School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
N E W S L E T T E R
VOLUME 1 * ISSUE 1 * OCTOBER 2013
WHE R E FINB A RR TAU GH T LE T MUNSTER L EAR N
IN THIS ISSUE
Message from the Head of School
History was made on First Sept. 2013 when
the Department of Biochemistry became the
School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.
8th Neuroscience Ireland/
Biochemical Society Joint
Meeting
School members Drs. Paul Young (Chair of
Organising Committee), Eoin Fleming and
Cora O’Neill, along with colleagues from the
Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience
and Cork University Hospital organised this
conference which attracted 200 delegates
over two days on Sept 12th and 13th.
Message from Head of School,
Professor David Sheehan
History was made on 1st September 2013 when
the Department of Biochemistry became the
School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.
This is part of a process of reorganisation within the University
which has been on-going for much of the last decade. You are
very welcome to this, the first newsletter of the new School. My
intention is that this e-publication will showcase the best of what
is going on in our School, our achievements and successes and, in
particular, the great staff and students we are so fortunate to work with here. It
will also be sent to our alumni and thus help to keep them in touch with us
wherever they may be. In my term as Head of School, I will be putting in place a
new governance structure with agreed rules for delivering the School’s mission
of excellence in Teaching and Research. You will shortly begin to see smaller
changes such as the new School Website and new signage but I will be calling for
your help in effecting the consultation necessary for change to the new structure.
I
also want to thank my colleague, Dr Cora O’Neill, for agreeing to serve
as Vice Head of School for one year. I hope you can support Cora in
this role. It is my hope that by doing small things well, we can make
big things possible. I am looking forward to working with each and
every one of you to continue to make History into the future.
News on the PhD Scholars
Programme in Cancer Biology/
MSc in Molecular and Cell Biology
with innovation
Four students were awarded a PhD in Cancer
Biology after completing the PhD Scholars
Programme in Cancer Biology in 2013
Events; People in the news
This year’s Postgraduate Annual Reviews will
take place on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd
October in the BSI Seminar Room.
Hot off the Press!
Our recent publications...
SCHOOL OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND CELL BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER
ISSUE 001 | OCTOBER 2013
8th Neuroscience Ireland/Biochemical Society
Conference at Western Gateway Building, UCC
School members Drs. Paul Young (Chair
of Organising Committee), Eoin Fleming
and Cora O’Neill, along with colleagues
from the Department of Anatomy and
Neuroscience and Cork University Hospital
organised this conference which attracted
200 delegates over two days on Sept 12th
and 13th.
Understanding the brain is one of the great
challenges of mankind, amplified by the
fact that one in three people will suffer a
brain disorder during their lifespan. This
year has been a breakthrough year for
neuroscience research with large-scale
initiatives launched in the US by President
Obama and in the EU. Every week the
frontiers of neuroscience are challenged by stories as diverse as brains being grown in jars or new
hope for treating Alzheimer’s Disease. In this context a major Neuroscience meeting held in UCC on
Sept 12th & 13th highlighted recent insights into the workings of the brain in health and disease. A
particular emphasis of the programme was the vulnerable brain, in times of early and advanced age
and during stress.
With a stellar line-up of national and international speakers, the meeting focused on how
knowledge at the molecular level is being, and has the potential to be, translated into meaningful
impacts on patients’ lives.
Speakers included Susan Vanucci (New York) and Pierre Gressens (Paris) - leading experts on the
newborn brain - and Yehezkel Ben Ari, (Marseille) an internationally renowned neuroscientist
spoke about his recent work on understanding the mechanisms underlying autism and reported on
promising clinical trial results.
Switching to the elderly, Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Diseases are the most common
neurodegenerative disorders and the frontiers of both basic and clinical aspects of these disorders
were presented by Rohan de Silva (London), Luc Buee/David Blum (Lille) and Angela Cenci (Lund).
The Biochemical Society:
Young Life Scientists’
Symposium on Cell Signalling
On September 11th, the Biochemical
Society was the main sponsor for a
Young Life Scientist Symposium on
Cell Signalling, which was “organised
by Young Life Scientist for Young Life
Scientists”.
The Symposium attracted almost 120
registrants, with delegates from the Irish
Universities being joined by a number
that had travelled over from Britain. The
posters and oral presentations from the
attending students were of an extremely
high standard and the day as a whole
was characterised by a very high level of
student participation.
The relationship between diet, environment and neurodegeneration was discussed by Christian
Holscher (Coleraine), who reported promising preclinical results on potential new treatments
for Alzheimer’s Disease. In this scientific session, PhD student Jyoti Chhibber, from Dr Justin
McCarthy’s lab was selected for an oral presentation entitled “Regulated intramembrane proteolysis
of tnf-r1 and defective tnf-αlpha-responsiveness in presenilin 2 knockout mice” Stress and trauma
gives rise to many psychiatric disorders. Eero Castren (Helsinki) and Nicolas Singewald (Innsbruck)
discussed how both behavioural therapies and
antidepressants can reverse such effects while
Carmine Pariante (London) described the long-term
consequences of depression during pregnancy on
the health of off-spring. Finally, the mechanisms
of how we learn, remember and pay attention were
elaborated in a scientific session on Cognition
in Health and disease by a number of speakers
including Simon Kelly (New York).
Many PhD students and Postdocs from the
Professor Marina Lynch from TCD receiving the IASBS
Silver medal for Outstanding Irish Researcher in the
Life Sciences from Eoin Fleming (UCC representative on
the Irish Area Section of the Biochemical Society) and
Caitríona Long-Smith (Vice-Chair, YLS committee).
School presented posters at the meeting and
administrative staff as well as several PhD students
from the School provided invaluable assistance in
Young Life Scientists (YLS) Organising Committee (from
left to right); Caitríona Long-Smith (Vice-Chair, SBCB)),
Ciara O’Flanagan (SBCS), Louise Aileen Foley (SBCB), Rachel
Moloney and Harriët Schellekens (Chair).
The organising committee (above) did
an excellent job in inviting a world-class
line-up of keynote speakers to complement
the student presentations, and together
ensured that the delegates were treated
to a really excellent day of science. Invited
speakers for the event included:
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David Ron (University of Cambridge)
Antoine Karnoub (Harvard University)
Timothy Dynan (UCC)
Marina Lynch (TCD)
Catherine Staunton (Teagasc)
the organisation and running of the conference.
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SCHOOL OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND CELL BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER
PhD Scholars Programme in
Cancer Biology
Four students were awarded a PhD
in Cancer Biology after completing
the PhD Scholars Programme in
Cancer Biology in 2013:
»» Aoife Corcoran
(Supervisor: Professor T. Cotter)
»» Kate Foley
(Supervisor: Dr. P. Young)
»» Ciara O’Flanagan
(C. O’Neill supervisor)
»» William Byrne
(M. Tangney supervisor)
Awards
Dr William Byrne was one of 60
students selected to participate
in the Novartis Biotechnology
Leadership Camp (BioCamp)
held at the Novartis International
Headquarters in Basel, Switzerland,
in August 2013
Speakers
The PhD Scholars Programme
in Cancer Biology sponsored the
keynote address by Prof Tony
(Antoine) Karnoub (Harvard
Medical School/Dana-Farber
Harvard Cancer Center) at the
Young Life Scientists’ Symposium
held at UCC on 11 September
2013. Dr Ciara O’Flanagan was
part of the Young Life Scientists’
Symposium organising committee.
MSc in Molecular and Cell
Biology with Innovation
Twelve students in the MSc in
Molecular Cell Biology with
Bioinnovation will complete the
requirements for their master’s
degree in September 2013. The
students will present their thesis
work in a symposium scheduled
for 30 September that will be
attended by programme extern,
Prof David Tollervey, Univ of
Edinburgh. Meanwhile, we
are pleased to welcome nine
incoming students to the MSc
in Molecular Cell Biology with
Bioinnovation for 2013 -14.
Incoming and outgoing students
are listed below:
2013-14 Class Incoming
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Stephanie Pfister
Stéphane Schroeder
Rebecca Sheehan
Nayana Turmari
2012-13 Class Outgoing
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Conor Brennan
Siobhan Brosnan
Brian Duffy
Rachel Farrar
Lilian Fennell
Louise Mansfield
Niamh O’Flynn
Emer O’Shea
Michael Power
Aoife Richardson
Dean Rowe
Chris Spearman
ISSUE 001 | OCTOBER 2013
DNA Day in Biochemistry
Training Lab
Dr Kellie Dean organised a “DNA Day” for
5th and 6th class students at St Fin Barre’s
National School in May 2013. During the
workshop, students looked at heritable
traits, learned about DNA as a molecule, and
isolated DNA from strawberries and their
own cheek cells. With help from Dr Maryanne
Donovan, students prepared slides of their
cheeks cells, stained them and examined the
cells under a microscope. Assisting that day
were Rachel Farrar, Lilian Fennell and Niamh
O’Flynn, students in the MSc in Molecular Cell
Biology with Bioinnovation. We thank Trish
Fowler and Dr Sinead Kerins for their expert
preparation of the lab materials and advice.
Erasmus preparatory visit award
Dr Kellie Dean received an Erasmus
preparatory visit award through the HEA to
explore opportunities for students in the MSc
in Molecular Cell Biology with Bioinnvation
programme to complete their 6-month
research project with group leaders at the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
(EMBL). During a two-day visit to Heidelberg
in July, Kellie briefed unit leaders at EMBL
headquarters and outstations about the MSc
programme, met with individual group leaders
and liased with EMBL’s Director of Graduate
Studies, Dr Helke Hillebrand. The outcome
from this visit is that projects for the MSc in
Molecular Cell Biology with Bioinnovation
are available starting April 2014 from
group leaders in Heidelberg, Grenoble and
the European Bioinfomatics Institute (EBI)Hinxton.
Ciara Garvey
Stephen Geary
Catherine Green
Christopher Hickey
Natasha Leeuwendaal
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SCHOOL OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND CELL BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Events
This year’s Postgraduate
Annual Reviews will take
place on Monday 21st and
Tuesday 22nd October in
the BSI Seminar Room.
We are delighted that Dr Aideen
Long from TCD will be in
attendance again this year as
External Reviewer. This should be
another interesting 2 day event
which showcases the work of
our Postgraduate students and
we encourage all members of the
Department to attend.
LAPTI (alias Computational Biology
lab, otherwise known as Dr Pasha
Baranov’s lab) launched GWIPSviz browser. GWIPS-viz browser
provides access to visualization
of ribosome profiling (ribo-seq)
data. Ribosome profiling provides
snapshots of ribosome locations
at all mRNAs expressed in a given
biological system. GWIPS-viz is
freely accessible at http://gwips.
ucc.ie . The data are available for
several human cell lines, model
organisms (mouse,
fish, nematodes)
as well as yeast,
bacteria and
viruses.
Congratulations to Drs
John Williams and Zhenfei
Ning from Dr Tom
Moore’s lab who recently
graduated with their
PhDs.
People in the
News
This year we have 6 new PhD
students due to start on 1st
October. They are:
»» Sultan Alharbi
(Supervisor: Prof D Sheehan)
»» Siobhan Cleary
(Supervisor: Prof R O’Connor)
»» Stephen Heaphy
(Supervisor: Dr Pasha Baranov)
ISSUE 001 | OCTOBER 2013
Postgraduate Studies in the USA
Open Talk – All Welcome
(a must for students, undergraduate and
postgraduate who have an interest in studying
in the US)
Tuesday 1st October, 2013
Geography Lecture Theatre
5.00p.m.
Guest speakers from the International
Education Office and the Fulbright
Commission will outline the application
procedure, closing dates, Scholarships/
Funding available if you are considering
studying at postgraduate level in the US.
»» James Jenkins
(Supervisor: Prof D Papkovsky)
»» Romika Kumari
(Supervisor: Dr Pasha Baranov)
»» Alice Wyse Jackson
(Supervisor: Prof Tom Cotter)
Moving on:
»» Dr Francesca Doonan has left
Prof. Cotters Lab to take up a new
position in UCC.
»» Dr. Conor Horgan is moving
from Prof McCaffrey’s lab to take
up a position in Eli Lilly
»» Dr. Victoria Heimer-McGinn,
from Dr. Paul Young’s group
recently took up a post doctoral
position at Brown University,
Providence Rhode Island.
»» Dr Hu Wentao from Prof
Sheehan’s lab has taken up a
postdoctoral position at the
University of Hong Kong
We thank them for their
contribution to Biochemistry and
wish them all success in their
future careers!
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SCHOOL OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND CELL BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER
ISSUE 001 | OCTOBER 2013
Recent Publications
Foley KS, Young PW. “An analysis of splicing, actin-binding properties,
heterodimerisation and molecular interactions of the non-muscle
α-actinins.” Biochem J. (2013) 452, 477 - 488.
Heimer-McGinn V, Murphy A, Kim JC, Dymecki SM, Young P. Decreased
dendritic spine density as a consequence of tetanus toxin light chain
expression in single neurons in vivo, Neuroscience Letters (in press).
Corcoran A, Cotter TG. “Redox regulation of protein kinases.” FEBS J.
(2013) 280, 1944-1965.
Liang KL, Rishi L, Keeshan K. “Tribbles in acute leukemia.” Blood (2013)
121, 4265 - 4270.
Shanley DK, Kiely PA, Golla K, Allen S, Martin K, O’Riordan RT, Ball M,
Aplin JD, Singer BB, Caplice N, Moran N, Moore T. “Pregnancy-specific
glycoproteins bind integrin αIIbβ3 and inhibit the platelet-fibrinogen
interaction.” PLoS One (2013) 8(2):e57491. doi: 10.1371/journal.
pone.0057491.
Woolley JF, Corcoran A, Groeger G, Landry WD, Cotter TG. “Redox-regulated
growth factor survival signalling.”Antioxid Redox Signal. (2013) Jan 15.
[Epub ahead of print]
Colleran A, Collins PE, O’Carroll C, Ahmed A, Mao X, McManus B, Kiely PA,
Burstein E, Carmody RJ. “Deubiquitination of NF-κB by ubiquitin-specific
protease-7 promotes transcription.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. (2013). Jan
8;110(2):618-23.
Corcoran A and Cotter TG. ‘FLT3-driven redox-modulation of Ezrin
regulated leukemic cell migration.’ Free Radical Research (2013) 47, 20 34.
Cole C, Coelho AV, Sheehan D. (2013) Proteomic responses to metal-induced
oxidative stress in hydrothermal vent-living mussels, Bathymodiolus brevior,
on the Southwest Indian vent. Marine Environmental Research, IN PRESS.
Sheehan D. (2013) Next-generation genome sequencing makes non-model
organisms increasingly accessible for proteomic studies. J. Proteomics
Bioinform. 6, e-21. do1: 10.4172/jpb.10000e21.
Allocati N, Masulli M, Del Boccio P, Pieragostino D, D’Antonio D, Sheehan,D,
Di Ilio C. (2013) Identification of an elongation factor 1Bg protein with
glutathione transferase activity in both yeast and mycelial morphologies
from human pathogenic Blastoschizomyces capitatus. Folia Microbiologica
IN PRESS.
Schmidt W, Rainville L-C, McEneff G, Sheehan D, Quinn B. (2013) A
proteomic evaluation of the effects of the pharmaceuticals diclofenac
and gemfibrozil on marine mussels (Mytilus spp.). Evidence for chronic
sublethal effects on stress-response proteins. Drug Testing and Analysis. IN
PRESS.
Pedriali A, Riva C, Parolini M, Cristoni S, Sheehan D, Binelli A. (2013)
A redox proteomic investigation of oxidative stress caused by
benzoylecgonine in the freshwater bivalve Dreissena polymorpha. Drug
Testing and Analysis 5, 646-645.
Lindsay AJ, Jollivet F, Horgan CP, Khan AR, Raposo G, McCaffrey MW, Goud
B. “Identification and characterisation of Multiple novel Rab-myosin Va
interactions. Mol. Cell Biology (2013) (in press) Sept. 4. [Epub ahead of
print]
Enjoy this issue of the Newsletter of the
School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Please send any comments or news to the
Editor:
Prof David Sheehan, School of Biochemistry
and Cell Biology, Western Gateway Building;
[email protected]
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