Bruno, Hannah and Isabel present their work at the Third Year Talks in TCD

The annual Third Year Talks took place on Tuesday 29^th May, so Bruno, Hannah and Isabel, as third year students had a chance of presenting their work. The event, sponsored by Eli Lilly, involved 38 students from TCD, UCD and DIT who presented their research in the Hamilton Building on the Trinity Campus.

Isabel talked about her btp-based metal ion complexes during the Inorganic Chemistry session; Hannah presented her work with bypiridine derivative complexes of d and f metal ions in the New Ligands session; while Bruno talked about his work on f metal ion complexes as indirect probes of peptidic phosphorylation in the Analysis of Biologic session.

Our congratulations go to all the students who participated, and especially to Bruno, Hannah and Isabel for their great job representing the TG group!

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Fergus presented with the RIA Young Chemist Prize

Congratulations to Dr Fergus Poynton, who was formally presented with the RIA Young Chemist Prize today. The prize is awarded annually by the Royal Irish Academy for the most outstanding chemistry thesis in Ireland.

John Kelly, Fergus Poynton and Thorri Gunnlaugsson

Pat Guiry presenting Fergus with his award

Members of the TG group at the reception

Fergus won the prize in March for his thesis “Spectroscopic Investigations into the Excited-State Processes and Reactivity of Ruthenium(II) Polypyridyl Complexes”, he has since won one of the five IUPAC-Solvay International Awards for Young Chemists, and will receive the prize at the 46^th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in São Paulo this July.

In a special ceremony in the Academy, the prize was presented by Prof. Pat Guiry, Vice-Chair of the Physical, Chemical & Mathematical Sciences of the RIA. The ceremony was also attended by Fergus’ family and friends, as well as collaborators Clive Williams, TCD and Susan Quinn from UCD, co-supervisor John Kelly and his colleagues from the Donnelly research group in the School of Medicine.

Well done!

A huge thanks to @RIAdawson for awarding me the RIA Young Chemist Prize, my PhD supervisors and @IrishResearch for supporting my research! pic.twitter.com/8spUBj65YL

— Fergus Poynton (@FergusPoynton) June 22, 2017

Dr Örn Almarsson gives an invited lecture to TBSI

Örn Almarsson, Head of Formulation of Moderna Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave a lecture about his work titled “Messenger RNA: A Novel Therapeutic Approach”, today. Moderna Therapeutics have demonstrated the possibilities offered by mRNA-based treatments, establishing partnerships with Merck, receiving awards for their research achievements and raising over $1.1 billion in equity financing.

Örn was invited to speak to TBSI by Thorri, of whom he is a longtime friend. It was a pleasure to have him talk about his work and provide a unique insight into the world of cutting-edge industry research.

Pre-talk networking!

Thorri introduces Orn’s Work

Orn answers questions from the audience

 

Open Symposium at TBSI!

On the afternoon of Thursday 1^st of December, the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) will be holding a half day symposium where several of the most important chemists from across the UK and Ireland who have had the chance to work with or just be friends with Professor Philip A. Gale. The Symposium will be free of charge and open to the public so everyone feel free to join us for it in the Tercentenary Hall at TBSI starting from 12:30. See you on Thursday!

Prof. A. P. De Silva Speaks to the Dublin University Werner Chemical Society

A. P. giving his lecture to the DU Werner Chemical Society

A. P. de Silva, longtime friend and former supervisor of Thorri, and professor at Queen’s University of Belfast, gave a lecture about his work on “Fluorescent sensing and logic systems” today for the first DU Werner Chemical Society talk of the year. Group members Hannah and Isabel – who are also committee members of the Society – helped organise the talk. A. P.’s work on fluorescent sensors has developed into a range of blood gas and electrolyte analysers, sales of which by Roche, OPTI Medical (for human health case) and IDEXX (for animal use) have surpassed $530 million, and saved countless lives. As always, it was both a pleasure and an honour to have A. P. as a guest at Trinity and an enjoyable and unique experience to participate to one of his talks. Looking forward to the next time!

Chris and Amy appear in The Irish Times

Chris and Amy from the group recently appeared in The Irish Times national newspaper as part of a feature article on an imagery competition, held in Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), to showcase the variety of research that is currently being carried out within the institute. This competition was part of the 5^th anniversary celebrations of TBSI. The composite image made by Chris and Amy was based on soon to be published work on liquid crystal tricarboxamide derivatives developed by the pair, with one of the images used obtained in collaboration with the Pal Group in Durham University. Their contribution is now on show in the foyer of TBSI.

Image entered based on liquid crystal tricarboxamide derivatives

Amy and Chris with their image

Dr Esther Surender graduates

Pictured are Prof. Gunnlaugsson and Dr. Surender following the ceremony.

As part of the summer commencements at Trinity College Dublin, Dr Esther Surender was conferred with her PhD degree in the Public Theatre. A number of honorary degrees were also awarded in the same ceremony, including the Nobel Prize winner Peter Higgs.

Attention! Filming in Progress in TG Lab

Trinity College Dublin receive four nominations for the ‘Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards’, which is funded by Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Irish Universities Association (IUA).

The Gunnlaugsson research group were selected in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) to have their research lab filmed in order to promote the awarding of the nominations to College. Several PhD students and post-doctoral fellows were filmed while actively carrying out synthetic and analytical work.

Filming in TG Lab for Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards

TG Group final year student Deirdre McAdams’s interview with The Irish Times

Final year Medicinal Chemistry student, Deirdre McAdams

Deirdre McAdams, a Senior Sophister (4th and final year) student in Medicinal Chemistry at the School of Chemistry, was interviewed by The Irish Times on her educational journey. Deirdre, who is a Trinity Scholar, undertook her final year research project within the Gunnlaugsson research group in TBSI between September and December 2015, and has also worked in the research group of Prof. Mathias Senge (TBSI). Deirdre entered TCD through the Trinity Access Programme and has been a fantastic ambassador for the programme ever since.

The link to the full article and the interview with Deirdre can be found on the following link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/mind-the-gap-the-stark-class-divide-in-access-to-third-level-1.2602138

 

Dr. Chris Hawes and Dr. Oxana Kotova present at TBSI Post-Doctoral Research Day

Dr. Chris Hawes presenting at TBSI Post-Doctoral Research Day

The annual post-doctoral research day took place on the 8th of April 2016 featuring oral presentations and posters from scientists across several of the departments and schools based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI).

Dr. Chris Hawes from the Gunnlaugsson group presented his work on “Fluorescent Coordination Polymers for Molecular Detection” and Dr. Oxana Kotova presented a poster entitled “Exploring the Effect of Ligand Structural Isomerism in Langmuir-Blodgett Films of Chiral Luminescent Eu(III) Self-Assemblies”.

The keynote speaker on the day was Prof. Donal O’Shea, Consultant Endocrinologist, University College Dublin and the day’s talks were followed by a wine reception and prize giving ceremony.

We would like to congratulate Chris and Oxana and thank them for representing the group and showcasing their work before the entire institute.

Dr. Oxana Kotova presenting her poster accompanied by Prof. Joanna McGouran