Trinity College Dublin

2006 Archive

Professor Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson was awarded the Bob Hay Lectureship at the UK Macrocycles and Supramolecular Chemistry Group annual meeting in Belfast. This is the first time that this prize has been awarded to a recipient that works outside of the U.K. The prestigious award lecture is given in memory of Professor Bob Hay, one of the pioneers of macrocyclic chemistry in the UK.

(Left to right; Prof. Neil Champness (Nottingham) & Prof. Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson)

At the same meeting Ms. Buddhie Lankage (group of Prof. Draper) received a prize for the best poster.

(Left to right; Ms Buddhie Lankage & Prof. Peter Edwards (Cardiff) President of the Dalton Division of The Royal Society of Chemistry)

Salters' Chemistry Festival 2006 Trinity College Dublin

The 2006 Salters' Festival of Chemistry took place on Saturday May 20th, in the Cocker Laboratory of the School of Chemistry. Teams of four from fifteen schools (list of participating schools and teachers) from all around Ireland took part in the 'Salters challenge'. The festival was organised jointly by the School of Chemistry, (Professor John Kelly, Dr. Michael Bridge and Mr. Seamus Herity) and the School of Education (Dr. Philip Matthews), with the help of Dr. Stephen Connon and graduate students (David McGovern, Colin Martin and Ian O'Connor) and the technical staff of the School of Chemistry Cocker laboratory. The Festival was sponsored by the Salters Company, the Irish Pharmaceutical and Chemical Manufacturing Federation and Trinity College Dublin (Senior Lecturer's Office). The judges for both competitions were Dr. Patricia Ennis (Dublin Institute of Technology), Ms. Sheila Donegan (Waterford Institute of Technology) and Dr. Michael Bridge. The students had to solve 'The Mystery at Salty Towers' by applying various chemical analysis techniques. This year's winners were:- 1st Prize - The High School, Rathgar, Dublin. 2nd Prize - St. Columcille's Community School, Knocklyon, Dublin. 3rd Prize - Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Dublin. In the afternoon the pupils performed a 'University Challenge', in which they had to prepare a set of differently coloured inks by varying the acidity of a range of solution, an exercise that requires great care. The winning teams were-: 1st Prize - Colaiste Learga, Clones, Co. Monaghan. 2nd Prize - Balbriggan Community College, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin. 3rd Prize - St. Dominic's Secondary School, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. This was then followed by a demonstration lecture "Chemistry and Magic" presented by Mr. John Daly (Blackrock College) and Ms. Michelle Lyne (Cabinteely Community School) and finally the prizes were given out to the winning teams by Ms. Audrey Strong of the Salters Company.

Salsters 2006

13th September 2006

The Minster for Education and Science, Ms Mary Hanafin TD, launched the Institute for Information Technology and Advanced Computing's (IITAC) super-computing equipment and visualization facilities at the Open Day on 13th September 2006.

"These facilities now make a significant contribution to TCD's ability to compete on the international stage in the area of materials and biomaterials modelling and visualization. These types of initiatives help to ensure that Ireland continues to secure a significant share of foreign direct investment relative to our size and remains the location of choice for manufacturing and international services in areas such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and financial services," said Minister Hanafin.

The IITAC computing facilities include one of Europe's largest Infiniband clusters, supplied by IBM and Voltaire. The system was assembled by staff at the Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing (www.tchpc.tcd.ie) and has been running at full capacity since its commissioning. The visualization suite, provided by SGI and Fakespace, features a 5.6m x 2.3m rear-projected, flat screen with stereoscopic display properties. Scientists use virtual reality technology and special shutter glasses to convert their data into 3D viewable objects. IITAC has also installed Ireland's first protein X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) and a MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer, one of seven world-wide.

Increasingly, the most important scientific problems can only be tackled by multi-disciplinary teams of researchers. The IITAC project has a number of active interdisciplinary projects in the areas of nano-materials, biomolecular modelling and visualization in the IITAC programme. Commenting on the significance of IITAC's research programme and facilities, Professor Watson said: "It has provided vital infrastructure and facilities to enable world-class research in advanced scientific computing to further our understanding of bio-molecular and physical sciences. Research being carried out in IITAC, utilizing the latest in computer and visualization technology, has provided significant benefits for interdisciplinary research and teaching and has allowed a significant increase in the number of PhD students trained in the areas of strategic importance to Ireland."

"One of the IITAC projects, led by Dr Mary Meegan (Pharmacy) and Dr David Lloyd (Biochemistry and Immunolgy, is using these vital pieces of equipment to study the functions of the oestrogen receptor and designing drugs to help prevent breast cancer," said Professor Watson. Many diseases such as cancer are caused by the inappropriate action of proteins which is often a consequence of genetic mutations. By using the protein XRD, IITAC scientists can examine the structure of the oestrogen receptor. Protein XRD identifies the position of component atoms in space and sophisticated software reconstructs the protein in a computer model.

IITAC researchers then apply high-throughput screening techniques on supercomputers to find molecules (candidate drugs) that interact with the oestrogen receptor. The 3D visualization facility enables researchers to view the interactions between the oestrogen receptor and these candidate drugs. "3D visualization allows IITAC researchers a greater understanding of how drugs interact with the receptor and prevent the spread of cancer," stated Prof. Watson. Scientists using these facilities manipulate the receptor and examine its response to these candidate drugs. Promising drugs are tested in the laboratory.

IITAC is Ireland's largest and longest running research programme in computational science. The HEA PRTLI-funded research programme has enabled significant research in the fields of biomolecular and physical sciences and visualization with a strong emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration. The physical sciences elements focus on the fundamental computational methods required to understand the structure and processes in complex physical systems such as materials, molecules and foams. The bio-molecular sciences programme focuses on bio-molecular modelling, rational drug design, structural biology and proteomics. The computer science element focuses on software technologies for visualization, perceptually adaptive graphics and animation.

To date, IITAC has trained 41 Ph.D students. The Institute comprises researchers from Trinity College's Schools of Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacy and Computer Science. The Institute and its core facilities are managed and maintained by the Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing. IITAC researchers have leveraged the HEA funding to receive additional funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland and the European Union's 5th and 6th Framework programmes.

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Last updated: Feb 08 2008

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