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NANOSCALE BIOPHOTONICS

	Research Interests  Research Vacancies. Latest News. Meetings. Location Biographical Information  Irish Microscopical Society  Undergraduate Lectures (updated for 09/10) School of Chemistry
On Galway bay, 28th October 2001.

Latest News: 

• Summer 09:  We have a new group of summer students joining us this year they include MSc students Loretta Breslin and Neil Murphy, Cesar Maule PhD student from Oporto, Angela Chang, Nadine McCleary & Edel Houghton, and Valerie Murphy.
  
• 23 Oct. 08:  "TIRF's UP":  The Total Internal reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscope has now been installed and is up and running.  It is located in R166 has has a triple laser excitation unit, MT20 white light excitation, EMCCD detector, and a x60 TIRF objective (oil immersion).
  
• 15 Oct. 08:  We have now relocated the laboratories in the School of Chemistry and the microscopy lab. is now operational.
  
• 25 Sept. 08:  The Total Internal reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscope capable of single molecule studies has just been delivered.  We hope to get it operational by mid-October. 
• 25 Sept. 08:  The new lab is approaching completion, we have started moving the microscopy facilities.
  
• Aug 08:  New microscopy lab under development:  The new microscopy lab for the NBL is currently being refurbished and we hope to move in late September.  We intend to co-locate all 5 confocal and single-molecule microscopy systems in a single dedicated location in the School of Chemistry. This facility will comprise of a dedicated room for the confocal live cell imaging and in-vivo spectroscopic measurements, and a separate lab for the materials science and TIRF setups.  This new facility will be air-condition and optimised for all our microscopy needs.  Will post more details later.
  
• Aug. 08: Postdoctoral position in spectroscopy & chemometrics available now for immediate start.
  
• Aug. 08: Postgraduate studentship available in the area of pharmaceutical analysis.
  
• May 08: New Thor Labs Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope (LCSM) installed in lab. More details here.
  
• Mar. 08: New FT-IR, UV-Visible, and TCSPC instrumentation installed in laboratory.
  
• Feb. 08:  Spectroscopy notes for 3Y 2008 now uploaded, available here.
  
• Jan. 08:  The website has now been totally updated.  We are adding new pages and information about facilities, lectures, projects, etc.
  
• Dec. 07:  The NBL has just been awarded funding to acquire a Total Internal reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscope from Science Foundation Ireland.  This will considerably enhance our ability to measure dynamic processes on the nanoscale.  
• Oct 07:  The NBL has been part funded under the National Biophotonics Imaging Platform (a collaborative advanced imaging consortium).  As part of our contribution we will collaborate with partners in the RCSI and other institutions by providing our expertise and instrumentation in FCS, FCCS and other advanced fluorescence methods. The NUIG element is a collaboration between Prof. Peter Dockery of the Department of Anatomy, Prof. Chris Dainty, Applied Optics, Department of Experimental Physics, and Dr. A. Ryder, School of Chemistry.
• Sept 07: Analyze-IQ software page added. See details about our machine-learning spectral analysis software.. 
  

Our news archive page, has a detailed list of past events and activities.

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Forthcoming conferences & meetings:

The 2010 Annual Meeting of the Microscopical Society of Ireland will be held in the University of Ulster at Jordanstown in NIBEC centre. 

Our news archive page, has a detailed list of the conferences and meetings which we have attended.

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Research activities:

The two key research areas are: 1). Process Analytical Technologies: and 2). Advanced Microscopy & Fluorescence. In both areas we focus on the development of novel spectroscopic methods of analysis and measurement using fluorescence and Raman spectroscopies. To do this we take several approaches: firstly, we design and build novel instrumentation so that we can analyse particular classes of samples (microscopic to macroscopic, time and frequency domains), then we conduct fundamental research in order to understand the photophysics and photochemistry of the systems being studied, and finally, we apply this knowledge into the development of measurement methodologies that can be utilised by researchers in the clinical, earth, life, and physical sciences. A detailed description of all our activities can be viewed here.

The group and the research work is very interdisciplinary in nature and involves and amalgamation of biology, chemistry, physics, information technology, and medicine. An Ollsceala article about the group can be downloaded from here.   There is also a piece in the Irish Emigrant online, about the project, it can be accessed here.   The Picture on the right shows Dr. Boyan Li at the upright FLIM-FCS system.

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LOCATION:

The NBL laboratories are located in the Physical Chemistry section (PAT/Chemometrics) of the Arts/Science block and in a new microscopy laboratory downstairs in chemistry. An interactive campus map is available here.

This is R166 showing the confocal Raman, Thorlanbs VCM100, and the upright confocal FLIM.  The boxes in the background contain the TIRF system. This lab is now home to 6 advanced microscopy systems including confocal, TIRF, and FLIM systems.	Another view of the lab. showing rear of the confocal Raman and top of the confocal FLIM.
This is R166 the new microscopy lab (29/09/08) nearing completion.	This is the physical chemistry lab showing UV-Vis, steady-state fluorescence and time-resolved systems on the right.  This lab is mainly used for PAT/Chemometrics research.
This view shows the small special purpose lab, it's configured at the moment for humidity and cryogenic fluorescence (lifetime & steady-state) measurements.	The spectroscopy equipment room is located in Physical Chemistry and contains the XRF, fluorescence steady-state (with multi-cell holder), and lifetime spectrometers, and the Perkin-Elmer Lambda 950 UV-Visible spectrometer (out of shot).

A word document with directions is available here.

Getting to Galway:  Detailed directions for getting to NUI-Galway are available here.
For detailed maps of Galway city and its environs, you should check out www.multimap.com
For the full campus directory (telephone/email/address), you can download an interactive pdf document here.

Biographical Information:

• Honorary President, Microscopical Society of Ireland, Aug. 2008 - present.
  
• Senior Lecturer, School. of Chemistry, NUI-Galway,. Aug. 2006 - present.
• Science Foundation Ireland Investigator, National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, NUI-Galway. 2003-08. 
• Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, NUI-Galway,. September 2003 - July 2006.
• Research Scientist, NCLA/ Department of Physics, NUI-Galway, 1997 - July 2003.
• Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Chemistry, UCC, 1993-1995. 
• Ph.D. (Inorganic Chemistry) 1989-1994, 
  NUI- Galway.  My research project involved the synthesis of asymmetric cationic diene complexes of iron. 
• B.Sc. Hons. ( Chemistry) 1985-1989, NUI-Galway.

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