DIT PhD Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Hugh Byrne
Hugh.byrne@dit.ie
Research Centre:
FOCAS Research Institute
Research Centre website:
http://www.dit.ie/focas/
Supervisor’s List of Publications
http://www.dit.ie/focas/personnel/professorh
ughbyrne/listofpublications/2015-present/
Brief summary of research centre activity:
The Focas Research Institute has extensive experience in the field of microscopy and imaging. The
institute is equipped with cutting edge instrumentation, from conventional confocal fluorescence
microscope to Raman and Infrared imaging systems (http://www.dit.ie/focas/facilities/). In
recent years, research in Focas has greatly contributed to a better understanding of the potential
of vibrational spectroscopy for biological applications. The wide range of application covers
studies going for single cells to tissue analysis. On one hand, Infrared spectroscopy is particularly
suitable for the analysis of large tissue area and has been proven suitable for diagnostic
applications and the specific identification of pathological samples in the case of cervical and
lung. On the other hand, the high spatial resolution when working with Raman spectroscopy has
allowed to access information at the subcellular but also sub-nuclear level. The mapping of single
cells in vitro can deliver crucial information regarding cell-drug interaction interaction but can
also help to the localization and tracking of nano-particles inside the cells without requiring any
labelling. Coupled with the development of applications of the experimental techniques,
multivariate analysis and data mining tools are being developed and validated to improve and
optimise their sensitivity for probing sub-cellular components and processes at a molecular level.
Title: The role and function of water in biology: a spectroscopic study
In the modern day field of biology, dominated over the past 50years by the emergence of
genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, water has been largely considered to a position
of inert or passive background. However, it has become increasingly clear over the past 2
decades or so that water is not simply “life’s solvent” but is a substance that actively
engages and interacts with biomolecules in complex, subtle, and essential ways. This
project aims to apply a range of physicochemical imaging modalities, based on
molecularly specific spectroscopic techniques, to map out and explore dynamic water
structure within biological systems, and the active role it takes in cellular function and
dysfunction, underlying disease, therapeutics and resistance.
Water can have up to 18 different crystalline phases, and thus the project explore the
fundamental properties and spectroscopic signatures of water structures. It will extend
to the study of water structures at biological interfaces, both biomolecular and at
membrane interfaces. It will explore the use of spectroscopy to probe the structure
internally in cells, and monitor the changes in structure as a response to radiation,
chemotherapeutic agents and other external influences.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Health and Biomedical Sciences