Great to be back to in-person conferrings!!

12 Nov 2021

Professor John Cryan, Chair of Anatomy and Vice President for Research & Innovation, University College Cork commented in a tweet how it is 'Great to be back to in-Person conferrings' having attended the 2021 College of Medicine and Health Autumn Conferrings 'in person' on Friday 5th November to support his graduating PhD students.

There was a colourful display of gowns and autumn leaves and a sense of delight on campus as graduates and their families chatted outdoors with their colleagues and staff after the UCC College of Medicine and Health Autumn Conferrings. The UCC Autumn Conferring Ceremonies 2021 are the first conferrings to take place in person in UCC since the Spring Conferrings in February 2020 which were held shortly before the Covid-19 Pandemic restrictions caused the closure of on campus activities. Since then UCC conferring ceremonies have been held online.  Dr Thomaz Bastiaanssen, Dr Niamh Wiley and Dr Serena Boscaini students of Professor John F. Cryan posed for photographs after the ceremony.

Dr Serena Boscaini with supervisor Professor John F. Cryan 

Dr Serena Boscaini was conferred with a PhD (Medicine and Health) at the College of Medicine and Health Autumn Conferrings on Friday 5^th November 2021. Prior to her studies in Cork Dr Boscaini graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees in Biological Sciences from the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. She then undertook a 6 months Erasmus position in the Laboratory of Bacteria-Cell Interaction at the Institute Pasteur, Paris, followed by an additional year as a research assistant.

Dr Boscaini was awarded a Teagasc Walsh PhD fellowship with which she worked for two years at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Moorepark with Professor Paul Cotter and Dr Kanishka Nilaweera and in University College Cork with Professor John Cryan for the final two years of her PhD studies. Dr Boscaini investigated the role of bovine whey protein in the amelioration of obesity. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher in Professor John Cryan’s laboratory working on a human study investigating the effect of coffee consumption on the microbiota-gut-brain axis.

Dr Niamh Wiley with supervisor Professor John F Cryan 

Dr Niamh Wiley was conferred with a PhD (Medicine and Health) at the College of Medicine and Health Autumn Conferrings for a thesis entitled “Gut Microbes and Brain Function” which she completed under the supervision of Professor John F Cryan, Professor Catherine Stanton, Professor Paul Ross & Professor Ted Dinan. Niamh graduated with a BSc Neuroscience from the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience UCC before undertaking her doctoral studies. She is currently working as a Postdoctoral researcher in Professor Catherine Stanton’s laboratory in the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark.

Dr Thomaz Bastiaanssen with supervisor Professor John F. Cryan

Dr Thomaz F. S. Bastiaanssen was conferred with a PhD (Medicine and Health) at the College of Medicine and Health Autumn Conferrings. Under the supervision of Professor John F. Cryan, Professor Ted Dinan and Dr Marcus Claesson, Thomaz completed his PhD thesis on his work investigating the role of the microbiome in the gut-brain axis from a theoretical ecology perspective, exploring which features of the microbiome are most informative for gut-brain communication.

Before moving to Cork, Dr Bastiaanssen graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands and is now working as a Postdoctoral Bioinformatician in Professor Cryan’s laboratory. He lives in Cork with his wife, their toddler son, and their dog Attila. Dr Bastiaanssen can be found on twitter at @Thomazsan.

Dr Sophie Casey was also conferred with a PhD (Medicine and Health) at the College of Medicine and Health Autumn Conferrings for her research work which she completed under the co-supervision of Professor Gerard O'Keeffe (Anatomy and Neuroscience), Professor Deirdre Murray and Professor Geraldine Boylan (Paediatrics and Child Health). Dr Casey's PhD thesis on Inflammation-Driven Molecular Alterations in Disorders of the Perinatal Brain, investigated rapidly altered biomarker candidates and their downstream targets/functions in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and autism spectrum disorder. 

Prior to undertaking her PhD, Sophie graduated with a BSc Neuroscience in 2016 from the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience UCC. She is currently working as a research lecturer in the School of Medicine UCC, teaching on both the BSc Neuroscience and BSc Medical and Health Sciences courses. Dr Casey’s continues her research work in Professor Gerard O'Keeffe’s laboratory investigating experimental therapeutics for inflammation in Parkinson's Disease. Dr Casey can be found on Twitter @SophieCNeuro.

Click her to read Professor Cryans tweet 

Click here to read about the UCC Autumn conferrings 2021