BRS Committee 2020/21

The committee are charged with the organisation of all BRS events for the following year. The committee is made up of postgraduate students from within the School of Biotechnology and its related institutes. The committee are essential in sustaining the BRS and delivering on the excellence achieved by previous years. Massive thanks are extended to those no longer on the committee; Eoin Corcoran and Ciara Buchanan.

Molly Williams

Chair

Molly is a 4th year PhD student in the Molecular Genetics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Anne Parle-McDermott. Her work aims to develop a novel biosensor for the detection of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) DNA from environmental samples.

Niamh Bookey

Vice-Chair

Niamh is a 4th year PhD student in the Molecular Genetics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Anne Parle-McDermott. Her work aims to uncover the function of human Dihydrofolate reductase 2 (DHFR2), a gene thought to be associated with folate metabolism

Paola Drago

Treasurer

Paola is a 4th year PhD student in the Molecular Genetics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Anne Parle-McDermott. Her work aims to decipher the function of human Dihydrofolate Reductase 2 (DHFR2) using CRISPR-Cas cell culture methods.

Peter Berry

Careers Coordinator

Peter is a final year student under the supervision of Prof. Niall Barron in the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology. His research is focused on developing a scalable primary recovery process for use in the biologics manufacturing industry at scales from 15mL to 20,000L.

Ciara Larkin

GreenLab Coordinator

Ciara is a 4th year PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Jianghui Meng. Her research investigates the molecular mechanisms of intracellular communication in pruritic dermatological disorders.

Ciara Furlong

Ordinary Member

Ciara is a second year Masters student in the Polymicrobial Infections group under the supervision of Dr. Linda Holland. She is looking at the interactions between a bacterial and a fungal pathogen with a focus on biofilm formation.

Taylor-Jade Coyle

Ordinary Member

Taylor is a second year PhD student in the National Institute of Cellular Biotechnology under the supervision of Dr. Finbarr O’Sullivan. Her work aims to generate various cellular models of disease states such as pancreatic cancer and FECD and to examine how the extracellular environment contributes to the disease state.

Darren Walsh

Ordinary Member

Darren is a fourth year PhD student in the Molecular Genetics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Anne Parle-McDermott and NHGRI under the supervision of Dr. Lawrence Brody. His work involves investigating the relationship between nutrition and mitochondrial DNA mutations.