newsletter
SCHOOL OF
2017/18
Genetics and Microbiology
WELCOME The School of Genetics and Microbiology is now in its thirteenth year and continues to thrive as an international reference point for research and teaching in its core disciplines of Genetics and Microbiology. The Department of Genetics is sixty years old this year and next year we will celebrate the centenary of the establishment in 1919 of the Chair of Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine (now the Chair of Microbiology). The centenary celebrations will include an international conference entitled Microbes in Medicine: A Century of Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin and I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to participate. In these pages you can review some very recent examples of the successes being enjoyed by the academic staff in the School in winning competitive research grants, being awarded prestigious prizes and in publishing their work in leading international journals. You can also read news of some of our current and past students. I would like to congratulate all of them and to acknowledge the steadfast support of our technical and administrative colleagues in making our teaching and research activities so successful. As I step down for the headship of the School this year I want to thank every one of my colleagues who has accompanied me on my journey and to wish my successor every success in writing the next chapter of our story.
Professor Charles J Dorman Head of School
Newsletter 2017-18 2014 – 2015
Discovery Helps Explain Why Cells with Identical Genes Perform Unique Jobs field of epigenetics, which strives to explain how cells in your body, with identical sets of genes, can look and behave so differently. Central to ‘cellular identity’ is a group of epigenetic regulators, called Polycomb proteins, which are vital in multicellular organisms of both the plant and animal kingdoms. The Bracken lab studies the biology of these Polycomb epigenetic regulators, and their newly discovered PALI1 and PALI2 proteins form a new family of Polycombs that are unique in that they are only present in vertebrates - they are not found in invertebrate animals, or plants. Fascinatingly, PALI1 and PALI2 both originated from genes that have gained new functions since vertebrate and invertebrate species evolved from one another millions of years ago. Professor Adrian Bracken with his team
Professor Adrian Bracken and his team at Genetics made a discovery that helps explain how and why the billions of different cells in our bodies look and act so differently despite containing identical genes. Dr Eric Conway and Dr Emilia Jerman, the lead authors on the paper, were previously PhD students in the laboratory of Professor Bracken, while the team of Professor Haruhiko
Koseki at the Riken Institute in Japan collaborated on the project. The findings were published in Molecular Cell. The new work helps our understanding of why different types of cell, for example blood and brain cells, look and act very differently, yet contain exactly the same sets of genes. This puzzling question about the so-called ‘cellular identity’ is central to the
This new discovery also has important implications for cancer research. For example, in cancers such as B-cell lymphoma, gene mutations can cause the Polycomb proteins not to perform in the correct way. Another cancer-type related to the loss of Polycomb function is Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), which is the second most common type of primary high-grade brain tumour in children. The Bracken lab has been awarded funding from the Worldwide Cancer Research Fund and Science Foundation Ireland to do further research into DIPG and B-cell lymphomas.
Dr Matthew Campbell Receives Irish Research Council Laureate Awards
Dr Matthew Campbell
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Matthew Campbell, Assistant Professor of Genetics, was one of thirteen Trinity researchers who were among 36 successful applicants of the Irish Research Council (IRC) Laureate Awards programme announced in March. He received the award for the project ‘Vasculopath on the Cerebrovascular Nature of Schizophrenia’. The Laureate Awards programme was
introduced for the first time this year and has been put in place to support exceptional researchers in conducting frontier basic research that pushes the boundaries of our current knowledge.
SCHOOL OF
Genetics and Microbiology
Scientists Reveal Genetics of Ireland and Britain in High Resolution Dr Russell McLaughlin, Ussher Assistant Professor in Genome Analysis, directed the research in collaboration with the Academic Unit of Neurology at Trinity, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute at Cambridge and University College London that revealed a fine-grained picture of Irish and British ancestry via the genetic footprints left by migration into and between the islands. Their results show the genomic legacies of the Vikings, movement between peoples of Scotland and Ulster, and the role that geography and time has played in the genetic variation seen today. By mapping genetic similarities and differences between almost 1,000 Irish individuals and over 6,000 from Britain and mainland Europe, the researchers identified 50 distinct genetic clusters within Ireland and Britain, representing groups of individuals with similar ancestries. These genetic clusters are closely tied to geography on the islands, along with differing influence from historical migrations.
The different genetic clusters across Ireland and Britain
Ross Byrne, a PhD student at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity, is the lead author of the study that was published in leading journal PLOS Genetics in January.
New Mechanism for the Development of Schizophrenia
Mouse hippocampus expressing green fluorescent protein
Scientists from Trinity and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) recently discovered that abnormalities of blood vessels in the brain may play a major role in the development of schizophrenia. The network of blood vessels in the brain regulates the transport of energy and materials in and out of the brain -- forming
what is known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Dr Matthew Campbell (pictured on page 2) from the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity and Professor Kieran Murphy at the Department of Psychiatry, RCSI, collaborated on the study which led to discovery that abnormalities in the integrity of the BBB may be a critical component in the development of schizophrenia and other brain disorders. People living with a chromosomal abnormality termed ‘22q11 deletion syndrome’ (22q11DS) are 20 times more likely to develop schizophrenia. These people lack approximately 40-60 genes within a small region in one of the pairs of chromosome 22. A gene termed “Claudin-5” is located within this
region, and it is changes in the levels of this component of the BBB that are associated with the presence of schizophrenia. The research, published in the leading international journal Molecular Psychiatry, was supported by the Health Research Board (HRB), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the US-based charity, Brightfocus Foundation. Working with an international group of scientists from Cardiff University, Stanford University and Duke University in addition to screening post-mortem brain samples from the Stanley Medical Research Institute, the scientists are the first to identify a molecular genetic component of the blood brain barrier with the development of schizophrenia. 3
Newsletter 2017-18 2014 – 2015
Nerve-Guiding ‘Labels’ May Help Re-Form Broken Nervous Connections these axons make specific connections with other axons in different parts of our bodies to control them. Although the ‘neuron’ cells within each bundle are more similar to each other than to those in different bundles, they are still unique. And this is true for each one of the tens of thousands of individual neurons in a fly to the several billion in a human.
Assistant Professor in Genetics at Trinity, Juan Pablo Labrador, and his collaborator, Professor Kai Zinn from the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH, CA, USA), led the research that was published in the international journal eLIFE (DOI: 10.7554/ eLife.28111). They identified a large group of biological ‘labels’ that guide nerves to ensure they make the correct connections and control different parts of the body. Although their research was conducted with fruit flies, the findings offer hope that we could one day reestablish nervous connections in people living with debilitating injuries or diseases that affect the nervous system.
theory, delivering the right labels to the site of an injury may spark the re-formation of the all-important nervous connections.
The key to achieving that lies in identifying more of these labels and working out which ones attract specific nerves in humans. In
The nervous system is essentially a very complex network of wires or ‘axons’, which are arranged into different bundles of nerves. All
Drosophila (fruit fly) motor nerves connecting to their target muscles. Image supplied by Professor Juan Pablo Labrador
Nerves are assembled through the biological labels that are present on their surfaces, and are also directed towards their final destination by other labels present throughout the body. The instructions on these labels are sensed or ‘read’ by the axons through specific receptors present on them.
Ancient DNA Analysis Recreates Genetic History of Portugal and Spain in the genetic makeup and culture of Iberian people, compared to other parts of Europe. Professors Daniel Bradley and Rui Martiniano of Trinity reported these landmark findings with collaborator Ana Maria Silva of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in the international journal PLOS Genetics.
Archaeological remains of individual MC337 excavated from the site of Hipogeu de Monte Canelas I, Portugal, and analysed by the archaeologist Rui Parreira and the anthropologist Ana Maria Silva. Image credit: Rui Parreira
The genomes of individuals who lived on the Iberian Peninsula in the Bronze Age had minor genetic input from Steppe invaders, suggesting that these migrations played a smaller role
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Between the Middle Neolithic (4200-3500 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (17401430 BC), Central and Northern Europe received a massive influx of people from the Steppe regions of Eastern Europe and Asia. Archaeological digs in Iberia have uncovered changes in culture and funeral rituals during this time, but no one had looked at the genetic impact of these migrations in this part of Europe. The researchers sequenced the genomes of 14 individuals who lived in Portugal during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages and compared
them to other ancient and modern genomes. In contrast with other parts of Europe, they detected only subtle genetic changes between the Portuguese Neolithic and Bronze Age samples resulting from smallscale migration. However, these changes are more pronounced on the paternal lineage. The researchers also estimated height from the samples, based on relevant DNA sequences, and found that genetic input from Neolithic migrants decreased the height of Europeans, which subsequently increased steadily through later generations. This study was financed by the BEAN project of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network and the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholarship Scheme.
SCHOOL OF
Genetics and Microbiology
Shared Genetic Origin for MND and Schizophrenia Researchers from Trinity have shown for the first time that Motor Neurone Disease (MND) – also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – and schizophrenia have a shared genetic origin, indicating that the causes of these diverse conditions are biologically linked. The work was published in the journal Nature Communications. Dr Russell McLaughlin, Ussher Assistant Professor in Genome Analysis at Trinity College Dublin, and lead author of the paper, has been
working closely with the Neurology team at Trinity, led by Professor Orla Hardiman. By analysing the genetic profiles of almost 13,000 MND cases and over 30,000 schizophrenia cases, the researchers have confirmed that many of the genes that are associated with these two very different conditions are the same. In fact, the research has shown an overlap of 14% in genetic susceptibility to the adult onset neuro-
School’s Researchers Secure Prestigious Investigator Awards
Professor Dan Bradley
In October 2017 two Trinity researchers from the School of Genetics and Microbiology – Professor of Population Genetics, Dan Bradley, and Professor of Neurogenetics, Mani Ramaswami – secured prestigious Science Foundation Ireland/Health Research Board/Wellcome Investigator Awards worth a combined total of approximately €3.5 million. Professor Bradley will lead a project to sequence hundreds of human genomes to better understand the genetic aspects of disease. The project will build on findings that the petrous bone, the hardest bone in the body, can act like a time capsule, excellently preserving DNA over thousands of years. The research will sequence full genomes from 160 bones sampled throughout the whole of Ireland and Portuguese prehistory.
degeneration condition ALS/MND and the developmental neuropsychiatric disorder schizophrenia. While overlaps between schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric conditions including bipolar affective disorder and autism have been shown in the past, this is the first time that an overlap in genetic susceptibility between MND and psychiatric conditions has been shown.
ERC Award for Genetics Research
Professor Mani Ramaswami
A complete genomic history will create a greater understanding of genetic factors in disease and pinpoint newly discovered genetic differences which could impact modern patients. Professor Ramaswami is investigating the process by which the brain regulates access to memories stored in the brain for retrieval at appropriate times. Perceptions and memories are represented in the brain by the positive activity of assemblies of excitatory neurons. Negative representations of these assemblies may be created by the brain to prevent inappropriate activation. Professor Ramaswami will study the construction of negative representations, and their effects and regulation by environmental or behavioural context in fruit flies, which share key structures of their brain circuits with humans.
Professor Aoife McLysaght
In December 2017 Professor in Genetics, Aoife McLysaght, won a prestigious European Research Commission (ERC) Consolidator Grant worth about €2 million to pursue cutting-edge research projects. Professor McLysaght will seek to better understand the relationship between gene duplication and gene expression, with a view to exploring how this relationship affects gene and genome evolution, and how it impacts disease.
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Newsletter 2017-18 2014 – 2015
Three School’s Academics Receive Trinity Innovation Award 2017 Professor Tim Foster, Professor Jane Farrar and Dr Matthew Campbell were among nine leading Trinity researchers and inventors to win Trinity Innovation Awards.
Professor Tim Foster, first from the left, Dr Matthew Campbell, fourth from the right, Professor Jane Farrar, second from the right with other Trinity Innovation Awards winners 2017 and Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast
Professor in Genetics Jane Farrar is co-founder of Genable Technologies ltd, a campus company focused on ophthalmological research for the development of genebased medicines. It was acquired by Spark Therapeutics in 2015. Dr Matthew Campbell, Research Fellow, was awarded a prize in the ‘ones-2 watch’ category as an up and coming entrepreneurial academic.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Fellow Emeritus, Professor Tim Foster, who has engaged in innovative research since the early 1990s with particular focus on the genetics of the Staphylococcal aureus developing multiple licences in the field of vaccines, both for human and veterinary applications. His research has led to products on the market, notably, the Equine Strangle Vaccine (MSD) and various research tools. His work on Staphylococcal aureus has led to the identification and subsequent high value license of an antigenic vaccine component. This is currently under development with GSK, with a Phase I clinical trial completed.
Tribute to Lady Normanby 1920–2018 In 2012, extensive refurbishment to the research laboratories in the north wing was completed, and Lady Normanby and some of her family visited the College to look on the changes. Provost of Trinity, Dr Patrick Prendergast, presented Lady Normanby with a bound copy of a specially commissioned poem entitled ‘Grania’, which was written by Iggy McGovern. GRANIA The name deriving from The Irish grán As in the Celtic goddess of the grain From which the brewer’s artistry has drawn The taste of memory, love’s sweet refrain Which is to say that grán gives way to grá As Liffey water to the fermentation When your famed antecedents oversaw An enterprise synonymous with nation This photo was taken on the occasion of Lady Normanby’s visit to the Moyne Institute in 2012, to observe the recently refurbished research laboratories. Front row, left to right: Lord Normanby (son), Charles Dorman (Professor of Microbiology), Lady Normanby
Grania Guinness, the Dowager Marchioness of Normanby, who died on January 15 aged 97 at her Yorkshire home, was the benefactrice of the Moyne Institute of Preventive Medicine over seven decades. The Moyne Institute was presented by the Marchioness of Normanby in memory of her father, Walter Edward 6
Guinness, Baron Moyne, in 1953, and she and her family continued to fund major extensions to the research space. She was proud of the Moyne Institute’s achievements. Marchioness of Normanby was Pro-Chancellor of the University from 1985 to 1995.
And they knew then by practice what the least Of students now will know about the role Of that essential additive, the yeast: The sum of parts that yields the greater whole Today we toast your generosity Both personal and in your family’s stead An adding to our University both now and in the countless years ahead. Iggy McGovern - April 2012
SCHOOL OF
Genetics and Microbiology
SFI Funding to Trinity Geneticists Frank Wellmer, Adrian Bracken, Jane Farrar and Peter Humphries, based in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, secured four-year project funding from the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Investigators Programme. Wellmer, whose project will be co-funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, will develop new strains of pest-resistant crops. Bracken’s group’s research interests include the molecular mechanisms involved in the
development of cancer and identifying targets for next-generation therapies. Their project will test new drugs for one of these targets, a cancer gene called EZH2. Professor Jane Farrar and Professor Peter Humphries will collaborate on a project exploring new therapies for genetic eye disorders. This collaboration, drawing upon the skillsets of two leaders in genetic eye disease, will design therapies
for eye disorders such as glaucoma and “age-related macular degeneration”. Also, Russell McLaughlin, Ussher Assistant Professor in Genome Analysis, secured an SFI Career Development Award to study a type of genetic mutation called repeat expansion and how it contributes to motor neurone disease.
Schrödinger at 75: The Future of Biology
Trinity is organising a unique international meeting ‘Schrödinger at 75: The Future of Biology’ on 5-6 September 2018. In 1943, Erwin Schrödinger, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, then Director of Theoretical Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), gave three public lectures entitled ‘What
is Life?’ at Trinity College Dublin. Following their publication as a book of the same name, these lectures had a tremendous influence on the development of molecular biology. We will mark the 75th anniversary of these lectures with an unprecedented gathering of some of the most brilliant minds
working in biology today. Specific themes include systems biology, bioenergetics, brain and mind, memory, consciousness, ageing, human evolution, and artificial intelligence. Tickets are €100. For more information and to book a ticket please visit www. tcd.ie/biosciences/whatislife/
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Remember. The power of a legacy to Trinity There’s an old saying that the true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade one does not expect to sit. When you leave a legacy to Trinity however big or small, you’re planting a tree which will grow to provide shelter to many. You’re empowering ground-breaking research which will benefit people in Ireland and all over the world. You’re supporting students from all backgrounds to access a Trinity education. You’re helping preserve our unique campus and heritage for new generations.
When you remember Trinity in your will, you join a tradition of giving that stretches back over 400 years – and reaches far into the future. For more information about leaving a Legacy to Trinity, please contact Carmen Leon.
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Alumni Weekend 24-26 August 2018
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