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Science News
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The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland last night signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Mosul while participating on the Invest Northern Ireland trade mission to Kurdistan.
The MoU will proactively facilitate collaboration and student exchanges between the university, one of the leading higher education and research centres in Iraq, and AFBI in areas such as food sciences.
AFBI provides expert diagnostic and analytical testing services to the Northern Ireland agri-food industry and clients abroad. |
May 14, 2012 |  |
 Interaction with and the use of cyber space and its services is becoming increasingly harder to avoid, but must and should this be at the expense of our privacy?
The presence and impact of cyber space is ever-increasing. Accessing products and services using cyber space is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception, from children playing games and chatting on social networks to adults accessing banking services and booking holidays on line. |
May 11, 2012 |  |
 University of Ulster nutrition experts say that one in ten people in Northern Ireland, depending on their genes, could significantly lower their blood pressure and, in turn, their risk of heart disease and stroke by increasing their intake of vitamin B2, which is found in dairy products.
The advice from researchers at the Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE) on the Coleraine campus, follows their important discovery that vitamin B2 - also known as riboflavin - reduces high blood pressure which is often linked to a particular genetic factor found in 10% of the population.
High blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke and heart disease which, together, are responsible for about one-third of all deaths in Northern Ireland. |
One of the UK’s leading medical researchers has been recognised for excellence in medical science. Professor Patrick Johnston, Dean of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast has been elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Johnston has been honoured for outstanding contributions to the advancement of medical science and, in particular, his work on cancer research and treatment of patients. |
 Astronomers from Queen’s University Belfast have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. The Queen’s astronomers are part of the Pan-STARRS international team, whose discovery has been published in the journal Nature today (Wed, 2 May).
Supermassive black holes, weighing millions to billions times more than the Sun, lurk in the centers of most galaxies. |
Queen’s has been named as the lead university in the United Kingdom for tackling the unequal representation of women in science and engineering.
It is the only UK University to be awarded a Silver institutional honour at the Athena SWAN Charter awards, which recognise the commitment of institutions, and science, engineering and technology (SET) departments, to addressing gender inequalities and improving career progression for female academics.
In addition to the institutional award, Queen’s is the University with the most departmental silver awards.
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 Marine research by Ulster scientists has formed part of a special Titanic Centenary event at the new Titanic building in Belfast.
Organised jointly by the Royal Geographical Society (Northern Ireland) and Titanic Belfast, the event brought leading Ulster marine scientists together with guest speaker Dr Robert Ballard – discoverer of the Titanic wreck – to outline their recent research activities to a large, specially invited audience.
Professor Derek Jackson (pictured) from the Centre for Coastal & Marine Research at the University of Ulster, and an RGS committee member, initiated the event. |
 Craigavon-based pharmaceutical development company Almac has signed a multi-million dollar distribution deal with a US company giving it the right to sell their proprietary biomarker discovery platform worldwide.
The agreement will enable Affymetrix, which makes genomic analysis tools, to sell the Almac Xcel™ array, a tool for analysing the genetic behaviour from historic (paraffin embedded) patient samples, which will advance research into personalised medicine.
Almac’s array is uniquely designed to enable researchers to obtain information on genetic behaviour from historic patient samples. |
 With more children and people under the age of 40 dying of a brain tumour than any other cancer in the United Kingdom, a leading researcher at Queen’s University Belfast is calling for an increase in spending on vital research.
Currently 16,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year in the UK. In Northern Ireland alone, approximately 200 – 250 brain tumour cases are operated on annually. |
March 15, 2012 |  |
 Training for science careers in Northern Ireland is set to receive a boost thanks to a partnership between Almac and Southern Regional College announced today.
The Craigavon-based pharmaceutical development company has said it will create eight scientific apprenticeships for SRC students, starting in September this year.
The announcement was made at the opening of a new state-of-the-art science laboratory at the Portadown campus of the College and will see Almac providing two year apprenticeships to16 to 24 year olds studying NVQ laboratory technician courses to Level 3. |
A Queen’s University scientist has been chosen to lead an international €2.3million hunt to discover how the first chemical elements were created in the Universe.
Professor Stephen Smartt, Director of the Astrophysics Research Centre in the School of Maths and Physics at Queen's will begin a five year research project in April to examine how chemical elements were created in the Universe and try to find the first ever supernovae, or exploding stars, in the Universe.
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February 22, 2012 |  |
The Northern Ireland Minister for Health, Edwin Poots, MLA, today announced funding of almost 1 million pounds, to be utilised by Randox and the University of Ulster Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, to develop a test to rapidly determine which patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis will respond to particular drugs. If successful, this will be a marked advance for arthritis patients, enabling those patients to receive specifically tailored treatment.
Fifty percent of this funding has been awarded, after rigorous scrutiny, through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB; www. |
 Over 500 secondary school pupils celebrated National Year of Pathology (NPY) 2012 at events hosted by the Department of Access and Educational Partnerships at the University of Ulster last week.
Year 10-12 pupils attended a ‘virtual autopsy’ lecture, delivered by Dr Victoria Wishart, a Histopathologist at Belfast City Hospital, and the Regional Co-ordinator for NPY. Following the lecture, pupils had the opportunity to gain practical experience of heart and lung anatomy and to learn hands-only CPR. |
Environment Minister Alex Attwood said today that the challenge for NI was to be a world leader in carbon reduction.
He said that the ‘green and clean’ brand of Ireland could be grown if NI was and was seen as, a carbon leader. Leading on Climate Change is a central element in all of this. |
 For the third consecutive year, a University of Ulster researcher has won the All Ireland final of the prestigious Institute of Materials World Lecture competition. Twenty six years old Cormac Flynn, who is a third year PhD student in the School of Engineering at Ulster’s Jordanstown campus, will now represent Ireland in the World Finals of the competition later this year.
Originally from County Clare, Cormac graduated with an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Ireland, Galway. |
 Almac's Diagnostics business unit today announced the launch of its advanced Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data Analysis services.
These latest enhancements to Almac's service portfolio include a comprehensive range of NGS solutions from professional study design to sample processing and expert data analysis for DNA and RNA samples. Uniquely, the services are highly customizable and are available on a standalone basis or in combination with Almac's established bioinformatics offerings in the areas of biological analysis, biomarker and drug discovery and development and diagnostic product development. |
 A breakthrough by University of Ulster scientists could transform the production and industrial use of graphene, a powerful and versatile material that comes from graphite, the carbon in pencil lead.
They have discovered a simple, low cost and environmentally friendly way to bulk produce high quality ‘graphene nanosheets’ from common flakes of graphite and hope to turn their patented process into a commercial success.
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. |
 Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have made a major breakthrough in developing sensors which dramatically improve the ability to spot early warning signs of corrosion in concrete.
The sensors, which are more resilient and much longer lasting than traditional corrosion sensors, will make monitoring the safety of structures such as bridges and vital coastal defences much more effective.
The research, which was carried out over a four-year period, was in conjunction with researchers at City University London, and was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). |
 Since I converted from science to business or at least from the science of science to the business of science, the most important thing I learned was that there is no plagiarism in business. Good ideas are valuable from wherever they spring and emulation is an acceptable form of flattery. (Incidentally, this is the origin of the eastern predilection for copying and its misunderstanding in the west. |
Almac’s Sciences Business Unit has achieved dual success in MHRA inspections at both their Craigavon Headquarters, Northern Ireland and Elvingston, Scotland sites. Both inspections were the first biennial audits to confirm continued compliance with Investigation Medicinal Products (IMP) licenses and GMP certificates.
The first inspection audited Almac’s isotope chemistry facility in support of their IMP license. |
January 23, 2012 |  |
 Belfast, Northern Ireland, 19th January 2012 – Andor Technology plc (Andor), a world leader in scientific imaging and spectroscopy solutions, today announced the launch of the iXon Ultra high-performance EMCCD camera. Building on a rich history of first to market innovation, the ‘supercharged’ iXon Ultra represents the next generation of the marketing-leading iXon platform.
The iXon Ultra, launching on the popular 512x512 back-illuminated sensor format, has been fundamentally re-engineered to facilitate overclocking of the pixel readout speed to an unprecedented 17MHz, delivering a maximum frame rate of 56 fps, whilst maintaining single photon sensitivity and superb quantitative stability. |
Education Minister, John O’Dowd, has congratulated local students who have taken part in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2012.
The exhibition, held in the RDS, Dublin, involves 550 projects by science students from right across Ireland, with over 120 awards made for the best entries. Thirty-two projects from 17 schools and one further education college in the north of Ireland qualified for this year’s event. |
The Netwell Centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology has been selected to join a worldwide group of centres of excellence into ageing research.
The Centre is one of only three Irish locations to be selected to join the Global Ageing Research Network, along with Aois agus Eolas (Tallaght Hospital and Trinity College Dublin) and the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology (NUIG)
' This is fantastic news for Ireland and in particular for the Netwell Centre, and all who are involved in our wider living Lab,' said Centre Director Rodd Bond.
'As an Institute of Technology we are very proud to achieve this global recognition and it is a further endorsement of DKIT's progressive approach. |
January 11, 2012 |  |
 Irish Theatre Company ‘Little Big Top Circus’ bring science to life as they pose with students to mark the start of the 48th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012. Students joined ‘Professors’ Haswell and Williams who juggled, unicycled and stilt walked their way through the history of science at the main stage at the BT Arena at the RDS today.
The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 kicks off at Dublin’s RDS Main Hall today. |
 Research into a ground-breaking treatment for bowel cancer at Queen’s University Belfast has received a massive funding boost from Cancer Research UK.
Dr Sandra Van Schaeybroeck, whose research aims to identify ways to increase survival from bowel cancer, has received a prestigious £688,000 Cancer Research UK Clinical Scientist Fellowship.
The award, which is one of only four fellowships awarded to UK clinical investigators, renews Dr Schaeybroeck’s current funding from the charity for another three years. |
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