Last month on Friday 21st February a group of final year Biology student teachers along with their Lecturer Dr. Louise Mylotte visited NUI Galway for a superb series of mini guest lectures and tours.
Dr. Aoife Boyd, Microbiology lecturer met with the students in the School of Natural Sciences and outlined the research areas of interest for the Microbiology Department along with her research interests in Vibrio parahaemolyticus type III secretion systems. The group then met with Dr. Antony Wheatley, Professor and Head of Physiology and Ms. Barbara Coen who gave them a tour of the Physiology Dept. and teaching Labs. Barbara kindly brought the group through the labs to meet final year Science students working on their Physiology projects and some of their respective lecturers.
Dr. Sarah Knight, Outreach Officer with the Ryan Institute provided the students with a summary of the Environmental, Marine and Energy Research happening at the Ryan Institute followed by a tour of the Institute where they met seaweed taxonomist, Dr. Svenja Heesch, Research Assistant Ian Jermyn who showed off sample jars containing various deep sea specimens, and chemical monitoring PhD student Enda McGrory. Afterwards, Zoology PhD student Mags Flaherty gave them a tour of the Zoology and Marine Biology Museum displaying specimens from a broad range of animal groups.
Later Prof. Martin Feeley, Deputy Head of Earth and Ocean Sciences and Dr. Alessandra Costanzo outlined the research which they have embarked upon that is exploring for evidence of microbial life in deep geological time. They also showed the group around the James Mitchell Museum highlighting its collections of rocks, minerals and fossils.
After lunch the group visited the new Biomedical Science Building ‘which aims to build on the output of NUI Galway’s cluster of world-leading biomedical research groups in areas such as regenerative medicine and stem cell research, cancer biology (particularly breast and prostate cancer) biomechanics and biomaterials’. Dr. Iain Shaw, Programme Manager of the Glycoscience group outlined the setup of the new building and the key research being carried out by his group at the new Biomedical Science Building which is being led by Prof. Lokesh Joshi. The students were then shown around the building and familiarised with much of the lab equipment. Dr. Enda O’Connell gave a demonstration of the Janus automated workstation, a high throughput screening facility, where drug discovery and characterisation, cellular, enzymatic and binding assays, as well as sample analysis may be performed. Dr. Shirley Hanley from the Flow Cytometry Core Facility outlined the techniques of flow cytometry and cell sorting, showing how the equipment was operated and results analysed.
Overall the group had an extremely enjoyable and educational visit to NUI Galway. Dr. Louise Mylotte said that ‘the annual visit by the B.Ed. 4 Biology students to NUI, Galway gives our students a great insight into the translational research being carried out by leading international Scientists working on our doorsteps’. By touring the research and teaching labs, viewing equipment and attending special guest lectures the student teachers get an appreciation of biology as a multi-disciplinary subject where scientists work together to build knowledge and intellectual capital. This afforded our students an enhanced understanding of the scientific world in which we live so that they can better educate future generations of scientists, engineers and technologists.

photo: Dr. Iain Shaw and B.Ed 4 Biology students, St. Angela’s College, Sligo in the Biomedical Sciences Building, NUI Galway.