Presidents from NUI Galway, University of Bristol, University of St. Andrews, and Uppsala University will discuss the way forward for higher education during the crisis and its aftermath NUI Galway will host an online seminar to address the issues faced by universities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The seminar, ‘Universities and the COVID-19 Crisis: Problems, Prospects and Pathways’, will take place on Thursday, 11 June at 4.30pm. Immense challenges face universities as a result of COVID-19. Teaching missions have been complicated by the move to online instruction, with uncertainties about whether campus opening will be possible, requirements around social distancing, and how to engage new and existing students. The financial position of institutions is under threat due to reliance on international students to fund the system and reduced income generally. At the same time, universities are a source of vital research on the pandemic as society as a whole looks for a solution and plans for the future. This online seminar brings together leaders of four major universities: NUI Galway; University of Bristol, UK; University of St. Andrews, Scotland; and Uppsala University, Sweden, to discuss these challenges. It is a rare opportunity to hear from people in charge of diverse institutions about their approaches and the way forward for higher education during the crisis and its aftermath. The session features contributions from internationally recognised authorities: Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President, NUI Galway Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol, UK Professor Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of St. Andrews, Scotland Professor Eva Åkesson, Rector, Uppsala University, Sweden Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, has convened the session which will address university staff members, students, alumni and the public. Speaking about the importance of the occasion, Professor Carey said: “This is a unique moment for higher education, with huge risks but also the chance to make a difference and to find new ways to teach, research, and address social challenges. Leaders based in four different countries will provide perspectives on problems and pathways during the current crisis.” To attend the online Zoom seminar visit http://bit.ly/2BrffhP. -Ends-

A person’s health is determined by their inherent genetic differences combined with lifestyles and the environments in which they live.  This unique identity means that a “one size fits all” approach is no longer accepted as the best way to manage an individual’s health.  There is a demand for new “personalised” approaches to better manage our health and to target therapies to achieve optimum health outcomes. By combining and analysing information about our genome, with other clinical and diagnostic information, patterns can be identified that can help to determine our individual risk of developing disease, detect illness earlier and determine the most effective interventions to help improve health, be they medicines, lifestyle choices, or even simple changes in diet. Researchers, led by Professor Ines Thiele, a Principal Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre, who is based at NUI Galway, have developed whole-body computational models - Harvey and Harvetta. These virtual humans represent whole-body metabolism, physiology, diet and the gut microbiome. These new models successfully predict known biomarkers of inherited metabolic diseases and enable exploration of potential metabolic interactions between humans and their gut microbiomes at a personal level. Precision, or personalised, medicine requires realistic, mechanistic computational models that capture the complexity of the human representing each individual’s physiology, dietary habits, metabolism and microbiomes.  Molecular biology has yielded great insight into the ‘parts list’ for human cells, but it remains challenging to integrate these parts into a virtual whole human body. The Virtual Human Physiome project has generated comprehensive computational models about the anatomy and physiology of human organs but has yet to be connected with molecular level processes and their underlying networks of genes, proteins, and biochemical reactions. Prof Thiele’s team tackled this challenge to develop the first whole-body, sex-specific, organ-resolved computational models of human metabolism, which mechanistically connect anatomy and physiology with molecular level metabolic processes. Their study is published today in the prestigious journal Molecular Systems Biology.  Harvey and Harvetta are virtual male and female human metabolic models, respectively, built from literature and data on human metabolism, anatomy and physiology as well as biochemical, metabolomic and proteomic data. They are anatomically interconnected as whole-body metabolic models, comprised of more than 80,000 biochemical reactions distributed over 26 organs and 6 types of blood cell. Moreover, they can be expanded to include gut microbial metabolism. These unique models enable generation of personalised whole-body metabolic models using an individual’s physiological, genomic, biochemical and microbiome data. Generating personalised whole-body metabolic models is an interdisciplinary effort. The development of whole-body models of metabolism required the development of novel algorithms and software for constraint-based modelling of high-dimensional biochemical networks. “A whole-body model is generated by starting with a set of anatomically interconnected generic reconstructions of human metabolism”, says Assistant Professor Ronan Fleming, a co-author of the study from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University. “This draft model had in excess of 300 thousand dimensions, which was then pared down to approximately 80 thousand organ-specific reactions using efficient algorithms and high-performance computing facilities.” “Harvey and Harvetta will usher in a new era for research into causal host-microbiome relationships and greatly accelerate the development of targeted dietary and microbial intervention strategies” said Prof Ines Thiele, who lead the research. “These models could accelerate insights into pathways involved in sex-specific disease development and progression. Moreover, thanks to the ability to personalize the whole-body metabolic models with clinical, physiological, and omics data, they represent a significant step towards personalised, predictive modelling of dietary and drug interventions and drug toxicity, which lies at the heart of precision medicine.” To view the full study visit http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20198982 This study was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 恒大彩票登陆 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 757922), the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) through the ATTRACT programme (FNR/A12/01), the National Centre of Excellence in Research (NCER) on Parkinson’s disease, and the European Union’s Horizon 恒大彩票登陆 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 668738. -Ends-

Irish scientists have collaborated to develop an innovative autonomous drone platform to deliver sterilising ultraviolet light from above to disinfect public surfaces and therefore reduce the transmission of coronavirus and other microbial threats Researchers at NUI Galway’s Health Innovation via Engineering (HIVE) Lab have developed a novel method of providing sterilising ultraviolet light radiation in a wide variety of environments by harnessing the versatility of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. The project is led by NUI Galway’s Professor Derek O’Keeffe and Dr Ted Vaughan, with Dr Kevin Johnson from the University of Limerick. As the world recovers from the first surge of COVID-19, there is a real need for a novel and versatile solutions to sanitise the wide terrain variety of public places. These include hospital wards, restaurants, trains, buses, planes, shopping centres, airport terminals, restrooms, amongst other. To help combat this issue the research team have developed @恒大彩票84849UVCDrone which uses ultraviolet (UV) light to sterilise surfaces. UV light (10-400 nm) is not visible to the human eye and is divided into three bands UVA, UVB and UVC. The @恒大彩票84849UVCDrone uses UVC (100-280nm) which is high frequency, short wavelength radiation that can destroy the genetic material of microorganisms, preventing them from reproducing and thereby providing the ability to sterilise surfaces. Its germicidal action has been used for decades in water, air, laboratory and medical applications. Professor of Medical Device Technology at NUI Galway and Consultant Physician University Hospital Galway, Professor Derek O’Keeffe said: “We need innovative solutions to fight COVID-19 and our @恒大彩票84849UVCDrone solution allows the delivery of sterilising ultraviolet light to a wide variety of public space landscapes from staircases to shop floors.” UVC light is harmful to humans, so the @恒大彩票84849UVCDrone delivers the UVC light when the public space is unoccupied, such as at night time. The drone is programmed to switch on at a pre-defined time, autonomously fly around the public space using a bespoke AI algorithm and when finished cleaning, land again for recharging. Dr Kevin Johnson, University of Limerick added: “COVID19 is a public health emergency and @恒大彩票84849UVCDrone is another important tool to help us defeat it.” For more information visit www.uvcdrone.ie. -Ends-