03-May-2013. Prof. Brian harvey attended the commencement ceremony at MSU to receive his award.




Read the Honorary Degree citation here

A recently published review article by Dr Susan M Daly and Prof. Martin J Leahy has been one of the most read papers in the Journal of Biophophotonics this month. The review focuses on current imaging techniques, state of the art advancements and applications, and general perspectives on the prospects for these modalities in the clinical setting.

'Go with the flow': A review of methods and advancements in blood flow imaging.
Susan M Daly and Martin J. Leahy
J Biophotonics. 2013 Mar;6(3):217-55.
Read the article here

NBIP researcher Prof. Patrice Mollard (CNRS, Montpellier, France) and his team have published a study in PNAS which has been highlighted by F1000Prime faculty members 'In this fascinating study, Mollard and collaborators combine different techniques to provide functional and morphological evidence of a passive diffusion route through fenestrated blood vessels for the appetite-regulating hormone ghrelin to reach its target neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus'.

Prof Mollard has previously developed a new in vivo imaging technique to combine multiphoton microscopy with a long-working distance objective. By combining complex microsurgical approaches in transgenic mice with analytical imaging tools the group can visualise real time sub cellular interaction and obtain detailed information on the microvasculature and extravasation of fluorescent molecules within the brain.

Read the full article here. Details of the paper are below.

Rapid sensing of circulating ghrelin by hypothalamic appetite-modifying neurons.
Schaeffer M, Langlet F, Lafont C, Molino F, Hodson DJ, Roux T, Lamarque L, Verdié P, Bourrier E, Dehouck B, Banères JL, Martinez J, Méry PF, Marie J, Trinquet E, Fehrentz JA, Prévot V, Mollard P.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5203, Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, F-34000 Montpellier, France.

PNAS: 2013 Jan 22;110(4):1512-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1212137110. Epub 2013 Jan 7.

Date: 08 Jan 2013

Funding Awards!!

There have been a number of excellent NBIP projects funded over the past number of months. See more details below. Congratulations to all involved.
 
SFI PI: Advancing Vibrational technology for Cellular and Sub Cellular Analysis
€1.2m was awarded to this project (PI Prof Hugh Byrne) which focuses on novel screening techniques in healthcare and novel medical devices based on analysis of complex changes to biological cells following toxic or chemotherapeutic agents.

FP7 health Angiopredict: €5.9m was awarded to this 4 year programme which brings together researchers from RCSI (Dr. Annette Byrne), UCD (Dr Darran O'Connor), Vrei medical Centre Amsterdam, Univ of Heidleberg, Vesalias Research Centre, Leuven, Irish Co-operative Oncology Research Group, Oncomark Ltd, Pintail Ltd, Epigenomics, Somantix BV. The project focuses on identification of predictive genomic biomarker methods for combination Avastin treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer.

EMIDS (European Molecular Imaging Doctoral School): In a programme worth €30m over 4 years, 7 European Higher Education Institutes (including RCSI) will provide training in the area of molecular imaging at the PhD level. This is the first programme of it's kind in the world and will have a huge impact on the development of future drugs and diagnostic imaging agents. This field of research is rapidly growing and industry and acadmia require the expertise of PhD level molecular imaging professionals.

SFI Research Infrstructure Awards: Lazr Label-free in vivo Microvascular Tomography
This award to Prof. Martin Leahy provided funding to purchase an in vivo Microvascular Tomography System- the only one of it's kind in Ireland. The proposal was supported by industry partners Covidien and Compact Imaging Inc. This new system will allow researchers based in NUI Galway to view blood drugs and oxygen availability in the blood. This will have applications in tumour response to treatment and in diabetes treatments. 

EU INTERREG 4A Ireland/Wales programme: Four world class institutions from Ireland and Wales including NBIP researchers from UCD and TCD have launched an exciting new alliance to develop new and faster ways of screening for disease using nanotechnologies.

SFI/TIDA: Metabolically Stable analogues of Ursodeoxycholic Acid for treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
This grant was awarded to allow Dr Stephen Keely to expand his groups work on  the colonic bile acid ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) which may be beneficial in the treatment of IBD.

SFI Short Term Travel Fellowships: These were awarded to a number of postgraduate researchers.

University of Western Cape, South Africa: PhD Studentship Award
Kerileng Molapo was awarded funding for a 3 year PhD studentship by Univ of Western Cape, SA to conduct research at DCU. Kerilengs research will focus on the development of electrochemiluminescent biosensors of DNA, RNA associated with cancer and infectious disease.

Date: March 25th 2013

The European Molecular Imaging School, or EMIDS, is a new EU initiative to build an integrated initiative to build an integrated European doctoral programme leading to a PhD in molecular imaging. To introduce EMIDS to the new generation of Molecular Imaging researchers Kick-off Meetings are scheduled in the 5 participating countries. Additional 10 Kick-off Meetings in different EU countries will be announced in 2013.

Ireland's Kick Off meeting will take place at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on March 25th. For more details, check out the website at: www.emids.eu 

Date: 10-14th Sept 2012

The European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI) will run an international workshop from September 10th - 14th 2012 at Trinity College Dublin.

The focus of the workshop is in advanced probes for Optical Imaging, cutting edge methological applications and sequences in MRI, quantitative image analysis and kinetic modelling, radiochemistry and applied science such as cardiology, neurology, immunology and infectious diseases.

Beside the theory teaching sessions and group work will give you the opportunity to go into the depths of imaging analysis - guided by high-level experts and excellent teachers.

For registration, programme and people involved visit: www.prima-curriculum.eu