John's Research Blog UCC

What is the CDT Trans Pharm Tech? The  Centre for Doctoral Training in Transformative Pharmaceutical Technologies ( CDT) is a partnership between the Schools of Pharmacy at  the University of Nottingham and  University College London and the SSPC, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Pharmaceuticals. The SSPC, which is hosted in the University of Limerick (UL) has a number of collaborative institutes which include Dublin City University (DCU), Maynooth University (MU), NUI Galway (NUIG), Royal College of Surgeons (RSCI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Univeristy College Dublin (UCD), Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and University College Cork (UCC). Currently participating in the CDT is UCC, UCD and TCD.  The CDT is funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Council and Science Foundation Ireland and a number of industry partners.  Big News! The bespoke training programme designed for the CDT in Trans Pharm Tech was recently  accredited by a number of Societies ea

Proteins can bind to a variety of surfaces that we use in everyday life, including most plastics, glass, metals, and even in the body and as medicines. This phenomenon has some desirable applications for example, immunological testing; however, it does have unintended consequences such as loss of expensive protein medicines and impaired function of medical devices. This article provides a brief explanation of what this phenomenon is, how it occurs and why scientists are trying to decrease the risk of adsorption and  minimize  the consequences. Figure 1: Relevant examples of everyday applications that are influenced by protein adsorption. Created with BioRender.com. Proteins are large complex molecules that have both water-liking (hydrophilic) and water-hating (hydrophobic) groups. In addition, they carry positive and negative charges in their structures. It is these groups that interact and quite often, irreversibly with our everyday materials. Protein adsorption to a surface is

Hello, my name is John! I joined the EPSRC-SFI Centre for Doctoral Training in Transformative Pharmaceutical Technologies as a PhD student of the SSPC back in 2020. I joined the Pharmaceutics Research Group in University College Cork and I'm supervised by Dr Katie Ryan and Prof. Abina Crean. We are currently investigating the effect of different material properties on protein/peptide adsorption behavior and the consequent impact on protein functional behavior and stability.  However, before getting to the PhD level I completed  a BSc in Biochemistry and a Research MSc in Chemistry from University College Cork. Yes, I've really been here for 6 years 😏 For my BSc I synthesized and characterized 6 multi-functional cell permeable probes based on phosphorescent Pt-porphyrin dyes via thiol click chemistry and tested them for their cell-staining ability on a live-cell confocal microscope displaying high brightness, photostability, uniform biodistribution and good cell penetration. Fo