DAY 279

Jun 7

1) Today was the second day of our Skills Workshop Programme. Most of my friends start their various research projects tomorrow, but as for me, I'm starting next Monday because my Principal Investigator is in France for a conference.

2) So our day started with a lecture on Clinical Study Design, by Dr. Lisa Mellon. Next, Ms Deidre Hyland gave a speech entitled "Introduction to Clinical Research". After a short break, it was the main event of the day: the announcement of the RCSI Student Innovation Challenge. Professor Leonie Young, Dr. Emer Reeves, Dr. Sam Anya, Dr. Oran Kennedy, Dr. Helen French, and Dr. Tobias Engel came up to stage to talk about their respective fields of research, and ultimately each of them stated their problem for us students to come up with a solution. This is part of the challenge, and we will be broken up into groups on the competition day itself (June 13) to be given a chance to present our discussion to a panel of judges.

3) Before lunch, Dr. Sara ONeill gave a brief talk on the RSS Programme thus far. Then it was off to lunch, and I had mine at AK Henry's. Our next three speakers: Dr. Tomas Carroll, Ms Rachel Lynch, and Dr. Derick Mitchell were invited to talk on Public Patient Involvement and Research. Finally, we had our last workshop for the day, Patient-Centred Research: Logistical and Ethical Issues by Ms. Louise Keating.

4) Today we made some new friends from Hoshi University, Japan. Erika and Shiori are exchange students who will be spending their summer doing research here. This is part of the partnership that RCSI enjoys with Hoshi University (Japan) and Soochow University (China). For those who know me best, can probably guess that I will jump at the opportunity to do an exchange programme in Japan haha. Unfortunately, the programme is not open to first year students so I couldn't apply last year. But this year (next academic year) I definitely intend to do so :D

5) It has been an exciting two days of lectures and workshops, and it has opened my eyes to the world of research. I hope to begin research as soon as possible, and aspire to contribute in any small but meaningful way that I can. That's basically all for today, and thanks for reading as always. Have a great day, cheers!

ようこそアイルランドへ ~~

(Welcome to Ireland ^^)

My €3.50 baguette at AK Henry's ^^

Returned from lunch to see this

A close up of what it said

Shiori and Erika from Hoshi University

DAY 278

Jun 6

1) So today marks the beginning of the RCSI Research Summer School. It's interesting to note that we have a 2-day Skills Workshop Programme, accompanied with the Friday Discovery Series. The Skills Workshop essentially introduces us to the concept of research, as well as guiding us gently through the various skills and knowledge required to present a good piece of research.

2) For this morning, we received a warm welcome by Dr. Sara ONeill, Director of the Research Summer Programme. Next, we heard a lecture from Dr. Maria Morgan, on the topic of "Project Management for Research". This was followed by Ms. Yvette Moffat giving a talk on Health and Safety.

3) After a short break, it was Ms. Lorna Flannery on "Library Skills on Research", accompanied by Dr. Finbarr Leacy on "Statistics for Research". Just before lunch break, Dr. ONeill returned to present another interesting topic entitled "Don't Believe Everything You Read: We are on The Brink of the Antibiotic Apocalypse".

4) After lunch, we were split into three groups: red, green and blue. Each one of us had chosen different time slots to attend three workshops in the afternoon, namely Introduction to Cell Culture (Dr. Tatyana Devine), Techniques for the Analysis of Genetic Material (Dr. Olga Piskareva), and All About Proteins (Mr Gerard Higgins and Ms Lauren Mohan). Unfortunately, the last one had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

5) In short, the entire day was really productive and I gained a lot of insight into the exciting world that is research. The rest of my day has been productive too, with me going out for a nice 5km jog at St. Stephen's Green. That has been my day, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Until the next one, cheers!

Welcome :DD

Those are neuroblastoma cells 

Peering into the lens of a microscope

We were introduced to various cell lines of breast cancer (this is just one type)