Science careers

Choosing sCienCe as a Career

What choices should STEM students take to get a life in science?

SCIENCE

SPIN

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page xx

How can I work with digital humans and still have time for real ones?

There can be no answers without people who ask questions. People like Kristy Myers.

Kristy Myers’ workplace is cyberspace. She and her team develop the software used for virtual simulations of production processes. This helps make business more efficient and creates safer work environments. It’s a demanding job that requires dedication and commitment.

But because Kristy is able to work flexitime, she can

balance her family life and her work life.

Siemens is always looking for people who are looking for new ways of doing things. Because to discover great answers, you have to ask big questions. How can you turn your curiosity into a career? Dare to ask.

siemens.com/careers

admissions@ait.ie

www.ait.ie/science

Probing the brain Researcher and writer, Veronica Miller likes to balance a sharp focus on solving problems with tackling broader challenges outside the lab.

a hospital or private practice so I picked Natural Sciences to study at university. I really enjoyed my time as an undergraduate, and very nearly specialized in Geology for my final degree, but instead chose Biochemistry.

Little did I know back then that I’d be researching brain diseases ten years later.

What sort of other interests have you got?

I think it’s healthy to do things that are different or scare you every now and then. For example, last year I confronted my fears of enclosed spaces and deep water and went scuba diving for the first time in Cambodia, which was initially pretty scary, but also fun. I’ve managed to trek tiny rocky paths across the high hills in the Andes and Machu Picchu in Peru, gone fishing for trout in forests in Japan, seen the Golden Palace in Beijing, sea kayaked around the “James Bond” island and in limestone caverns off the coast of Thailand. Since moving to the US I’ve started hiking and skiing some of the mountains in upstate New York. I’ve not picked up the art of stopping gracefully on the ski slopes yet, but you can’t beat the rush of whizzing downwards, that’s for sure.

Veronica taking a break recently in Thialand.

What got you interested in science, and was there much talk about science at home?

I’ve always been curious about the natural world. I grew up in Kingscourt Co. Cavan, where I was surrounded by books, and one of my favorite hobbies was reading. I remember getting a giant cardboard blue world atlas which had pages which were almost the same size as I was, when I was five. And apart from ripping the pages out to make a playhouse, I also remember looking at those pages filled with strange minerals and animals and thinking one day I want to go to all those countries and see all those things.

I got a microscope when I was about eight, and I can remember looking in awe and horror at spider’s legs, skin samples and pieces of leaves in fine detail. After some pleading, I got a chemistry set.

Although my parents wouldn’t allow me to use the gas Bunsen burner I did have fun making invisible ink, and enlisting friends and siblings into assisting with experiments.

What about school?

In primary school, we didn’t have science on the curriculum, but I did do Biology and Chemistry in Secondary School. I went to St. Louis Secondary School in Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan and the Holy Faith School in Clontarf, Dublin.

Although I loved science, maths and history were my favorite subjects. At that time our science curriculum was geared towards exams which left little room for discussion or creativity in the classroom.

Hopefully things have changed for the better nowadays.

What made you think of going to university?

I went to visit Trinity College on a school tour when I was about ten years old.

After walking through the front arch, and seeing the fantastic historical buildings I decided that was where I wanted to study when I was older Did you find it easy to choose a subject?

I knew I was interested in researching diseases and had an interest in medicine but didn’t see myself working in

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You seem to have lots of interests outside the immediate area of science.

I enjoy writing, and really enjoyed the opportunity to combine my interests in brain research and writing to produce the forthcoming book explaining all about the brain. I got to formally combine my interest in science and love of writing a few years ago, when I completed a Masters in Science Communications at DCU. While doing that course it was clear there is a disconnect between science and society. Research is often seen as an obscure area filled with mysterious people in white coats and large glasses, rather than something that anybody can do. But science is really an innate thing. Most people come up with hypothesis and test ideas unconsciously every day. Whether it’s choosing the best bus route, fastest queue in a shop or favorite sandwich, most of us have our own method. I think the future of science depends on us including a greater diversity of people and harnessing the best of our collective creative minds.

Lots of students seem to focus in on a subject to the exclusion of other interests. What do you think of that?

I think that a laser-sharp focus is very important and can work well for some people. We all approach things from

different angles. Personally I think it’s good to challenge yourself with different disciplines so you can use your insights from one area to solve problems in another. But following ones course and having a steady interest in a topic and mastering it to develop expertise is useful. Work-wise I think it’s important to be flexible, but it’s also important to develop unique skills that mark you out from the crowd.

What line of research did you choose to follow?

As an undergraduate I became very interested in neuroscience and the biology of Alzheimer’s disease. I knew I wanted to do more research and was lucky enough to obtain a fellowship from the Alzheimer’s Trust in the UK to study the role of blood pressure changes in dementia. I also had two great clinical scientists as mentors for my PhD studies, Professor Rose Anne Kenny, who is now at Trinity College, and Professor Rajesh Kalaria who is continuing his research at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK. What was it like to become immersed in research?

In the beginning it was strange because you’re suddenly thrown into a world where everybody seems to be speaking a foreign impenetrable language. I’d spent the summer beforehand working on a science TV show, “Scope”, in which we were filming science researchers. So it was a little weird being on the other side of the lens and getting familiar with laboratory life. But once you get past the acronyms and jargon, research is actually not that different than many other jobs.

I see research as problem solving.

That process works best when you collaborate with others, so being able to communicate well and work in teams is vital. You also need good business acumen to be involved in research, because it is driven by the funds that are available and your ability to translate

your work into something meaningful.

I think that the financial and personal skills necessary in science are often neglected in teaching courses.

After a spell in the UK, why did you decide to head off to the US? In the UK for my PhD I spent hundreds of hours peering down a microscope quantifying dead and dying brain cells.

The objective of my project was to see if brain areas which regulate blood pressure contain more dying cells in older people with dementia, in other words if blood pressure changes are a symptom of brain problems. During my studies I became more and more curious to understand what was causing the cell death I observed in the brain tissues.

So, a few weeks after I finished my doctorate, I flew to the US, to the New York State Department of Health Laboratories and started research on the role of environmental chemicals and immune responses in brain diseases. I knew this was risky as it meant having to start over on my own in a new country, but I thought that learning new topics and techniques would in the long term make me a stronger scientist.

What sort of work are you doing in the US, and why do you think it is significant?

At the moment I’m researching the role of environmental chemicals and immune responses in autism. I’m using post-mortem human tissues to uncouple the molecular biology of the disease.

Developmental disorders such as autism have life-long social and economic consequences, not only for individuals and their families, but also for society as a whole. I believe that we will miss opportunities for early diagnosis and treatments without a true understanding of the biology of brain diseases.

Would you like to continue working in this area, or do you ever think your interests will lead you into other areas?

In the longer term I’d like to work on technologies and/or diagnostics arising from the basic biological research I’ve been involved in. I’d like to see a real world translation and application of my research findings on immune or metabolic changes in developmental disorders. In science there is a great emphasis on publishing in journals, but in the future, with a growing number of open access online publications available, the number or type of publications may not carry as much weight. Rewarding researchers based on publications can seem is a bit like valuing businesses based on how many times they are mentioned in newspapers.

If school students were to say that they are interested in science, what sort of advice would you give them?

I think you should follow the things you love, and if you work hard and you’re lucky you will find employment and enjoyment from them. A science education is a passport to the world, and can open doors in industries and disciplines which are not directly or purely science orientated. Don’t be afraid to try and fail. If we only did experiments that we were confident would work, there would be no sense doing them!

Veronica in conversation with Tom Kennedy

Would you consider continuing research in Ireland, and if not why?

I think Ireland produces exceptional research from gifted researchers. We are very strong in technology and have a

THE SENSATIONAL

BRAIN What is it and how it works Dr Veronica Miller

highly educated population. I think if I was able to initiate collaborations with researchers here and at home that would ideal. Cross-pollinating our research in Ireland with novel ideas and availing of international expertise is pivotal to positioning Ireland at the forefront of research and technology in the future.

FROMOUT ENDFEBUARY OF MARCH 2013 DUE 3013 available from www.sciencespin.com and independent bookshops

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Counting badgers Andrew Byrne, who has been trapping badgers in County Kilkenny, maintains that if they are to be given protection against TB enough of them have to be caught for inoculation to work.

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ndrew Byrne, a zoologist, said he is happy to be working on the largest badger trapping project ever undertaken on that species. As he explained there was a good reason to launch this study which has embraced 755 km2 of countryside in County Kilkenny. Badgers have long been associated with the spread of TB in cattle, so for many years attempts have been made to bring this situation under control. Opinions vary on how this should be done, and while many farmers are in favour of culling, others claim that inoculation would solve the problem. Badgers are a protected wildlife species, part of our native biodiversity, and there are strong feelings involved in which approach would be the best one to take.

With the support of a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship, Andrew has been gathering the facts that would help people make more informed decisions on what course of action is best for everyone.

One way or the other there is a serious problem to solve, said Andrew, who pointed out that avoiding the evidence has not helped stem the alarming rise of bovine TB in Britain. The whole point of carrying out such a big scale survey, he said, is to establish the relevant facts about badger population density, and in particular to determine what proportion of that population can be trapped because this has a bearing on control.

Within the 755 km2 area of north west Kilkenny, he said there are about 1,000 setts, and these are the burrows in which badgers live and breed. There is usually one main sett for each social group, and for 24 weeks a sweep was made over the entire area to determine where these are. Then, traps with peanuts for bait were set up. “Badgers love peanuts,” said Andrew, and over eight nights the animals were collected, anaethesised, marked with identification numbers, and chipped just like a household dog. After that, the badgers were released.

“We had 1,780 captures,” said Andrew, and quite a few were returns, coming back for another snack. The males were more likely to turn up again, and when these were eliminated, the researchers ended up marking 960 badgers.

“We also recovered 66 dead badgers,” said Andrew, and most of these were road kills, and he estimated that about 2 to 3 per cent of the animals die each year on roads.

It is quite hard to calculate the density of a badger population, but based on trapping, Andrew said that there would have been between 0.7 and 1.1 badgers for every square kilometre. “Compared to Britain,” he said, “this is low.” In the south of England population densities can be much higher, with up to 20 in every square kilometre. However, as he explained, the population density

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 18

in Kilkenny is more typical of western Europe as a whole.

“We probably capture about 35 per cent of the population per sweep,” said Andrew, and this is probably the most important finding of the study.

Before this study, no one knew how many badgers in any given population can be trapped. This finding has great significance in working out an effective strategy for control.

For example, if badgers are to be immunized, a capture rate of 35 per cent might be too low to bring the disease under control. As Andrew explained, there is a parallel in human disease control where a high enough proportion of the population has to be immunized for it to be effective. It is hard enough to work that out for humans, said Andrew, and with badgers it is not yet known what the threshold might be, but 35 per cent is unlikely to be high enough.

Designing better traps would be one way forward, he said, and developing a bait that incorporates immunization, would be another avenue to explore.

At present, while adults are caught, younger badgers can slip through, so there is scope for improvement. Catching them young, said Andrew, is important because that’s the best time to give them immunity.

“I didn’t start out with badgers,” he said. On leaving school in Carlow, Andrew went to Trinity College Dublin to study zoology. “I was always interested in nature and in how things work,” he said, so zoology was an obvious choice.

However, there was one minor problem.

Andrew did not have a European language, and that was a requirement.

Fortunately, however, that barrier was overcome because Irish had gained official status as a European language.

At TCD, Andrew was presented with a range of subjects, from which he selected maths, geology and geography combined, biology, and chemistry. “There were some excellent lecturers,” he said, and starting off with a broad range of subjects was a great help. “The great thing about getting a general science education is that you can apply all these things to different problems,” he said.

“So, if you do zoology, it does not stop you from becoming a medical researcher, doing mathematical modelling or becoming a geneticist. At the end of the day it is a good general training.”

At undergraduate level Andrew studied spinal cord regeneration in eels, and during the summers he worked as a research assistant on a national bee conservation project. From there

he worked on molluscs at the National Biodiversity Data Centre as a research officer.

For someone well used to diversity, getting immersed in the badger study was no problem, especially as it combined his interest in wildlife with statistical modelling.

There is a strong economic imperative to come up with workable solutions to the problem of disease control, he said.

Given that uncertainty is not helping to solve this problem, Andrew concluded that “I think I’ll be working on badgers for a few more years.”

Report, Tom Kennedy

Siobhán beside the Roche 454 pyrosequencer at Morepark. The sequencer, the first of its kind to be installed in Ireland, is used for DNA analysis.

Reducing weight gain

In the fight against obesity Siobhán Clarke has been investigating how probiotics could reduce weight gain

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ntil her sister fell and cut herself, Siobhán Clarke could not decide whether to go into nursing or study science. “`I saw the blood and fainted,” she recalled, and that was that.

At Grennan College in Kilkenny, Siobhán had already become fascinated by science. “I had a lovely science teacher,” she said and one of the things she remembered most about Christine

Kehoe was “that it wasn’t that she made science fun, she made it easy to understand.” The fact that Christine had studied science and had worked for a time in industry, said Siobhán, meant that she knew a lot more than an ordinary teacher.

During transition year the school became involved in a women in science programme, and Siobhán was among the

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lucky few to be invited to look around the labs at University College Cork. “I fell in love with it all,” she declared, and not surprisingly she headed back there later to study science.

To study for her doctorate, Siobhán joined the Teagasc researchers at Moorepark. University College Cork has close links to Moorepark on food research, and there Siobhán focused on the role of our gut microbiotica in controlling weight gain.

Excessive weight gain has become an enormous problem, she said, and around the world about 2.8 million adults die prematurely every year due to obesity. It is both a health and an economic problem because the costs of dealing with obesity and obesity-related disorders are high.

As Siobhán explained, some of our gut microbiotica can actually be far too efficient in converting food into energy, and if we don’t use up that energy it becomes stored as fat.

The make-up of our gut microbiotica is surprisingly diversified, with hundreds of different species and distinct populations. Siobhán said that the point of her research is to show that how this microbiotica is made up has a direct bearing on how efficient we are in converting our food into fat. What many people do not realise, she explained, is that the microbiotica in our gut is

The Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Limerick invite you to come to UL to share the career experiences of our graduates.

Graduates will give brief presentations on their careers to-date outlining the opportunities and horizons opened to them since graduating. This will be followed by an informal Q&A session with the opportunity to meet and chat with presenters and university faculty.

Spring Schedule for Graduate Career Information Evenings: 17 January 2013 24 January 2013 28 February 2013 21 March 2013 25 April 2013 20 June 2013 24 June 2013

Electronic and Computer Engineering Mechanical, Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Design and Manufacturing Engineering and Civil Engineering Chemical and Environmental Sciences and Life Sciences (Pharmaceutical & Industrial Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science & Health, Equine Science) Computer Science and Information Systems (incl Computer Games, Digital Media, Music Media & Performance Technology) Mechanical Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Electronic & Computer Engineering

Other important diary dates include

l Engineers Week: 25 February to 1st March, 2013: Events include ‘Secrets, Lies & Mathematics’ show for secondary school students and Formula1 Schools Competition for secondary school students. l UL Mature Student Evening 2013: 13th February 2013 l Science and Engineering Summer School, Cybercamp, Mathematics Modelling School: June 2013 l Special Mathematics Entrance Exam for those interested in a Science and Engineering programme who meet the CAO requirement but did not get the required grade in Maths. Exam date: 22nd August 2013.

For a full list of all degree programmes and further information visit www.scieng.ul.ie Tel: 061 202642 almost like another organ. Altogether, these tummy bugs have about 150 times more genes than the human genome, and, apart from making it possible to digest food, they are involved in a range of essential processes such as the development of our immune system.

This year, Siobhán was chosen as one of the young researchers to talk about their work at the annual Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Seminar. At the seminar, held at the RDS in November, Siobhán outlined how tests on mice supported the view that altering the balance of our gut microbiotica could help reduce the world-wide rise in obesity.

To demonstrate how this might work, Siobhán used an antibiotic, vancomycin, which is known to be active against the bacterium associated with weight gain.

This was a purely experimental procedure, said Siobhán because, in practice, it would not be desirable or practical to use antibiotics in this way. However, the test did show that suppressing that particular species of bacterium effectively prevented weight gain.

In another experiment, mice were fed a probiotic, Lactobacillus salivarius.

Probiotics are living microorganisms that have a beneficial affect on the gut population, and in this case there was also a reduction in weight gain.

However, with both approaches, the weight-reduction benefits were not permanent, and detailed studies based on analysis of faecal pellets, indicated that the desired gut balance has to be maintained. As Siobhán explained, the results are very promising, but without the support of a healthier lifestyle and exercise, “there is no magic bullet,” for the control of obesity.

The next step could be to develop a probiotic that could be incorporated into normal foods. “We have identified some,” said Siobhán, and the aim of researchers will be to focus in on those with the most promise of being produced as a product.

As Siobhán observed, incorporating probiotics into foods raises an issue on whether or not food producers are entitled to claim health benefits. This has become a highly controversial issue, and understandably food producers are keen to cash in by enhancing the appeal of popular brands. However, health authorities are not too keen to give approval for products that have not undergone extensive clinical trials in the same way as new drugs. The European Food Safety Authority, EFSA, recently refused to approve 74 submissions from major food producers, banning them from claiming that probiotics in products such as yoghurt are of benefit to health.

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Naturally, the big food producers that have invested heavily in probiotics are annoyed because the scientific evidence to back up their claims is not in dispute.

In defence of the ESFA position, Siobhán said that at present there is no control over health claims, so consumers have no way of knowing which are false and which are true. “If you google for probiotics,” she said, “you can even find things like duvets, and how can they possibly be probiotic?”

Like everyone involved in probiotics research, Siobhán is keen to see their health-enhancing role being acknowledged, but as she points out, in the long term, some control over the claims would be a good thing. Australia, the Americas and Asia do not have this problem, she said, but in Europe, “it needs to be sorted out.”

Siobhán considers herself fortunate not just to be following her interests, but to be working on research that has global appeal. Siobhán would like to continue her research. “I love Moorepark,” she said, and “if there is a job for me I would stay on. If not I will just have to go further afield, and would be happy to work for one of the food companies.”

Report, Tom Kennedy

Materially protecting our health Anna Nolan writes that after working as a mechanic, Patrick Cronin began research on coating textiles and as a result he is now about to go into commercial production.

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he MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) superbug is the cause of dangerous and dreaded infections that hospitals and medical personnel are constantly fighting. One useful defence is making sure that patients’ gowns and bed linen do not carry the microbe, but obviously it is expensive to keep throwing such items away after one use. Developing antimicrobial textiles that can be laundered and reused was the focus of Patrick Cronin’s research for his PhD, which he recently completed.

These useful textiles are made by attaching selected nanoparticles (which are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair) to conventional textiles already used by manufacturers. What was special about the technique developed by the team to which Patrick belonged was that they were able to attach the nanoparticles without using adhesives.

This is an important advantage, because the problem with using adhesives is that they block light, and ultraviolet light (UV) is a key weapon in attacking MRSA and other microbes.

“We place commercially-available nanoparticles onto the surfaces of textiles, very efficiently, and without the use of adhesives,” Dr Cronin told Science Spin.

“Not having to use adhesive means that

the look and feel of the textiles remain the same, and crucially, the ultraviolet light is not blocked.”

Ultraviolet light has been used for a long time for sterilisation. We have all seen it being used by hairstylists to keep brushes and combs sterile, and there is a variety of UV devices used in medical surroundings. Special devices are not always needed, as ordinary light contains UV, helping the textiles to stay hygienic, though the effect is not as strong.

Fighting MRSA and other infections within hospitals is a major application of course, but the materials could be useful in many other situations also.

“The manufacturers can tailor the materials into drapes, gowns, linings for dog baskets, horse blankets, headrests for trains and aeroplanes, and soft furnishings,” he said. “The textiles could be used anywhere there is movement of people.”

Gaining experience

Patrick was awarded his doctorate in November 2012 for his work at the Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI) at the University of Limerick.

He belonged to a European Unionfunded international research team that developed an efficient means of coating the textiles as already described.

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Led by the University of Limerick, the consortium had members from several countries including Denmark, Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as well as from NUI Galway and Cook Medical Ireland. Dr Syed Tofail of MSSI was the overall co-ordinator, and the funding came under EU Framework 7.

Patrick is already working towards setting up his own company to commercialise the research, under licence. He is based in the Nexus Innovation Centre, a new development at UL set up to assist entrepreneurs to take business ideas from early concept up to a stage where there is a business plan that will attract investors.

“My PhD was based on this technology and now I am trying to understand the business side of the industry,” said Patrick. “I am looking at the commercial aspects of the technology and validating it for industry, because this is different to what we do in the laboratory.”

His work currently includes looking at regulations, standards and crucially, what is acceptable to potential customers.

He is also being assisted by Enterprise Ireland, with a grant for commercialisation. The grant is for verifying the technology, benchmarking the textile performance, and generally making it suitable for industrial production.

The working name for the new company is Textilise, but it will not necessarily keep that name when it is officially set up.

Adding business experience and training to his academic research capabilities is another step for Patrick on a path of ever wider-ranging studies.

“When I was five or six years old I started playing with Meccano and Lego, and growing up I was always interested in cars, particularly Formula 1 racing – I was crazy into that,” he remarked.

Not surprising then, that after attending school in CBS Sexton Street primary school and St Munchin’s College, both in Limerick, he was apprenticed to become an automobile mechanic.

He trained for four years, during which he had work experience at O’Mara Motors, and studied at FÁS in Limerick and the Limerick Institute of Technology. He finished his FETAC Level 7 apprenticeship in 2004.

“I loved my apprenticeship, because I just wanted to know how things worked,” he said.

He worked for a further two years with automobiles. He was encouraged to study for a degree in mechanical engineering, and was accepted as a mature student by the University of Limerick. He had studied biology at school, but not physics or chemistry, so it was difficult for him at the beginning of his degree course.

“It was tough at first, with the maths and the sciences, but there were six or seven other mature students and that gave us a good environment,” he recalled. “After the first year, I absolutely loved it.”

An industrial placement is an integral part of the degree course, so at the end of his second year at UL he went to

Reactivating HAMLET

Louise Sullivan, a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship researcher and former Young Science winner, is finding out how to give adults protection that keeps babies healthy.

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abies fed on breast milk are less likely to develop childhood cancer. This had led scientists to wonder if breast-fed infants have some kind of protection that is absent in adults.

As Louise Sullivan, a researcher based at Teagasc in Moorepark, explains, there is a big difference between the digestive tract of an infant and the mature gut of an adult. This difference could explain why an anti-cancer complex, composed of two commonly-occurring components in milk, is effective in babies, but not in adults.

These components, alpha-lactalbumin and a fatty acid, oleic acid, also occur in whey, the by-product of cheese production. When milk is curdled, or simply goes sour, a tangle of proteins

forms the curd, leaving the liquid whey.

While the curd is used to make cheese, the whey was, until recently, regarded as having little value. However, as Louise explained, whey is now seen as a source of biologically-active products, including the components that make up what is known as HAMLET. This is the complex that offers a great deal of promise in treating a range of cancers, and HAMLET is the acronym for Human Alphalactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumour cells.

Louise has been working with the TCD Biomedical Science Institute, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, and the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at UCC to find out how this complex could become active in adults.

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Germany for eight months as a design engineer intern with SchuF Fetterolf in Frankfurt. After graduating in 2009, he worked for five months as a design engineer with the Oshima Group in Shannon, before embarking on his PhD research at UL – the same research that led him to his current goal of setting up a company to commercialise the results of the team’s research.

He succeeded in earning his PhD in three years, which is not all that usual these days. “I worked night and day for those three years, and put in every effort to do it in the time,” said Patrick.

Still working hard, he is also carrying out postdoctoral research at MSSI, since November 2012.

Detailed analysis of the molecular structure, said Louise, revealed that there appeared to be no significant difference between the complex formed in an infant gut and the combination formed from alpha-lactalbumin and oleic acid from whey. However, as a battery of in-vitro tests revealed, while the HAMLET complex from infants caused cancer cells to undergo an orderly programmed death, the same complex from adults was not effective. Remarkably, the active complex was effective against a whole range of cancers, and it is known to be a powerful antimicrobial, knocking out the bad bugs. These antimicrobial actions were, in fact the properties that first brought HAMLET to the attention of researchers. A team of scientists in Sweden working on immunology decided to run a few tests on cancer cell cultures. To their surprise the complex proved to be highly effective in causing the cancer cells to self-destruct. Since this discovery about 20 years ago, researchers have focused in on the anti-cancer properties of HAMLET. “There are other complexes out there,” said Louise, “but unlike others, HAMLET has been involved in clinical trials.”

In terms of developing an anti-cancer treatment, this is a significant advantage in that it would make it a lot easier to get regulatory approval. The complex already has an impressive record, and as Louise explained, it has been found effective against a currently untreatable brain tumour, and it has proved effective against human bladder cancer.

Unlike many existing treatments, the complex only acts against cancer cells, and not alone are the surrounding tissues

left intact, but healthy growth and recovery is enhanced.

However, getting the complex to function in an adult gut is a challenge, and the aim of Louise and her colleagues is to see if they could mimic the sort of conditions that make it active in the baby gut. What we wanted to find out, said Louise, is why should there be such a difference between what was observed in the lab and what actually happens in the adult gut.

To understand what happens as a complex moves through the adult gut, healthy adult volunteers had naso-gastric tubes inserted. These flexible tubes allowed the researchers to take samples as the complex progressed through the gut. As expected the pH goes through a series of changes, and this has an effect on how the proteins fold. As Louise said, it’s a bit like the opening and closing of a fist. At first, the fist is closed. Then, on reaching the pH neutral environment in the small intestine the fist unfolds so it can catch a ball. In this case the ball is the oleic fatty acid, and once caught, the fist closes, and this is how the active complex is formed.

This is an important step, but it is not the only factor involved in making the complex active. The researchers suspected that mixing of materials in the gut could have an influence, and this was confirmed by introducing miniature cameras through the gastric tube of the volunteers.. These tiny cameras, producing three images per second, provided the researchers with close-up action movie enabling them to witness how the appearance of protein complexes change as they go from an acidic to a neutral environment, and how they become mixed through other gut contents. By making these observations the researchers concluded that the mixing in an adult gut is not adequate to enable the complex to work effectively.

As Louise explained, understanding what is going on means that researchers now know what sort of problems they have to solve. The potential benefits are enormous, both as an anti-cancer treatment, and as a possible probiotic that people could eat as part of their diet.

For example, said Louise, a probiotic based on a whey derived complex, might clear up a bad tummy bug, but

of course that all depends on how the research progresses. There are still quite a few unknowns, she said, and as for stabilising the HAMLET complex so that it can be used in adults, “we are not fully confident that it would have exactly the same effects.”

Louise cannot remember a time when she was not interested in science. “I entered the Young Scientist competition when I was 15,” she said, “and came second overall, going on to represent Ireland at the international science and engineering fair in 2002.”

At the time, Louise was attending the Institute of Education in Leeson Street, Dublin, and from there she went on to study biotechnology at Dublin City University.

Learning that breast-fed babies have a lower incidence of childhood cancer made her curious as to why this is so, and it was one of the reasons she wanted to go into and continue with research.

Understandably, there is big interest in this area, both from a medical and a food perspective, and as Louise remarked, “I can’t see myself leaving the science field anytime soon.”

Report, Tom Kennedy

Why

choose the Faculty of

Engineering, Mathematics & Science at Trinity College Dublin?

• The Faculty is part of the oldest University in Ireland • The University Library is one of the largest and best stocked in Europe • You can avail of our world class research facilities and laboratories • You will be part of a unique student body with over 15,500 students from over 90 different countries • There are aver 100 societies and 50 sports clubs for students to join

UG courses include: • Nanoscience – Physics and Chemistry of Advanced Materials • Geography & Political Sciences • Earth Sciences • Human Health & Disease • BA (Mod) Computer Science

What can you study?

The Faculty has excellent undergraduate and postgraduate programmes including: • 4 year honours degrees • Taught Postgraduate programmes

• Masters programmes • PhDs

Students are offered a variety of options from across 8 Schools:

Biochemistry & Immunology

Chemistry

Computer Science & Statistics Engineering

Genetics & Microbiology Natural Sciences Mathematics Physics

The Faculty accommodates a wide range of research interests including: Bioengineering Bioinformatics Energy Immunology Nanoscience Neuroscience The Environment Transport

• BAI Engineering

Science in TCD Looking for excellent training in Science with maximum flexibility & choice? See our Science course (TR 071) which offers no less than 17 specialist areas.

www.tcd.ie/Science

Why not see what we can offer YOU by visiting us at:

www.ems.tcd.ie

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 23

NUI Galway offers innovative and career-led science degree courses for the job market of today…and tomorrow.

Overview

NEW IN 2013

NUI Galway offers you a wide range of science courses. Our courses are structured, yet flexible, to enable you to explore your interests and passions.

(Physics, with degree options in Applied, Astrophysics, Biomedical, Theoretical Physics) This four-year degree will give you flexibility in how you study physics at NUI Galway. There is a lot of commonality in the first two years of the course. In addition to core physics, students study specialist options chosen from Applied Physics, Astrophysics, Biomedical Physics and Theoretical Physics. The advantage of this structure is that it gives students the opportunity to experience a number of options before making a final decision in their third year.

Science has contributed significantly to the development of the global economy and NUI Galway scientists are at the forefront of research and development. This cutting edge, innovative research feeds into teaching, giving students the best possible learning experience.

The requirement for scientific solutions to the problems mankind faces is as great as ever, and industry leaders repeatedly point to the need for more science graduates to retain and build on Ireland’s economic competitiveness.

GY301 Bachelor of Science

GY320 – Bachelor of Science

The Bachelor of Science is the most popular choice for Science. The course is designed for students who want a career in science, but are not yet ready to narrow their options to a specific topic. On this course you study a broad variety of science subjects (e.g. Applied Mathematics, Organic Chemistry, Microbiology) before deciding to specialise in one scientific area.

Course Highlight —

BSc Environmental Science

This course provides a thorough grounding in the sciences and environmental law with opportunities for specialising in later years. Through group and independent work, students acquire extensive practical experience through case studies and field work by analysing data, identifying problems and designing appropriate solutions to environmental problems. The interdisciplinary nature of the programme ensures that graduates have found employment in a wide range of careers.

Come and see us in person at the NUI Galway Open Day and Information Evenings

l Thurles Information Evening – 17th January l Enniskillen Information Evening – 21st February l Letterkenny Information Evening – 6th March l Derry Information Evening – 21st March l NUI Galway Open Day - Saturday, 20th April More information at www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/open-days

Denominated Science Courses

These courses are ideal for students who have already decided which direction to take for their scientific careers.

Courses for careers in Biology GY303 GY304

Biomedical Science Biotechnology

Courses for mastering Mathematics GY309 GY319

Financial Mathematics and Economics Mathematical Science

Courses in specialised subjects GY308 GY310 GY313 GY314 GY318

Environmental Science Marine Science Health and Safety Systems Earth and Ocean Sciences Biopharmaceutical Chemistry

Science Experience Summer Event!

Get a taste of life as a scientist with two days of hands-on practical experience l Opportunities to do your own lab experiments l Tours of the research facilities at NUI Galway l Find out about careers in Science l Hear about our latest discoveries and inventions l For 5th and 6th year students

Application information available from April onwards at www.nuigalway.ie/science/experience

View our Science courses with videos by lecturers and students at www.nuigalway.ie/courses/undergraduate-courses

The Energy Saver

Seán Duke reports that applying what she had learned in college made Jean Malone more enthusiastic about engineering.

hadn’t been observed by any of the fulltime engineers at Chiroxia. This was a technical breakthrough for the company, which led to some design changes.

Jean was offered a nine-month contract, which she accepted. In that time she applied knowledge that she had learned in her first three years of college. This work experience changed everything, and any doubts she had about a career in engineering disappeared. “I went back to do my final year full of energy. I was so excited about the topic when I got back, and it completely changed how I viewed the course as well,” said Jean.

Crash response

A

s fuel costs rise, industry must find ways to reduce its energy costs in the short-term and introduce efficiencies that protect it against future price hikes.

The Energy Centre at Siemens Ireland is helping customers all over the world — from Cork to China — to do that, and heading up this operation is TCD engineering graduate Jean Malone.

The Centre in Ireland is set to be at the heart of Siemens’ strategy to be a strong local partner to its customers by providing energy savings for them despite the relentless rise in fuel costs as the demand for fuel increases, and the taxes on their use — greenhouse gas taxes — likewise increase. At the heart of this is Jean Malone and she is proud of what’s been achieved so far for Ireland. ”We are gearing up at the moment.” said an excited Jean. “Our system can handle a couple of hundred customers right now, but we are planning to add around 1,000 new customers per year.”

Siemens Ireland is engaging with local branches of Siemens in Turkey, the Czech Republic, Italy, Holland, Portugal as well as Germany, and as far away as Chengdu in China to help a new manufacturing plant.

Human’ engineering

Jean, from Clane in Co Kildare, recalls loving maths, technical graphics and all the technical subjects when she was in secondary school. She was specifically drawn to the medical device sector, as it combined engineering with some direct

human benefits. However, after her Leaving Certificate in 2001, she decided that it would be best to select a general engineering course to begin with, and she chose engineering at TCD. She enjoyed college life at TCD, but after Jean completed her second year, she began to have some doubts as to whether engineering had been a good idea. “The course was tough, but rewarding — but I couldn’t foresee what my future job or career would be like,” recalled Jean. “I wasn’t sure if it was right for me — and I took a year out between 3rd and 4th year.” She needed some time and space to go travel, and figure out exactly what she wanted to do. Her parents were okay, she said, but wanted her to do work experience, for at least part of the time she was out of college. She agreed to do that.

Jean applied, and was accepted, to do six weeks of work experience at a company called Chiroxia, based at Citywest, which had been set up by Jim Coleman, a vascular surgeon, who had returned from the US full of ideas for various kinds of medical devices. The company employed engineers to realize Coleman’s vision. It was an exciting place to work, and Jean immediately felt at home there, and enjoyed her work immensely.

Her profile at the company increased when she observed a particular behavior of a substance — at high and low temperatures — that was being prepared for insertion into the human body, which

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 25

When the Irish property market crashed ‘almost overnight’ the Irish arm of Siemens AG – the massive engineering and electronics corporation, headquartered in Munich, and employing 370,000 people in some 190 countries — started to look at how existing or old buildings could be improved or upgraded, as the ‘new build’ market had evaporated.

Siemens put a toe in this market when they developed an energy efficiency plan for a large Ireland-based customer. The idea was to conduct a complete ‘audit’ of the energy usage at the customer’s manufacturing plant. This was done by strategically placing energy meters at key locations in the production plant, and gathering a data stream. That data was then looked at by a team of energy engineers at Siemens Ireland, who made recommendations to the customer on how to improve energy efficiency.

Siemens Ireland decided to set up an Energy Centre locally, so that this large customer could go online at any stage and look at how it was consuming energy. Once the Centre was up and running, it made sense to offer similar services to other companies based in Ireland. Eventually, what had started as a local R&D project attracted the interest of Siemens HQ in Germany, who have supported the development of the Centre to provide energy efficiency services for its customers across Europe and beyond.

Success at Siemens

Jean completed her degree at TCD in 2006. After that she worked briefly as a waitress in Belfast before returning home to Co Kildare, where she lived again with her parents for a short time and got a temporary position with Green Isle Foods in Naas. She was glad to be back home, but was keen for a job that would allow her to live more independently.

She started to look for work in Dublin, and an opportunity came up with Siemens. Initially, her job involved working with customers to identify the exact product that they required; to help them find the right product, and the correct complementary products. The idea was to refer customers to websites and give them the skills and knowledge to be able to source new parts themselves. She did that successfully and then moved on.

The next role was more interesting, as it involved working with a customer to develop an energy efficiency solution.

First, Jean worked with a salesperson to design a solution suited to the customer’s energy needs, then she worked with a project manager who would roll out the solution for them. It was a challenging, diverse and interesting job.

It also helped Jean’s career and she was offered the role of Siemens Energy Centre Manager. In this role she deals with some very large customers in Ireland, in energy-intensive sectors such as pharma, chemicals, food and leisure. The Irish Centre is also responsible for meeting the energy needs of Siemens’ customers based in Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as a growing number of customers across Europe and beyond.

“I enjoy the diversity of the role, each site brings different challenges, and you have to adapt to those challenges,” said Jean. “Within Siemens there are so many different opportunities. I do enjoy the idea of working towards something that will create more jobs for engineers in Ireland.

We have a plan to expand and we have just taken on four new people recently under the Job Bridge scheme,” she added.

Science and Technology @ IADT IADT has innovative and interesting programmes in science and technology in the Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies.

• BEng in Audio Visual Media Technology (DL133)

• BSc (Honours) in Computing Multimedia Systems/ Web Engineering (DL143) • BSc in Computing in Multimedia Programming (DL131) • BSc (Honours) in Applied Psychology (DL141) Explore our Multimedia programmes at Level 7 and Level 8. We have a PSI accredited honours degree in Applied Psychology.

Our Engineering programme at Level 7 is Engineers Ireland accredited.

Come along to our Open Evening on 16 January 2013 from 4pm to 8pm and hear about the programmes.

Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin T: + 353 1 239 4000 / E: info@iadt.ie / www.iadt.ie

COLOUR

INK often be anuscripts can a traced back to stery through particular mona by the scribes. the inks used have been an analysis of of substances wide variety m of flow, For writing a ements; freedo the basic requir Boiled tree found to meet permanency. high degree of p mushrooms, clarity, and a ced by ink-ca produ mush yellow bark, the black ered root of the A owers, powd used. cornfl been from have blue bark even strong coffee flag iris, and winter blackened made from the glue. One black ink was with milk or mixed the twigs from oak galls, of blackthorn of ink was made oak trees. One type on comm d by insects on pounds of iron round balls forme , ration was five formula for prepa s of gum, 12 gallons of water pound galls. sulphate, five gallon of oak by volume, 12 12 gallons must and measuring h oak galls for s how big the Collecting enoug show just it lt but extensive have been difficu an even more and On gum, was. and ink lampblack demand for dirty was made from although very scale Indian ink became a big, grained soot soot, lampblack, n Europe. The producing fine of south easter rs’ ink. industry in parts d to make printe linsee with 63 was mixed

M

COLOUR

The quality of medieval inks had to be high for manuscripts such as this to survive.

This is a page from a medical manuscript, the Book of the O’Lees, preserved at the Royal Irish Academy.

of how colours gives a good idea the colour from The colour wheel By subtracting opposite hue. relate to each other. wheel we get the one side of the

saturation, and Colour has hue, three dimensional brightness, and gh harder to modelling, althou ate to more accur visualise, led ication. systems of classif

The science and art of colour explained by Margaret Franklin and Tom Kennedy. A colourful and informative paperback. €15 post free from www.sciencespin.com Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin T: + 353 1 239 4000 / E: info@iadt.ie / www.iadt.ie

cliff above against a granite schist lying up Vegetation covered Wicklow. is Lough Oular, Co ne Granite which

plants Carboniferous hibernicus, A. Palaeopteris Co Kilkenny. from Kiltorcan, loachitica, B. Alethopteris Tipperary.

Ballynstick, Co lonchilides, C. Alethopteris colliery, Co from Drumnagh Cork. dendron, D. Root of Lepido Laois.

Towerstown, Co Photographs: Tom

Kennedy.

tion is the Mour during initial event. The excep it developed n years old and to the melting only 55 millio , possibly due Atlantic Ocean basalts (see ding Antrim opening of the crust by the ascen ” earlier). of the Earth’s Rocks other Volcanic e in the base of granit “Basalts and n molte of hot of plates: The generation by the movement driven sinks to is plate crust l crusta the Earth’s e, the over-ridden granite (see Figure where they collid liquid it melts to form they release extremely a depth where plates pull apart the crust it in turn melts 3). Where those mantle which the from hot basalt The granite with granite rocks. is well-endowed out from the Figure 15. Ireland northeast stands Mountains is the er — only 55 million years old. of the Mourne significantly young others in being

67

ROCK AROUND IRELAND

Peadar McArdle guides us around Ireland’s diversified geology.

Paperback €15 postfree from www.sciencespin.com

SUBSCRIBE TO SCIENCE SPIN Ireland’s science and discovery magazine 6 issues a year, €30 post included. www.sciencespin.com

Want to work in an exciting and diverse career such as gaming, energy, cybersecurity or medical devices?

Check out the Smart Futures website www.SmartFutures.ie where you can read about how to get into a career in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). You can watch some great video interviews with people working in these dynamic career areas and read through our archive of STEM career questions submitted by secondary students and answered by Industry experts in the know! www.SmartFutures.ie is an essential online resource for students and guidance counsellors interested in learning more about STEM careers in Ireland. Follow the blog for the latest news on Smart Futures events and competitions coming up in 2013.

smartfutures@sfi.ie www.Facebook.com/SmartFutures www.Twitter.com/SmartFuturesIE