Fergal O’Gara, Director of the BIOMERIT Research
Centre, has been appointed as Vice-President of the Royal
Irish Academy. He has also been elected to the RIA Council
representing the Committee of Science. Professor O’Gara was
first elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2003.