2005 Press Releases
Science for All Competition - UCC Postgrads to Make Everything Clear, 20 April
Conducting scientific research is one thing - explaining it to a lay audience, quite another. On Wednesday evening next (April 20th), the five finalists in a new UCC competition run under the banner of Science for All will do just that, when they give public presentations, aimed at demonstrating their prowess as communicators.
Organised by Professor William Reville and Dr Anne Cronin of UCC's Faculty of Science in conjunction with Dr Catherine Buckley of the SFI-funded Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), the competition, says Professor William Reville, is designed to foster a culture in the University where scientists feel at ease and comfortable about explaining their work to general audiences. This year, the competition is open to senior postgraduate students in the biological sciences area, but from next year, it will be expanded to include the physical sciences and engineering. Already, during the heat stages, innovative and interesting research was presented to an extraordinarily high standard, making it extremely difficult for the judges to choose the five finalists.
The finalists are:
Suzanne Floyd, a native of Bishopstown, Cork, who is a UCC Biochemistry graduate. Suzanne has already received national and international awards for presenting her research to other scientists and her presentation will focus on understanding the link between growth in cancer cells and the cells' appetite for energy. In particular, she will discuss the identification of a new protein involved in tumour growth and explain how this work is involved in helping scientists to understand another link in the complex chain of cancer growth.
Eoin P. Lettice, from Blackpool in Cork, a UCC graduate in Plant and Microbial Biotechnology. Eoin was awarded the O'Carroll Prize for best final-year research project in Plant Science and is a Government of Ireland Scholar. For the past 30 months, he has been conducting PhD research at the Department of Zoology, Ecology & Plant Science (ZEPS), UCC, where he is developing novel methods of control for potato disease. Eoin will reveal how his researches have helped dupe the parasites that prey on potatoes into believing they have found their host - when in fact, they have not.
Shane Madden graduated in Biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin and is now in the third year of a PhD under Professor Tom Cotter at UCC. A native of Dublin, he worked in investment banking after taking a year out to travel the world. However, the lure of research was too strong.
Shane's project has been looking at the balance of life and death in the cell cycle - how the life/death stimuli in cells are regulated during embryonic development and how these stimuli are later turned off to protect vital organs into adulthood. The research, says Shane, is relevant to the further understanding of conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Eileen O'Connor, a final-year postgraduate student based at Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, received an honours Microbiology degree from UCC. Eileen's research has involved studying the food-grade bacterium, Lactococcus lactis (L. lactis), used for thousands of years in the manufacture of cheese and fermented milks. L. lactis has the ability to produce proteins called bacteriocins, which in turn, may have powerful applications in preventing harmful food poisoning bacteria to take hold. The implications for biomedicine are being examined, and already, one of the bacteriocins -lacticin- has been found to protect against the sometimes fatal disease in humans, listeriosis. Eileen will also explain how lacticin-containing foods may even have a role in preventing dental decay!
Katie Spitere completed a BSc in Neuroscience at UCC in 2002 and is now in the third year of her PhD in the Department of Anatomy/Neuroscience. Katie's career goal is to "make a real mark" in the field of regenerative medicine and her current research involves using stem cells to develop Parkinson's disease therapies, the debilitating condition which leads to the loss of dopamine neurons in the brain. Katie's research is examining how stem cells can be used to create a large and healthy source of dopamine neurons which may one day be transplanted in the brains of Parkinson's disease sufferers. Success in this area of research could have profound implications for the treatment of the disease.
The panel of judges for the final will be chaired by Leo Enright, Chairman of Discover Science and Engineering, the national Integrated Awareness Programme managed by Forfás. Professor Reville will act as Master of Ceremonies on the night.
This competition is sponsored by Discover Science & Engineering, Bank of Scotland (ireland), Stream Solutions, and UCC Travel.
Members of the public are welcome to attend, Boole IV Lecture Theatre, University College Cork, 7pm, Wednesday, 20 April.
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