Chemistry Student wins Faculty of Science and Engineering’s Best Poster at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Student holding round bottom flask in lab
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - 09:00

Chemistry Student wins Faculty of Science and Engineering’s Best Poster at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

4th Year student David Flood has been awarded the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s ‘Best Poster’ prize at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. The symposium which was organised as part of the University’s Research Week highlighted the exceptional standard of scholarship conducted by undergraduate students throughout the University as part of the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR). The Faculty Dean’s nominee, awarded top marks to David’s poster across all measured criteria such as aesthetics, content, accuracy, organisation and clarity, as well as the oral explanation of the poster.

 

David receives the prize for “Best Poster” at the closing reception for Research Week from Maynooth University President Philip Nolan.

Flood hailed the SPUR program as “a fantastic opportunity to gain an insight in to the world of research and postgraduate study while also developing networks with other students and faculty. It has piqued my curiosity and going forward I hope to enrol in a PhD program here in the Department of Chemistry”.

Flood, who won the award for his work on the synthesis of new fluorescent sensors for DT Diaphorase, explained: “DT Diaphorase is a reductive enzyme that is upregulated and overexpressed in a range of cancer cell lines.  My research has focussed on making new molecules that exploit the reactivity of the enzyme to yield a desired optical output selectively in tissues containing elevated levels of DT Diaphorase. Novel compounds such as those synthesised as part of this project will contribute to knowledge in the field of molecular sensors and may have future application in drug delivery and novel diagnostic techniques.”

The research was conducted in the Elmes research group in the Department of Chemistry at Maynooth University. Under the supervision of Dr. Rob Elmes the team are exploiting synthetic chemistry to develop responsive chemical systems that provide advances across a diverse range of applications such as drug delivery vehicles, diagnostic tools, anti-tumour therapeutics and environmental sensors.