Issue 23, Summer 2014

SBBS News Newsletter of UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science

www.ucd.ie/sbbs

Teaching award for SBBS lecturer

Postgraduate students ENGAGE with their audience

The grand final of UCD’s ENGAGE competition took place on Tuesday April 15th 2014. This event captured the spirit of the classic Merville lay semi-nars which aimed to ‘translate science’

to a lay audience.

Mirroring the semi-finals the shortlisted PhD finalists were rife with anticipation. The families and friends of the finalists joined a host of UCD academic staff which included UCD President, Prof. An-drew Deeks, Dean of Science and Col-lege Principal, Prof. Joe Carthy, Dean of Graduate Studies, Prof. Julie Berndsden and SBBS Head of School, Dr. Keith Mur-phy.

In preparation of the event in question Dr. Murphy appeared on RTE’s Morning Edi-tion with two SBBS finalists Kate Connor and Helena Frian. Morning Edition pre-senter Keelin Shanley was visibly in-trigued by the initiative behind this compe-tition. After hearing a lay perspective

Continued on page 2

Dr Orina Belton, Senior Lecturer in SBBS, received the teaching award for the Teacher of the Year for the Biomedical, Health and Life Sciences

(BHLS) programme.

The BHLS programme focuses on the medical and biological sciences and the impact of research and technology on Human Health, is delivered by the School of Medicine and Medical Science with significant input from the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science. The award was presented to Dr Belton on Thursday 5th June by UCD President Professor Andrew Deeks at the SMMS gala dinner. It is second teaching award to be received by Dr. Belton, who was also named as Teacher of the Year in preclinical medicine in 2011.

Dr. Orina Belton is presented with Teacher of the Year award in the BHLS pro-

gramme by UCD president, Professor Andrew Deeks.

Finalists at the Engage event. From left: Dr Keith Murphy (SBBS Head of

School), Kate Connor (SBBS), Helena Frain (SBBS), Markus Schroder (SBBS)

Jennifer Cassidy (SCCB), Nurriza Ab Latif (SBBS), Crystal O’Connor (SCCB),

Prof Andrew Deeks (President, UCD). (Photograph courtesy of Craig Slattery

Photography)

2 www.ucd.ie/sbbs

continued from page 1

summary of Kate’s project which involved triggering the CART reactors in a cell in order to find a method to turn them offpre-venting the spreading of breast cancer, Shanley was impressed, noting in aston-ishment, ‘your research could probably

lead to a cure in breast cancer’.

Those present at the grand final were impressed by the finalists’ ability to pre-sent their scientific research through a lay medium. Nurriza Ab Latif, Kate Connor, Helena Frain and Markus Schroder were the finalists representing SBBS. The

School of Chemistry and Chemical Biolo-gy (SCCB) was represented by two stu-dents, Crystal O’Connor and Jennifer Cassidy.

The competition was judged by MC of the night, RTE Science and Technology cor-respondent, Will Goodbody, Science Squad and Consumer Show TV present-er, Kathriona Devereux and Ireland’s Women’s Rugby captain and sports per-son of the year, Fiona Coghlan. After lengthy deliberations, SCCB student Crystal O’Connor was crowned the winner for her enthused presentation on the fu-ture role played by Hydrogen in cars. SBBS student Markus Schroder won sec-ond place for his presentation entitled ‘Genes and their stories’. The prize giving ceremony closed on a high note, the judg-es concluded that they could not wait to see what the future held for those finalists who would no doubt contribute hand-somely to science research judging from the evening’s showcases.

Tasneem Filaih

Pictured above: At the Grand Final of the ENGAGE Seminars (l-r) Mr Will Good-

body (RTE), Kate Connor (SBBS), Jennifer Cassidy (SCCB), Nurriza Ab Latif

(SBBS), Markus Schroder (SBBS – Runner-up), Crystal O’Connor (SCCB – Win-

ner), Helena Frain (SBBS), Kathriona Devereux (RTE), Dr Keith Murphy (SBBS)

and Fiona Coghlan (Ireland Women’s Rugby).(Photograph courtesy of Craig Slat-

tery Photography)

Professor Therese Kinsella’s group have recently published a paper showing that the human thromboxane receptor is upregulated in both pros-tate and breast cancer, with correla-tion between tumour grade and ex-

pression levels.

Thromboxane is a member of the family of lipids known as eicosanoids. The two major thromboxanes are thromboxane A2 and thromboxane B2. Thromboxane is named for its role in clot formation (thrombosis); thromboxane A2 (TXA2) produced by activated platelets stimu-lates activation of new platelets as well as increasing platelet aggregation. Thromboxane also plays a role in vaso-constriction, a consequence of its action on the smooth muscle surrounding the blood vessels.

In addition to its actions within the vascu-lar system, TXA2 has increasingly been implicated in neoplastic disease, includ-ing prostate and breast cancers. TXA2 exerts its effects through binding to the thromboxane receptor.

In their study the Kinsella group showed

that the human thromboxane receptor is up-regulated in both prostate and breast cancer, with correlation between tumour grade and expression levels. They es-tablished that the tumour suppressors Wilms' Tumour (WT)1 and Hypermethyl-ated in Cancer (HIC)1, both strongly im-plicated in prostate and breast cancer, are key transcriptional regulators of thromboxane receptor gene (TBXA2R) expression. The data provides a mecha-nistic explanation, at least in part, for the prophylactic effects of Aspirin (which lowers thromboxane levels) in reducing the incidence of many common/prevalent cancers including prostate and breast cancers.

Reference: Transcriptional regulation of the human thromboxane A2 receptor gene by Wilms' tumor (WT)1 and hyper-methylated in cancer (HIC) 1 in prostate and breast cancers. Garret L. Keating, Helen M. Reid, Sarah B. Eivers, Eamon P. Mulvaney, B. Therese Kinsella (2014). Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (GRM) 1839: 476

Expression of the TPa isoform of the human

thromboxane receptor is increased in Prostate

& Breast cancer: Immunohistochemical (IHC)

analysis of paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed

prostate (benign prostate hyperplasia, BPH

and increasing tumor grade) and breast

(benign and increasing tumor grade) tissues

screened with an affinity purified anti-TPα

antibody (200× magnification; counterstained

with hematoxylin, blue).

Advances in breast and prostrate cancer research help explain the beneficial effects of Aspirin

3

www.ucd.ie/sbbs

SBBS joins in College of Science 50 year celebrations

On Saturday 7th June, Professor Joe Carthy, College Principal and Dean of Science invited alumni, friends of UCD Science, former and current staff, and their families to celebrate 50 years of

Science at Belfield.

The event showed-cased the O’Brien Centre for Science to former staff and alumni and was an opportunity for at-tendees to get an overview of the present areas of expertise across UCD Science. Families and experts were offered sci-ence themed activities and displays de-signed to entertain visitors of all ages. Visitors were invited to view the facilities of the Science Centre and were encour-aged to experience the campus wood-land walks and sculpture trail.

SBBS Professors Paul Malthouse and Ciarán Regan along with retired profes-sors of biochemistry, Prof. Bat Masterson and pharmacology, Prof. Michael Ryan, were among 10 participants of the ‘Fireside Talk’, sharing their reminis-cences of the original departments of Biochemistry and Pharmacology with the audience.

Postgraduate students, Audrey Wall, Paul Lavin and Temmy Sasore enter-tained children and parents alike with some sensory neuroscience activities to test their vision and taste and also a demonstration of extracting DNA from bananas.

Dr. John Crean has been awarded a grant of €73,422 from Fighting Blind-ness for a project entitled “Prognostic significance and poten-tial therapeutic exploitation of the miR 302 / TGFß type II receptor in manipulating cell fate decision in dia-

betic retinopathy.”

Diabetic retinopathy is the most com-mon problem resulting from complica-tions of diabetes and can cause pro-gressive vision loss leading to blindness. All people with diabetes are at risk; it is estimated that in 2002 diabetic retinopa-thy accounted for about 5% of world blindness, representing almost 5 million individuals. High levels of sugars are thought to cause changes to the small blood vessels of the retina and the cells of the retinal pigment epithelium form fibrotic lesions. This process of fibropro-liferation is the focus of therapeutic inter-vention to limit and repair damage. Dr. Crean commented:

“We have found a cocktail of pathologi-cal factors within the eye that regulate this progressive fibrosis. These factors exert a biological effect which is similar to developmental patterns of stem cell differentiation. We have identified micro RNA “master switches” which can turn on or turn off these patterns, thereby regulating cell fate. In other words, resi-dent populations of cells within the eye possess stem-cell like properties which can be manipulated for repair. As the incidence of diabetes increases more individuals will suffer from eye complica-tions leading to permanent eye damage. This project will help us design tools that can detect, treat and prevent vision loss in people with diabetes.”

Second level students get a taste of Science

One hundred fifth year secondary school students from over 70 schools across Ireland took part in the UCD Science Summer School programme

on the 4th June 2014.

Over the course of the day each student completed two practical sessions in state-of-the-art laboratories in the recent-ly opened UCD O'Brien Centre for Sci-ence. The students also attended two mini lectures in Geological Sciences and Mathematical Sciences.

Coordinated by Dr Heather Wood, the SBBS practical sessions involved identi-fying microorganisms which cause dis-ease, an introduction to apoptosis, gel electrophoresis of DNA, measuring glu-cose and protein levels in the blood and an exploration of the sensory nervous system.

Fighting

vision loss in diabetes

Right: Dr Tadhg Ó Cróinín from the UCD

School of Biomedical and Biomolecular Sci-

ence explaining how to identify bacteria that

cause disease.

Participants at the fireside chat at UCD Sci-

ence 50.

PhD Student Temmy Sasore demonstrates a

thermal illusion at UCD Science 50.

4 www.ucd.ie/sbbs

Art of the Start and professional career development

On Tuesday 29th April, the students pursuing the MSc in Biotechnology and the MSc in Biotechnology & Business from the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science (SBBS) taught Masters Programmes assembled to deliver their final elevator pitches as part of their Professional Career Devel-

opment module.

This module has very successfully inte-grated with “The Art of The Start” entre-p reneur series organised by Systems Biol-ogy Ireland (SBI) under the direction of Dave Kavanagh, Entrepreneur in Resi-dence with SBI. This collaboration is the first of its kind in the University and in Ire-land, and represents a powerful way to introduce the professional biotechnolo-gists of the future to the world of business and entrepreneurship through the experi-ences of the course’s dynamic guest speakers from a range of Irish and inter-national start-up companies.

The Director of SBI, Professor Walter Kolch and the Head of SBBS, Dr Keith Murphy presided over a very experienced judging panel that included Helen McBreen, Venture Leader at the NDRC; Darren Cunningham, Founder and CEO Inflection Biosciences; Jeremy Skillington, Founder and CEO TriMod Therapeutics; Professor Jan Rosier, Elan Professor of the Business of Biotechnology, UCD; and Dr Claudine Kearney, UCD School of Business. The 60 students had formed seven teams at the beginning of their course last September and this evening was their final 5 minute pitch to secure investment for a business proposal based on early stage research projects with com-mercialisation potential from the laborato-ries of SBI. The teams had developed their pitches based on the Lean Canvas Model and were mentored by Dave Ka-vanagh and star researchers from SBI, including Dr David Gomez and Dr Jens Rauch. The judges were tasked with a difficult decision as all teams delivered very high quality pitches, with a phenome-nal effort made by all teams to keep within the 5 minute pitch limit despite the chal-lenging and complex research based pro-posals. In the end, the novelty of the pro-posal put forward by the Hydroscientific team, presented by Jonathan O’Keefe Aherne, won the day and the prize of a final team assignment of lunch in Kielys of Donnybrook.

The enthusiasm and support of the aca-demic contributors and entrepreneurs alike helped create a unique occasion and was really well supported by the commu-

nity of researchers and staff from SBI. The students have learned first-hand the na-ture of disruption, a concept that was widely illustrated over the course of the year from the contributors and may have been best explained by the Irish Nobel Laureate George Bernard Shaw, re-nowned playwright and founder of the London School of Economics: “I hear you say 'Why?' Always 'Why?' You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?”

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www.ucd.ie/sbbs

Positive results for BREAST-

PREDICT

BREAST-PREDICT Director and SBBS Principal Investigator, Professor Wil-liam Gallagher’s group have recently published two papers in leading spe-

cialist journals.

The first of these studies, to be pub-lished in Breast Cancer Research focus-ses on the problem of endocrine re-sistance in Estrogen Receptor (ER) pos-itive breast cancer. This type of breast cancer, which comprises ~70% of all breast cancers, has an excellent prog-nosis, and is one of the most treatable cancers, with targeted therapies such as tamoxifen. However, some patients de-velop resistance to these therapies over time, leading to recurrence of the prima-ry tumour, and in some cases, metasta-sis and eventual death.

The study from Professor Gallagher’s group concerns a protein called PRDX1. This research found that patients with ER-positive tumours which had high levels of PRDX1 have a better outcome than those with low PRDX1 levels. This may have implications for breast cancer care in the future, as it could be used as a biomarker to guide decisions regard-ing therapy, whereby patients with low PRDX1 levels would receive a more aggressive treatment regime.

In the second study, Prof. Gallagher’s group has investigated the role of a gene called AKT-3 in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). TNBC is negative for the Estrogen Receptor, the Progesterone Receptor and Her2, leaving these tu-mours unresponsive to some of the most-commonly used breast cancer therapies such as Tamoxifen and Herceptin. To-gether with an intrinsic aggressiveness, the lack of treatment options means that this type of breast cancer has a poor outcome, and is responsible for a dispro-portionate number of breast cancer deaths.

This study, published in the international journal Histopathology, found that ap-proximately 10% of TNBCs have high levels of AKT-3, and these tumours were more likely to recur after initial treatment. This finding paves the way for future studies investigating the benefit of thera-

pies targeting AKT-3 for this difficult-to-treat type of breast cancer.

Professor William Gallagher is the direc-tor of The Irish Cancer Society Collabo-rative Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) BREAST-PREDICT, which brings to-gether 6 academic institutions across Ireland. The BREAST-PREDICT team consists of more than 50 talented re-searchers working towards improving the lives of breast cancer patients in Ireland. Their goal is to predict which therapies are the optimum for each pa-tient, thus giving all breast cancer pa-tients the best chance of recovery. Within SBBS two research groups are involved in BREAST-PREDICT. One is spear-headed by Prof William Gallagher and the second by SBBS Principal In-vestigator, Dr. Darran O’Connor.

Ref: O’Hurley, G et al., (2014). Histo-pathology 64(5):660 -670.

Thanks to Dr Fiona Lanigan (BREAST-PREDICT Centre co-ordinator).

SBBS Postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Laoighse Mulrane, won the best post-er presentation at the annual meeting of the Irish Association of Cancer Research, which took place in Febru-

ary in Salthill, Galway.

Dr. Mulrane is a member of the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics group headed by Dr. Darran O'Connor and Professor William Gallagher, and she won the award for her overview of An Integrated Approach to Study Micro-RNA Involve-ment in Anti-Endocrine Resistance in Breast Cancer.

Resistance to endocrine-directed thera-py is a significant problem in the man-agement of breast cancer. Many estro-gen receptor (ER)-positive patients ex-perience relapse after treatment. Re-cently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated not only in the initiation and progression of cancer, but also in the development of resistance to therapy.

Dr. Mulrane’s research involved profiling the global expression of 667 miRNAs from a particular cancer cell line in the laboratory and selecting for further inves-tigation particular miRNAs that showed increased expression in anti-endocrine resistant cells.

More information on the prognostic, di-agnostic or predictive potential of mi-croRNAs in breast cancer can be found in a recently published review by the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics group: “microRNAs: a new class of breast can-cer biomarkers”. Mulrane L, Klinger R, McGee S, Gallagher WM and O’Connor D (2014). Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics 14(3): 347 - 363.

Recognition for

SBBS postdoctoral

researcher

Examples of AKT-3 FISH analysis and cor-

responding Akt-3 immunohistochemistry

(IHC) in triple negative (TN) breast cancer

and ER-positive breast cancer cases.

Dr Laoighse Mulrane, member of the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics group.

6 www.ucd.ie/sbbs

EU support for bio-based industries

Professor Kevin O’Connor has been appointed to the scientific committee of the Bio-based industries joint initia-tive (May 2014). The BBIJI is a flag-ship Public private partnership be-tween the EC and the Bio-based in-

dustries consortium (BIC)

The European Commission has set up a new Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) to support bio-based industries under the EU’s new research programme, Horizon 2020. It will focus on three main streams of activities: Feedstock, by fostering sus-tainable biomass supply with in-creased productivity and new supply chains; Biorefineries, by optimising effi-cient processing through R&D

and demonstrating their efficiency and economic viability at large-scale demonstration biorefineries; and Markets, products and policies, by developing markets for bio-based products and improving policy frameworks. The new Bio-Based Indus-tries (BBI) JTI is expected to start in June 2014 and to end in 2020 with a proposed budget of €22 billion. The sci-entific committee will advise the execu-tive of the BBIJI on the scientific priorities to be addressed in the annual work plans and advise on the scientific achieve-ments described in the annual activity report.

Below: The bio-based economy concept

All living organisms require enzymes that are biological catalysts. En-zymes speed up biological reactions so life is possible. Under biological conditions, it would take about 7,000 years for just half of the peptide bonds in a protein to be digested. Fortunately, proteolytic enzymes such as chymotrypsin allow us to digest

proteins in hours rather than years.

A recent publication by SBBS postgradu-ate student Jennifer Cleary working in Professor Paul Malthouse’s group and in collaboration with researchers in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Biolo-gy examines how chymotrypsin can speed up reactions by a factor of one thousand million. The team found that one of the mechanisms chymotrypsin uses is to increase the reactivity of its active site hydroxyl group by ~100,000 fold.

Reference: Cleary JA, Doherty W, Ev-ans P, and Malthouse JP (2014). Hemi-acetal stabilisation in a chymostrypsin inhibitor complex and the reactivity of the hydroxyl group of the catalytic serine residues of chymotrypsin. Biochim Bio-phys Acta. :1844(6) : 1119 - 27.

Elan Professor of the Business of Bio-technology, Professor Jan Rosier, has co-authored a book with colleagues from the University of Leuven. The book is due to be launched during the

summer.

The development of new drugs is very complex, costly and risky. Its success is highly dependent on an intense collabo-ration and interaction between many departments within the drug develop-ment organization, external investigators and service providers, in constant dia-logue with regulatory authorities, payers, academic experts, clinicians and patient organizations. Within the different phas-es of the drug life cycle, drug develop-ment is by far the most crucial part for the initial and continued success of a drug on the market.

This book offers an introduction to the

field of drug development with a clear overview of the different processes that lead to a successful new medicine and of the regulatory pathways that are used to launch a new drug that are both safe and efficacious.

“This is the most comprehensive and detailed book on drug development I have ever read and I feel that it is likely to become a staple of drug development courses, such as those taught at Masters Level in my own University…. I think in the light of increasing integration of com-pany and academic approaches to drug development both sides can read this book.. (and, therefore)… this book could not be more timely. “

Professor Mike Coleman, University of Aston, UK ( from his review of the final

manuscript)

Developing the world of drugs

Investigating the mechanisms of

catalysis

“This is the most comprehen-sive and detailed book on drug development I have ever read and I feel that it is likely to become a staple of drug development courses, such as those taught at Masters Level in my own University…. I think in the light of increas-ing integration of company and academic approaches to drug development both sides can read this book.. (and, therefore)… this book could

7

www.ucd.ie/sbbs

Pint of Science, is a festival that aims to make science accessible and fun by bringing cur-rent scientific research to the wel-

coming atmosphere of the pub.

Pint of Science was first established in 2012 as a non-profit organisation, run voluntarily by groups of enthusiastic postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers in various countries around the world. This year’s festival took place in 6 countries , 21 cities over the 3 nights from 19th to 21st May.

In Dublin the festival took place across four city centre pubs; The Stag's Head, Odessa, 4 Dame Lane & Mercantile.

Scientists and the public enjoy a Pint of Science

Some of the stats:

- It was Ireland's largest scientific event in 2014

-had a website that got over 10,000 visitors and 30,000 plus page views in two months

- we appeared on TV, 3 radio stations and in national papers

-We registered over 1300 tickets to a scientific event in two weeks

-We had over 200 questions from the general public

-We had people that walked away knowing a little bit more than they did the day before

SBBS had a strong presence in the organisation of this year’s Pint of Sci-ence, Ireland festival.

The organisers of this year’s festival included SBBS postdoctoral scientist, Darragh O'Donovan, PhD students Lenka Schorova, Dani Corbett, Satnam Surae and Paul Lavin and Master’s student, Tim Delaney.

The Director and chief organiser was Dr. Sean MacFhearraigh who did his PhD in SBBS while secretary of the festival, Susan Kennelly, completed her degree in Biochemistry in SBBS. The speakers from SBBS included Dr. Keith Murphy, Dr. Breandán Kennedy and Dr. Niamh O'Sullivan, all of whom spoke under the theme of ‘The Beautiful Mind’.

“The festival was great fun

and we also succeeded in get-

ting people talking about

science.” 6 countries, 21 cities,

3 nights, 4 themes

1 ground breaking festival

8

Staff and Student News

Professor Kevin O’Connor has been awarded an Enterprise Ireland innovation partnership grant. Professor O’Connor will lead the 18 month project concerned with converting a food production co-product to a high value biochemical. Researchers in TCD are partners on the grant.

Congratulations to Qinxi Ma, a current MSc student in Biotechnology, who has been awarded a Chinese Scholarship Scheme (CSC) studentship to study for a

PhD with the Butler group.

Paulina Szklanna, a member of Patricia Maguire’s group, has been awarded an IRC PhD scholarship for a project entitled “The activated platelet releasate in early-onset preeclampsia” beginning September 2014.

Congratulations to Dr Cormac Murphy and Dr John Crean who have both been promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer. Also to Professor Kevin O’Connor who has been promoted to associate professorship and to Professor William Gallagher who has been promoted to full professor.

A number of undergraduate students have been awarded summer studentships within the school. Matthew Dorman, a visiting student, along with SBBS undergraduate student Rebecca Gorry join Prof Geraldine Butler’s group for the summer. Both are supported by the Wellcome Trust. Also supported by the Wellcome Trust are neuroscience students Sarah Daly and Dwayne Byrne who join the groups of Dr John O’Connor and Dr Niamh O’Sullivan respectively. Conor Delaney (TCD) will work with Dr Breandán Kennedy’s group . Conor also received Wellcome Trust funding. Microbiology students, Caoimhe O’Brien and Suzanne Putney (DIT) are supported by the Society for General Microbiology and will work with Dr Tadhg Ó Croínín and Dr Jennifer Mitchell. Luke Kearney also joins Dr Mitchell’s group while Harry Austin, a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology student, will work with Dr Margaret Worrall.

The School welcomes Dr Bernadette McEvoy who joins the technical team in July as a temporary Technical Officer to assist Lisa and Tony in the running of pharmacology and neuroscience practicals.

Upcoming Events

The annual conferring of BSc General

and BSc Honours degrees is scheduled for Friday 5th September 2014.

The 2014 Conway Festival will take place on September 10th and 11th. Research abstracts from Conway researchers are invited with a deadline of Friday 18th July.

R & D Systems is offering ten travel grants of $1,000 each to attend the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC, November 15-19, 2014. Fill out the application form for an opportunity to receive one. The application submission deadline is July 31

st, 2014.

The closing date for the Images of Research’ competition has been extended to 12th July 2014. See the link at https://intranet.ucd.ie/research/images/index.html

The Young Neuroscientists Symposium (YNS) takes place on Saturday, 20th

September 2014, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin. Abstracts can be submitted until 5 pm on Friday 11th July .The YNS is a forum for all young neuroscientists to present and discuss their research. The event is aimed at promoting the research of early career scientists, from postgraduate to postdoctorate in any field devoted to neuroscience research.

Recent SBBS

Publications

Guzik MW, Narancic T, Ilic-Tomic T, Vojnovic S, Kenny ST, Casey WT, Duane, GF, Casey E, Woods T, Babu RP, Nikodinovic-Runic J, O’Connor KE. (2014). Functional analysis of four putative Pseudomonas putida KT2440 acyl-CoA dehydrogenases: PP_2437 shows preference towards medium to long chain fatty acids. Microbiology (May) Epub ahead of print.

Keating GL, Reid HM, Eivers SB, Mulvaney EP, Kinsella BT (2014). Transcriptional regulation of the human thromboxane A2 receptor gene by Wilms' tumor (WT)1 and hypermethylated in cancer (HIC) 1 in prostate and breast cancers. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (GRM) 1839: 476 - 492 .

Cleary JA, Doherty W, Evans P, and Malthouse JP (2014). Hemiacetal stabilisation in a chymostrypsin inhibitor complex and the reactivity of the hydroxyl group of the catalytic serine residues of chymotrypsin. Biochim Biophys Acta.: 1844(6) : 1119 - 27.

Sheridan GK., Moeendarbary E, Pickering M, O’Connor JJ, Murphy KJ (2014) Theta-burst stimulation of hippocampal slices induces network-level calcium oscillations and activates analogous gene transcription to spatial learning . PLoS ONE : In press

Regan CM (2014). Role of the environment, epigenetics and synapses in cognitive enhancement . In “Cognitive Enhancement “ Shira Knafo and Cesar Venero (Eds) . Elsevier

Rosier J, Martens, M and Thomas, J (2014) 'Global New Drug Development An Introduction’. Wiley-Blackwell. In press.

O’Hurley G, Daly E, O’Grady A, Cummins R, Quinn C, Flanagan L, Pierce A, Fan Y, Lynn MA, Rafferty M, Fitzgerald D, Pontén F, Duffy MJ, Jirström K, Kay EW, Gallagher WM (2014). Histopathology 64(5):660 -670.

O'Hurley G, Sjöstedt E, Rahman A, Li B, Kampf C, Pontén F, Gallagher WM, Lindskog C (2014) Garbage in, garbage out: A critical evaluation of strategies used for validation of immunohistochemical biomarkers. Mol Oncol 8(4):783 - 798.

Whittingham, JL; Blagova, EV; Finn, CE; Luo, H; Miranda-Caso Luengo, R; Turkenburg, JP; Leech, AP; Walton, PH; Murzin, AG; Meijer, WG; Wilkinson, AJ (2014) 'Structure of the virulence-associated protein VapD from the intracellular pathogen Rhodococcus equi'. Acta Crystallographica Section D-Biological Crystallography. In press.

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This newsletter is put together with

the help of staff and students in

SBBS. Research news, general

school news and other items of in-

terest for inclusion in this newsletter

or on the SBBS website can be sent

to heather.wood@ucd.ie