APC News

Two APC researchers at University College Cork have received start-up funding to translate their research into innovative companies that will benefit human health globally. The start-ups will drive advances in women’s health, and skin health.

APC researchers at University College Cork have found that the gut microbiome affects the health of wild birds, which could impact their survival rates and ultimately population sizes. The first of its kind study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) provides direct evidence of the role of the gut microbiome in the ecology and evolution of natural populations.

‘Microbiome, Menopause & Wellbeing’ takes place on Saturday 26th October at the River Lee Hotel, Cork, with a stellar lineup of women’s health experts who will cover microbiome, menopause, nutrition and more with an interjection of jazz!

APC is delighted to welcome Dr. Ana Soriano to our team. Dr. Soriano has recently been awarded the prestigious Horizon Europe Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship, which will allow her to embark on an innovative project focused on the development of a new prototype of non-alcoholic beer. This research aims to align with pressing sustainability and health priorities, addressing the growing demand for healthier beverage options.

APC is delighted to announce that Dr. Sinéad Corr, an  Associate Professor in Microbiology, has relocated her research lab from Trinity College Dublin to our headquarters at University College Cork. This move marks an exciting new chapter for APC as we continue to expand our world-class research capabilities.

The APC Postdoc Day 2024 was held on Thursday, September 19th, during Postdoc Appreciation Week, in the Aula Maxima, University College Cork. This event was organized by the APC Postdoc Association - Chair: Elisa Di Stefano, Vice-Chair: Cristina Rosell Cardona, Treasurer: Mathieu Thabault, Vice-Treasurer: Jonathan Keane, Secretary: Clara Kampik, Public Relations Officer: Natalia, Social media representative: Valentine Turpin. The goal of this event was not only to highlight the outstanding and diverse research conducted by postdoctoral researchers within APC Microbiome Ireland but also to create a fruitful environment for postdocs to network and initiate collaborations with their peers.  

MSc Microbiome Science is a new course from the School of Microbiology at University College Cork, with input from leading academics based at APC Microbiome Ireland. This course has been developed to meet the demands of academia and industry in the field of microbiome science.

The first comprehensive database of food metagenomes has been developed by the EU-funded MASTER project; the associated paper ‘Analysis of 2,500 food metagenomes reveals unexplored microbial diversity and links with the human microbiome’ is published today in the prestigious journal Cell. The curatedFoodMetagenomicData (cFMD) database is a milestone database of metagenomes (the collective term for all of the genomic material from all of the microorganisms in an environment) from food that will enable DNA sequencing technologies to operate at their peak potential, helping researchers tackle global challenges, like food waste and antimicrobial resistance, while increasing food safety.

APC and Adiso Therapeutics, Inc. have a new publication “LPA3 agonist-producing Bacillus velezensis ADS024 is efficacious in multiple neuroinflammatory disease models” by Acton, et al., in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, the official journal of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS).

APC Microbiome Ireland (APC), a world-leading SFI Research Centre based at University College Cork (UCC), is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Sebastian Schmidt, an outstanding computational biologist with a global reputation for pioneering advancements in microbiome data analysis, as a new Principal Investigator.