Thursday, April 30, 2009

Students recover after intense practicals module at NCBES!


Completing 4 8-hour practicals over the period of 5 - 8 days would make anyone tired! That's how the MSc students enrolled on our distance learning programme in Biomedical Science are feeling this week. It was intense, but by all accounts, educational and quite exciting at times. Heavily supported by technical staff (huge thanks to Enda O' Connell, Dave Connolly, Eadaoin Timmins, Brendan Harhen for all their efforts) and postgraduate demonstrators, 9 different kinds practical sessions were organised, with each student completing 4 each. Areas covered were tissue culture, mass spectrometry, anatomy, polymer characterisation, scanning electron microscopy, microbiology and cloning, real-time PCR, Lasers and applied therapeutics. Some practicals had to be run 3 times in order to allow the maximum number to do them and to accomodate student interests. Have a look at the image here to see the beautiful results obtained by Micheal Kelly! Micheal is an engineer working in Creganna here in Galway, but he took some time out to learn how to culture neuroblastoma cells and how to visualise actin and nuclei using fluorescently tagged phalloidin and DAPI. See how nicely he has picked up the ruffling at the lefthand edge of the cell and how intense the actin staining is. Actin is one of the proteins responsible for maintaining the shape of the cell and for helping it to move around.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Brain Awareness Week 2009

Earlier this week members of the Galway Neuroscience Group reported their experience of holding a public event as part of global 'Brain Awareness Week'. Supported financially by the Dana Foundation, BAW is a multi-national effort aimed at making as many people as possible interested in their own brains. Activities include visits to schools by neuroscientists, or information dissemination by various neurological organisations like Neurology Alliance Ireland, Dystonia Ireland, the Dublin Brain Bank and MS Ireland. Galway neuroscientists chose 'The beauty of neuroscience' as their theme, displaying beautiful prints of cells and tissue gnerated during the course of their own research activities. Poster stands and a microscope with sample tissue and cells for viewing, were set up at the Eyre Square Shopping centre on March 19th and 20th. A separate table dedicated to interactive questionairs and brain colouring booklets for children was also a feature. For more information about the activities of the Galway Neuroscience Group, go to http://www.ncbes.ie/research/NeuroscienceOverview.htm