News

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2020

24 Dec 2020: Our lab’s manuscript titled “Gene dosage compensation of rRNA transcript levels in Arabidopsis thaliana lines with reduced ribosomal gene copy number” is accepted for publication by The Plant Cell!! Well done Francesca & all!!

17 December 2020: SpillaneLab begins serial screening of lab members & researchers in Aras de Brun using SalivaScreen platform developed in SpillaneLab with SFI Rapid-Response Covid Funding. www.salivascreen.org

10 Dec 2020: Prof. Spillane represents NUI Galway at the Grand Challenges University Alliance 2030 meeting.

3 Dec 2020: Prof. Spillane attends Regional AGM of European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO).

27 Nov 2020: PhD Student Francesca Lopez gives a presentation for COST Action INDEPTH Academy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OtOyNQFyb4

6 Nov 2020: Prof. Spillane, Dr. Peter McKeown and Dr. Galina Brychkova with help from SoillaneLab members runthe Galway Climathon 2020 event.

5-6 Nov 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends the SFI Science Summit 2020.

24 Oct 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane, Prof. Cathal O’Donoghue & Dr. Peter McKeown run the Agricultural Sciences degree pathway stall at the NUI Galway Virtual Undergraduate Open Day. 

21 October 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane gives opening & closing address at IFIAD Annual Conference “Covid-19 & Sustainable Food Systems – Transforming food systems in times of crises.” http://www.ifiad.ie/ifiad-annual-conference-2020/

30 Sept 2020: prof. Charles Spillane gives presentation on Climate Smart Agriculture research activities with partners in VNUA, Hanoi at IRC COALESCE event (online).

23-25 Sept 2020: MScCCAFS Program External Examiner Dr. Andy Jarvis virtual visit to NUI Galway.

9 Sept 2020: Prof. Spillane represents NUI Galway at the Grand Challenges University Alliance 2030 meeting.

9 Sept 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends meeting of NTTRA (online).

9 Sept 2020: PhD viva of SpillaneLab PhD student Zewdy Gebremedhin. Successful defence of PhD thesis!! Congratulations to Zewdy!

8 Sept 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends  virtual launch of EU DESIRA Projects.

24 Aug 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends meeting of National Task Team for Rural Africa.

27 July 2020: Prof. Spillane Chairs meeting of IFIAD Annual Conference Organising Committee. 

20 July 2020: Prof. Spillane attends online meeting of Food-I Consortium.

8th July 2020: Prof. Spillane moderater & organiser of IFIAD Webinar Workshop on “How to address key information gaps in food systems research under COVID-19 restrictions” with speakers from CRS, WFP and GAIN.

3 July 2020: Prof. Spillane attends Regional AGM of European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO).

1 July 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends meeting of NTTRA (online).

25th June 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane is invited speaker for the Launch of the Global Report on “Actions to Transform Food Systems Under Climate Change”, The event is part of the Transforming Food Systems Under a Changing Climate initiative where CCAFS and over 100 partners (incl NUI Galway)  have come together in a new initiative to identify pathways for food systems transformation. The event consisted of a full-day, around-the-world virtual relay event with 13 sessions across 13 time zones that moves across consecutive sessions/themes in Australia, Vietnam, India, Ethiopia, Italy, Netherlands, UK, Mali, USA, Canada and Colombia. Prof. Spillane is an invited speaker in the Session & Panel Discussion hosted from Edinburgh, UK on “Transforming innovation systems to deliver impacts at scale”.https://www.transformingfoodsystems.com/

23 June 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends OECD DAC Review of Irish Aid meeting (online).

9 June 2020: Virtual visit of External Examiner, Prof. Iain Donnison, for the Plant & AgriBiosciences undergraduate degree pathway.

21 May 2020: All PhD students in SpillaneLab successful in their annual Graduate Research Committee (GRC) evaluation.

11 May 2020:Prof. Spillane represents NUI Galway at the Grand Challenges University Alliance 2030 meeting.

28 April 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane chairs meeting of Steering Committee of Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development.

28 April 2020: As Chair of IFIAD, Prof ~Spillane and IFIAD Secretariat attend meeting with Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR).

23 April 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane & PhD student Ronan Cashell attend Genesis research project meeting (online).

23 April 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends Food-I Consortium Meeting (online).

15 April 2020: SpillaneLab PhD student Marijke Hummel PhD viva. Successful defence of PhD research thesis! Congratulations Marijke!

7 April 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends Online Workshop: IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, TCD, Dublin.

3 April 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane, Prof. Michael Zawarotko, Dr. David Styles and C-Minus team make (online) presentation pitch for progression to the Seed Phase of Zero Emissions Challenge program.

2 April 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane, Dr. Aaron Golden, Dr. Andy Jarvis and TAPAS team make (online) presentation pitch for progression to the Seed Phase of AI for Societal Good Challenge program. 

10 March 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane chairs Steering Committee of Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD) in Dublin, Ireland. www.ifiad.ie

9 March 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends workshop in Uni Limerick on C-Minus project within the SFI Zero Emissions Challenge 2020, with partners from Uni Limerick, USA and South Africa.

5 March 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane is a member of the Straregy Development Group for the Strategy 2020-2025 of NUI Galway.

4 March 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends SFI Pitch Training Session with Drury Communications, Dublin, Ireland.

3 March 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends CGUA 2030 Virtual Planning Meeting.

25 Feb 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane attends CCAFS Conference on Transforming global food systems under climate change: Achieving zero emissions in Uni of Copenhagen, Denmark.  https://ccafs.cgiar.org/events/transforming-global-food-systems-under-climate-change-achieving-zero-emissions

24 Feb 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr. Galina Brychkova attend Food-I Stakeholder Consultation Event in AFBI, Northern Ireland. Prof. Spillane faciltates stakeholder consultation at one of the sessions.

14-28 Feb 2020: PhD student Francesca Lopez visits Dr Paolo Pesaresi’s lab to collaborate on the CRISPR-rDNA project.

10 Feb 2020: Prof. Spillane. Dr. Aaron Golden & Dr. Andy Jarvis (CIAT) run national workshop on  TAPAS AI Remote Sensing for Tracking Adaptation Progress in Agriculture in Dept of Foreign Affairs, Dublin.

5 Feb 2020: Prof. Spillane hosts workshop in Ryan Institute on C-Minus project within the SFI Zero Emissions Challenge 2020, with partners from Uni Limerick, USA and South Africa.

1 Feb – 4 Feb 2020: Prof. Spillane and Dr. Aaron Golden planning meeting in Rome with TAPAS team members from Cali and Hanoi, and deliver workshop in FAO, Rome on TAPAS AI Remote Sensing for Monitoring Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture.

29 Jan 2020: Prof. Spillane invited to be member of the National Task Force for Rural Africa (NTTRA). Attends NTTRA meeting in Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Kildare St, Dublin.

28 Jan 2020: Prof. Spillane Chairs meeting of Steering Committee of Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD). www.ifiad.ie

20 Jan 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane meets visiting delegation to NUI Galway from Sri Lanka.

14-15 Jan 2020: Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr. Galina Brychkova attend SFI Future Innovator Prize Challenges Workshop in Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Dublin Ireland. SpillaneLab is engaged in two Challenge teams on the AI for Societal Good Challenge  and the Zero Emissions Challenge.

10 Jan 2020: SpillaneLab online meeting with VNUA, Hanoi collaborators on climate smart agriculture research in Vietnam.

2020

5-6 Dec 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane attends the Grand Challenges University Association (GCUA) General Assembly meeting in SLU, Uppsala, Sweden.

24 Nov 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is member of Panel Discussion on “Climate Action: What Can We Do?” Public Outreach Event at Galway Science & Technology Festival 2019.

22 Nov 2019: Our MScAgriBiosciences program is shortlisted for the Annual GradIreland Awards 2019. Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr. Galina Brychkova attend the awards ceremony in Crowne Plaza, Santry, Dublin.

15 Nov 2019: Prof. Spillane and PhD student Ronan Cashell attend the GENESIS project partners meeting in Teagasc, OakPark, Carlow.  

14-15 Nov 2019: SpillaneLab PhD student Colm Duffy gives his PhD thesis defence and is successful. Well done Colm!!

13-15 Nov 2019: Prof. Paul West from the Institute of the Environment, University of Minnesota visits SpillaneLab as External Examiner for PhD viva of Colm Duffy.

25 Oct 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane, MScCCAFS Program Committee & Ryan Institute organise and run the Annual Galway Climathon in the Porthershed Galway.

23 Oct 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane (Chair of IFIAD) organises and gives opening address at the  2019 Annual Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development Conference in Dept of Foreign Affairs, Iveagh House, Dublin. Conference topic is “Sustainable Diets & Equitable Food Systems in a Changing Climate” with speaker from UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the global program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Devinish Nutrition, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Self Help Africa, Valid Nutrition, World Agroforestry, National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM), Agrikua, Trocaire and NUI Galway.

15 Oct 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane & Dr. Vinh Le Bui (VNUA) attend VIBE Networking Event, UCD, Dublin and present the NUI Galway – VNUA VIBE partnership.

8-11 Oct 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane & MScCCAFS Committee members attend 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture, Indonesia. Excellent MScCCAFS poster presentations & networking with our strategic research partners.

7 Oct 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane attends CCAFS Partnership Advisory Committee meeting prior to 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture, Indonesia.

30 Sept – 4 Oct 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane visits VIBE project partners from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), Hanoi, Vietnam.

24-27 Sept 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is member of scoping visit with Teagasc and Sustainable Food Systems Ireland to Simiyu district of Tanzania to explore research & innovation partnerships to improve sustainability of dairy value chain.

19 Sept 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is Chair of PhD viva examination of Kallyne Barros from Dr. Ronan Sulpice lab. Kallyne’s PhD defence is successful. Well done Kaoline!

12 Sept 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane invited panel member for consultation by OECD DAC Peer Review of Irish Aid, Irish Aid, Limerick, Ireland.

11 Sept 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane and Prof. David Finn host the AgriEconomy Transition meeting in Ryan Institute, focussed on multistakeholder approaches to establishing hemp-based bioeconomy innovation activities in Ireland.

5 Sept 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane, Dr. Galina Brychkova and the MScAgriBiosciences Program Committee organise and run the Annual MScAgriBiosciences Research Conference in NUI Galway, Ireland.

4 Sept 2019: Visiting researcher to SpillaneLab Elsa Chatelan gives presentation on her research to compare sustainability of dairy farming systems in Ireland vs Switzerland.

2 Sept 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane, Dr. Peter McKeown and the MScCCAFS Program Committee organise and run the Annual MScCCAFS Research Conference in NUI Galway, Ireland.

30 Aug 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane gives presentation on “C-Minus Carbon Utilisation Options and Pathways” at SFI C-Minus Workshop, Wicklow, Ireland.

16 Aug 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is external examiner for PhD thesis defence of Anja Herrmann from Prof. Ueli Grossniklaus Lab, University if Zurich, Switzerland. Anja is successful – well done Anja!!

15 Aug 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane invited to become member of Global Advisory group for the global Transforming Food Systems under a Changing Climate initiative. Transforming Food Systems Under a Changing Climate is a  high-level initiative that brings together global leaders in science, business, farming, policy and grassroots organizations to identify pathways for food systems transformation.
https://www.transformingfoodsystems.com/

1-6 July 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane, Dr. Galina Brychkova and Dr. Peter McKeown host our VIBE program partners from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), Hanoi, Vietnam.

25 June 2019: Dr. Peter McKeown and other members of SpillaneLab attend the Irish Plant Scientists Annual Meeting 2019 in Teagasc, Oakpark, Carlow, Ireland.

12 June 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane meets visiting representatives of Vietnamese and Indonesian universities in NUI Galway.

29-31 May 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is member of Organising Committee for the Pathways to Clean Cooking Global Conference, Wexford, Ireland and Chairs the session on Evidence Generation. The Conference makes the Wexford Declaration on “Leaving No One Behind”.
http://www.pathways2cleancooking.info/wexford-2019.html

28 May 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is an organiser of (and speaker) at the 2019 IFIAD Working Groups Summer Workshop on “Towards Mutual Learning for More Effective International Agricultural Development” in Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Kildare Street, Dublin, Ireland.

20-22 May 2019: The External Examiner (Prof Iain Dennison, IBERS) for our BSc (Plant & AgriBiosciences) visiting us in NUI Galway.

29-30 April 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane is invited participant t=at  the Global Alliance or Improved Nutrition (GAIN) “Making Markets Work” Partner Meeting in Department of Foreign Affairs / Irish Aid, Iveagh House, Dublin, Ireland.

25 April 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane chairs the Irish public launch of the EAT Lancet Commission Planetary Health Report in UCC, Ireland.

1 April 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane invited to be member of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) for the International Conference for Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) which will be held in the Waterfront ICC, Belfast, Northern Ireland in June 2021.

19 Mar 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane & Dr. Caroline Ochieng from SpillaneLab organise a Ryan Institute “Clean Cookstoves” Workshop in NUI Galway, with contributions from World Bank, Vita, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and NUI Galway Ryan Institute.

20-21 Feb 2019: Dr. Galina Brychkova attends ECOFE Partner meeting in Bonn, Germany.

6-8 Feb 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane attends ERC LS9 Advanced Grant Panel evaluations at European Research Council (ERC), Brussels, Belgium.  

14-18 Jan 2019: Prof. Charles Spillane invited by Udaras na Gaeilge as member of partnership building 4 person delegation to Boston area to strengthen marine research and innovation linkages between Harvard University, MIT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and UMass.

2019

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2018

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31 Jan 2017: PhD student Marijke Hummel submits abstract on our research with CIP on “Consumer acceptability of OFSP in Malawi among households with children between 2-5 years old” to SPHI 4th annual meeting:  Accelerating OFSP value chain development for nutrition and livelihoods in Africa, 1-3rd March 2017, Kenya.

30 Jan 2017: Prof. Charles Spillane is Chair of the Climate Smart Agriculture Working Group workshop within the Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD). WG meeting in Gorta-Self Help Africa offices, Dublin.

25-27 Jan 2017: Prof. Charles Spillane in Brussels at European Research Council (ERC) Panel Meetings.

16-17th Jan 2017: Prof. Charlie Spillane is External Examiner for Peter Emmrich’s PhD work on development of low ODAP grasspea in the groups of Trevor Wang and Cathie Martin in the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.

9-10th Jan 2017 Prof. Charlie Spillane is invited participant at Uni of York BBSRC Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Workshop on “Scoping the potential for Industrial Biology interventions to add value to non-food and dual purpose crops”

30 Dec 2016 Our lab’s paper on “Tilling by Sequencing (TbyS) for targeted genome mutagenesis in crops” has been accepted for publication in Molecular Breeding.

15-16 Dec 2016 Prof. Danny Geelen (Uni of Ghent) visiting as External Examiner for PhD viva of Peter Ryder. Successful PhD viva defence by Peter. Well done Peter!!

4th Dec – 10th Dec 2016 Dr. Una Murray visiting 3D4AgDev project and partners in Lilongwe, Malawi

1st Dec 2016  Former PhD student Gezahegn Tessema wins prestigious award from Ministry of Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) at the U Thant International Conference Hall, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan. See the NUI Galway Press Release!

28 Nov – 4th Dec 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane visiting his research group’s projects (on biofortification, nutrition, climate change and labour-saving technologies) and partners in Lilongwe, Malawi. The visit included a meeting with the Irish Ambassador and her team in the Irish Embassy Malawi.

24th Nov 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane attends meeting of DAFM launch of National Climate Change Adaptation Plan for the Agricultural Sector in Portlaoise, Ireland. 

22nd Nov 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane attends meeting of National FACCE GRA Steering Group in Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Kildare St, Dublin.

16-18th Nov 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane in Brussels at meeting in European Research Council (ERC).

14th Nov 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane attends Annual SFI Science Summit in Croke Park, Dublin. 

13th Oct 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane attends launch of Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD) in RDS Dublin. Prof. Spillane is Vice-Chair of IFIAD and leads the IFIAD Climate Smart Agriculture working group.

5th-6th Oct 2016 Prof. Charlie Spillane and postdoc Dr. Melanie Thomas attend the 2016 VICCI Meeting in Teagasc Oakpark to provide update on DAFM funded project on barley and wheat.

4th Oct 2016  PhD student Marijke Hummel presents the research we have conducted in Malawi in partnership with CIAT, CIP and Concern on acceptability of biofortified crops amonst rural communities at the National Stakeholders Meeting on Biofortified Crops in Malawi held in SunBird Lilongwe Hotel.

29 Sept to 3rd Oct 2016  Dr. Una Murray and Zewdy Gebremedhin from our group’s 3D4AgDev Program in Limbe, Cameroon to present our results and participate in GIZ GRFAS Workshop on “Improving Responsiveness of Agricultural and Rural Advisory Servces in the Context of Climate Change and Agripreneurship in Western and Central Africa”.

29 Sept 2016  PhD student Martin Braud PhD viva – successfully defends his research on bioinformatics of miRNA variation in Bos taurus and the extinct Bos primegenius. Well done Martin!

15 Sept 2016 Former lab member, Dr. Shane Morris from Hydropothecary Ltd, Canada visiting and giving a seminar on technican and regulatory innovations in the medical marijuana industry in Canada.

2 Sept 2016  Successfully organised the first MScCCAFS Annual Research Conference in PABC, NUI Galway.

31 Aug-3 Sept Dr. Andy Jarvis (MScCCAFS External Examiner) from CIAT, Cali, Colombia visiting.

15 July 2016 Prof Charles Spillane represents PABC as Panel Member on AgTech Innovation event in Portershed Galway, where Yield Lab USA announce establishment of Yield Lab Galway AgTech Accelerator in Galway.

14 July 2016 Prof Charles Spillane and Dr. Peter McKeown attend launch of IIEA Climate Smart Agriculture report in Buslwells Hotel, Dublin.

16 June 2016 Prof. Charles Spillane elected as Vice-Chair of Irish Forum on International Agricultural Development. 

10 June 2016 SpillaneLab / PABC outing to Teagasc Farming & Country Life 1916 event in Athenry. Co. Galway.

6-10 June 2016 Dr. Marc Deletre will present our lab’s research on “Going Viral: Using Social network Theory to explore the social dynamics of the cassava mosaic virus pandemics” at the 13th International Plant Virus Epidemiology Symposium, Avignon, France

11-14 May 2016  SFI team (Spillane, McKeown, Fort & McHale) attends the International Conference on Polyploidy, Hybridization and Biodiversity (ICPHB2016) in Rovinj, Croatia. Oral presentation by Dr. Antoine Fort on overcoming inter-ploidy and inter-species seed abortion blocks. 2x poster presentations by Dr. Peter McKeown and Dr Marcus McHale on parental effects in reciprocal triploids, and also on phenomics approaches for heterosis investigation in plants.

08-12 February 2016: Transition year students Niamh O’Reilly (Colaiste Iognaid) and Trinity Gask (St Endas) join our Genetics & Biotechnology Lab for their secondary school Transition Year placement.

26-29 January 2016: Dr. Una Murray and Zewdy Gebremedhin are invited participants presenting a poster on the results from our Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded 3d4AgDev project  at the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project (GAAP2) planning meeting on the Womens Empowerment Index in Agriculture Index (WEIA) in Nairobi, Kenya.

15 January 2016: Prof. Charles Spillane attends SFI Centre briefing session in Dublin. 

13 January 2016: Prof. Charles Spillane attends inaugural meeting of Irish Forum for International Agricultural Research for Development.

17 December 2015: Prof. Charles Spillane attends Teagasc Technology Foresight 2030 Workshop No 5: Vision & Next Steps, Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland.

17 December 2015: Collaborative manuscript with Tabib et al. submitted to G3: Genes, Genomes and Genetics entitled ‘Maintenance of a triplet repeat expansion underlying a temperature-sensitive growth defect in wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations on the island of Ireland’ (currently under review).

14 December 2015: Prof. Charles Spillane attends BioChanges 2 event on Merging Design Engineering & Synthetic Biology at Royal College of Art (RCA) & Imperial College BioHackspace, London, UK.

10 December 2015: Dr. Peter McKeown and Prof. Charles Spillane attend Practical Communications Training Session for SFI researchers, The Enterprise Centre, NUI Galway.

7 December 2015: Prof. Charles Spillane is invited expert for consultation at IIEA / RDS Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA): Workshop II on topic of “How can Ireland respond to the global food security and climate change challenges?”, Royal Dublin Society (RDS), Dublin.

4 December 2015: Dr. Peter McKeown is an invited chair at the Colloquium of Animal and Plant Ecological Research, NUI Galway.

26 October 2015: Our lab members (Martin Braud, Mark Donoghue, Charles Spillane) are co-authors on the genome sequencing of the extinct aurochsen (ancestor of modern-day cattle).

Stephen D E Park, David A. Magee, Paul A. McGettigan, Matthew D. Teasdale, Ceiridwen J. Edwards, Amanda J. Lohan, Alison Murphy, Martin Braud, Mark T. Donoghue, Yuan Liu, Andrew T. Chamberlain, Kévin Rue-Albrecht, Steven Schroeder, Charles Spillane, Shuaishuai Tai, Daniel G. Bradley, Tad S. Sonstegard, Brendan J. Loftus, David E. MacHugh (2015) Genome sequencing of the extinct Eurasian wild aurochs, Bos primigenius, illuminates the phylogeography and evolution of cattle. Genome Biology. 16:1-5.

18-20 November 2015: PhD student Marijke Hummel attends the DSAI postgraduate workshop (18 November) & Conference (19-20 November) which was themed: “Transformative Change? The Role of Evidence-Based Research and Impact in Global Development”.

4-16 October 2015: PhD student Marijke Hummel attends the 13th postgraduate course on the production and use of food composition data in nutrition organized by Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

5 October: Dr. Sandesh Swamidatta delivers investor pitch on ‘Yeast-based feed supplements for Pig Nutrition’ in the SFI TIDA pitch off event finals organised by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), in association with the DCU Ryan Academy, in Science Gallery, Dublin. The event is part of the Startup Gathering 2015 initiative.

2 October : Dr. Sandesh Swamidatta selected as one of the finalist’s in the “Investor Pitch” contest as part of SFI/TIDA “Get Started Technology Venture Programmes” conducted by DCU Ryan Academy in Dublin.

9-11 September 2015: Prof. Charles Spillane, Dr. Una Murray and PhD student Zewdy Gebremedhin are invited participants in the 2015 GCE Xcelerator Pilot Meeting at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. Their 3D4AgDev presentation wins 2nd prize in the pitch-off competition at the workshop.

7-8 September 2015: PhD student Peter Ryder selected as attendee at the GARNet-OpenPlant CRISPR-Cas Workshop: 7-8 September, John Innes Centre, UK.

8 September 2015:. Dr Marcus McHale attends 2nd Irish Arabidopsis Meeting at Maynooth University, Ireland. Presents a talk on our lab’s development of “A low-cost, scalable phenotyping plaftorm for Arabidopsis”.

8 September 2015: Dr. Sandesh Swamidatta attends 2nd Irish Arabidopsis Meeting at Maynooth University, Ireland. Presents a talk on “A de novo gene in Arabidopsis thaliana confers tolerance to iron deficiency”.

3 September – 2nd October: Dr Sandesh Swamidatta attends SFI/TIDA “Get Started Technology Venture Programmes” conducted by DCU Ryan Academy in Dublin.

1 September 2015: Manuscript on “Disaggregating polyploidy, parental genome dosage and hybridity contributions to heterosis in Arabidopsis thaliana” from our lab’s SFI work published in New Phytologist, and highlighted on SFI website news. 

25 August 2015: Our collaborative work with colleagues in Brazil results in paper by de Souza Cardoso et al,. ‘Genome-wide identification and characterization in silico of microRNAs, their targets and their processing pathway genes in Phaseolus vulgaris L.’ that is published in Plant Biology.

21-23 August 2015: PhD student Marijke Hummel attends a workshop on Citizen Science & GIS at the geography department in NUI Galway.

21 August 2015: Our lab is a partner in the successfully funded EU-RISE consortium SexSeed (DLV-690946).

18 August 2015: Successful PhD viva examination for Angela Mina Vargas PhD research collaboration with CIAT on  “Molecular analysis of evolutionary relationships of Phaseolus dumosus with the gene pool of common bean”. Well done Angela!

13-14 July 2015: Dr. Marc Deletre presents our research results on “Tracking down the pandemics: a graph theoretical approach for exploring the social dynamics of the Cassava Mosaic Virus pandemics in Central Africa” at the British Ecological Society 2015 Symposium on The Ecology and Evolution of Emerging Plant Pests and Pathogens: Challenges to Global Food Security and Ecosystem Resilience, Uni of Exeter, UK.

12 June 2015: Prof. Charles Spillane gives invited presentation on Enabling Women’s Empowerment with Labour-Saving Farm Tools:3d4AgDev Program at Teagasc / NUI Galway Research & Knowledge Transfer for Global Food Security Workshop in Royal Society Dublin (RDS), Ireland.

25 May 2015: Prof Charles Spillane gives invited talk on “Climate proofing biofortified crops for maternal and child nutrition” at Dochas Climate Smart Agriculture event, Dublin.

13 May 2015: PhD student Marijke Hummel attends the Report Launch of the Cost of Hunger in Malawi study: The social and economic impact of child undernutrition. Lilongwe, Malawi, Bingu International Conference Centre.

11 May- 30th June 2015: PhD student Marijke Hummel on fieldwork in Malawi, where she was based in our partner organisation CIAT at Chitedze research station, Malawi. Marijke conducted stakeholder interviews with different organizations and companies in Malawi that are producing, working with or have an interest in biofortified beans. MArijke also conducted fieldwork in 3 communities (Northern and Central Malawi) on women’s cooking preferences of beans and sensory tests of different bean varieties with a total of 150 farmers.

11-12 May 2015: Dr Sandesh Swamidatta attends 2nd Irish Arabidopsis Meeting at Maynooth University, Ireland. Presents a talk on “A fasciation phenotype caused by a T-DNA insertion shows a paramutation-like phenomenon in Arabidopsis thaliana.”

11 May 2015: Dr. Antoine Fort presents the SFI program’s work on the triploid block at the annual IPSAM 2015, Maynooth University.

8 May 2015: Marijke Hummel awarded a Thomas Crawford Hayes Travel Award to attend workshop on nutrition and public health in relation to Marijke’s PhD research.

May 2015: Dr. Peter McKeown was part of a three-person SFI-ISCA Research Delegation to Brazil which visited the Institute of Biosciences-University of Sao Paulo (USP), University of Campinas (Unicamp), Institute of Agriculture Campinas, Esalq Piracicaba, USP-Sao Carlos and UFLA (Federal University of Lavras).

31 March – 14 November 2015: PhD student Brendan Hallahan and Dr. Eva Fernandez conduct a sugar beet heterosis field trial in conjunction with industry partner.

25 March 2015: PhD students Brendan Hallahan, Colm Duffy and Marijke Hummel organized the first NUI Galway Climate Congress in the Bailey Allen hall on the NUI Galway campus. Speakers were Dr. Tara Shine (Mary Robinson Foundation), Ian Lumley (An Taisce) and Carla Sarrouy (University of Warwick).

12-15 March 2015: Dr. Marcus McHale attends the 57th Annual Maize Genetics Conference at St. Charles, Illinois, U.S.A. Presents poster on our IRC-funded research on “Assessing the potential for epigenetic gain in maize (Zea mays) hybrids through novel epiallele specific heterotic interactions”.

15 March 2015: Dr. Peter McKeown is awarded a  Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)-funded grant ‘Conservation and use of Irish malting barley’ (2015), Genetic Resources Grant, 15/GR/12.

March 9 – 13, 2015: PhD student Brendan Hallahan selected as participant at EPPN Spring School on Plant Phenotyping, at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, University of Aberystwyth, Wales.

3-6 March 2015: PhD student Marijke Hummel attends the 2nd International Congress ‘Hidden Hunger‘ organized by Hohenheim University, which was held in Stuttgart, Germany.

26 February 2015: Prof. Spillane and colleagues organised PABC showcasing event, involving multiple presentations from PABC members.

23 February 2015: Prof. Spillane gives presentation on Brazil-Ireland agribiosciences and biorefinery collaborations at Brazil-Ireland Science Week, Dublin Castle, Ireland.

5 February 2015: Prof. Spillane gives invited talk on “Parent-of-origin specific genome dosage effects in Arabidopsis thaliana” at the University of Milan.

19 January 2015: Dr. Peter McKeown and Dr. Ronan Sulpice publish paper entitled ‘Moving towards a comprehensive map of central plant metabolism’ in the Annual Review of Plant Biology, 66:187-210 [Impact Factor =18.9].

5 December 2014: Dr. Antoine Fort makes entrepreneurship pitch on Ploidy Bio-technology at SFI TIDA event in Dublin City University.

24 November 2014: PhD student Sandesh Rao successfully defends PhD thesis research on Orphan genes in Arabidopsis thaliana in viva voce exam. External examiner is Prof. Jim Haseloff from University of Cambridge. Well done Sandesh!!

17 November 2014: PhD student Gezahegh Tessema successfully defends PhD thesis research on yam genetic diversity in viva voce exam. External examiner is Prof. Rodomiro Ortiz from Swedish Agricultural University (SLU). Well done Gezahegn!!

5 November 2014: Prof. Spillane in Science Foundation Ireland (Dublin) to conduct mock interviews of shortlisted ERC Consolidator candidates from Ireland.

3-4 November 2014: Prof. Spillane attends SFI Science Summit 2014 in Athlone, Ireland.

3 November 2014: PhD student Mercy Kitavi successfully defends PhD thesis research on East African Highland Bananas in viva voce exam. External examiner is Dr. Awais Khan from International Potato Center (CIP). Well done Mercy!!

30 October 2014: Prof Spillane gives invited presentation on our lab’s NUIG-CCAFS/CIAT research project on Climate proofing of biofortified beans for maternal/child nutrition in Malawi to the members of the European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD) group during their meeting in RDS, Dublin.

22-24 October 2014: Prof. Spillane attends the IARU Sustainability Science Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

19-20 October 2014: Prof. Spillane is host to visiting delegation from Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Brazil led by Prof. Maria Laene M. de Carvalho.

15 October 2014: Prof. Spillane chairs Plant & AgriBiosciences Research Centre (PABC) montly meeting.

12-16 October 2014: Zewdy Gebremedhin and Veronica Guwela are invited speakers at the 35th Meeting of the Southern Africa Bean Research Network in Swaziland. They will present latest results from the ongoing NUI Galway – CIAT Malawi agricultural research for development work.

13 October: Prof. Spillane attends EPSO Working Group on Plant/Crop Research with Developing Countries, GIZ Offices, Brussels.

9 October 2014: Prof. Spillane participates in PhD thesis committee of Anja Hermann, PhD student working on plant epigenetics in Prof. Ueli Grossniklaus lab, Uni of Zurich.

15 July 2014: Manuscript on “Reduction in Carotenoid Levels in the Marine Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum by Artificial MicroRNAs Targeted Against the Endogenous PHYTOENE SYNTHASE Gene” accepted in Marine Biotechnology. Well done Simrat!

22-24 June 2014: Prof. Spillane attends European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO):FESPB Congress in Dublin (of which he is a member of Local Organising Committee). 

21 June 2014: Prof. Spillane attends AGM of the European Plant Science Organisation of which NUI Galway is an institutional member.

20 June 2014: Our lab hosts the 1st Irish Arabidopsis meeting in NUI Galway bringing together all Arabidopsis researchers in Ireland. 17 talks by Arabidopsis researchers from NUI Galway, TCD, NUIM, UCD and UCC.

16-18 June 2014: Dr. Edna Curley attends the AAB Breeding Crops to Cope with Future Climate Change conference at Uni Leeds, UK. Presents lab poster on our research on “Climate-proofing maternal and child nutrition in Malawi using iron and zinc biofortified beans”.

13 June 2014: Prof. Spillane and NUIG-CCAFS project team attend workshop on “Research and Knowledge Transfer for Global Food Security” at Royal Dublin Society (RDS). Prof. Spillane gives talk on Plant & AgriBiosciences Research for Development underway in NUI Galway.

8 May 2014: SFI-supported team members of the Genetics and Biotechnology Lab give research presentation to Dr. Janice Murtagh, Science Foundation Ireland.

6 May 2014: Manuscript on “Next-generation sequencing based genotyping, cytometry and phenotyping for understanding diversity and evolution of guinea yams” accepted in Theoretical and Applied Genetics (TAG). Well done Gezahegn!

30 April 2014: Our lab’s application to Science Foundation Ireland for funding for our research on “Harnessing epigenetic and genome dosage effects on hybrid vigour for sustainable crop and food production” is placed on a reserve list for funding.

29 April 2014: Dr. Marc Deletre (Marie Curie Fellow) in Gabon on field work to investigate relationship between social systems and genetic diversity of cassava. Will spend next 15 days in a patrilineal farming community in Gabon.

28 April 2014: Dr. Simrat Kaur, recent PhD graduate from our lab starts work as a Microalgae Biotechnologist with local company Algae Health Ltd (Galway).

25 April 2014: Our lab’s collaboration with colleagues in Canada to sequence the genome of the allo-polyploid biofuel crop Camelina sativa is published in Nature Communications.

17 April 2014: Application for SFI Plant and Agri-Food Innovation Centre (PAFIC) submitted.

20 February 2014: Prof. Spillane and Dr. Edna Curley host local meeting on agricultural research in NUI Galway, with Dale Crammond Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is a guest speaker.

18 February 2014: Prof. Spillane attends meeting of Leonardo Group advisors to the TCD Science Gallery.

12 February 2014: Prof. Chris Gehring from KAUST visits lab and gives talk on cyclic nucleotides in plants.

29 January 2014: Prof. Chris Bowler (ENS, Paris) visits Genetics & Biotechnology Lab as external examiner for Simrat Kaur’s PhD thesis. Simrat passes her PhD viva. Well done Simrat!

27 January 2014: Dr. Edna Curley gives presentation on AgriNua Ltd start-up at Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) conference in Limerick.

20 January 2014: Girum’s research on maize biofortification featured in national press (Irish Times Innovation section and the Examiner). Girum does radio interview on NearFM.

16 January 2014: Scientific delegation from IBMCP, Valencia, Spain visiting lab and the Discpline of Botany and Plant Science.

19 December 2013: Girum’s paper is accepted in BMC Plant Biology. Well done Girum!

Azmach G, Gedil M, Menkir A and Spillane C (2013) Marker-trait association analysis of functional gene markers for provitamin A levels across diverse tropical yellow maize inbred lines. BMC Plant Biology (in press). Impact factor: 4.35

13 December 2013: Prof John Greally from Centre for Human Epigenomics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York visiting SpillaneLab.

11 December 2013: Successful PhD viva for Antoine Fort in NUI Galway. Antoine is now Dr. Fort. Well done Antoine!

9 December 2013: Reetu’s paper on “Cytoplasmic male sterility-associated chimeric open reading frames identified by mitochondrial genome sequencing of four Cajanus genotypes” published in DNA Research early this year (2013) awarded as the “Outstanding Scientific Article—RP-GL” at Annual Day celebrations at ICRISAT, Hyderabad.

4 December 2013: Dr. Edna Curley presents poster on our lab’s research on biochar crop yield trials at the Technology Centre for Biorefining & Bioenergy (TCBB) Bio Base NWE Technology Workshop 2013, NUI Galway.

28 November 2013: PhD student Martin Braud presents poster on cattle miRNA bioinformatics and genomics at Annual Teagasc Walsh Fellowships Seminar Event, Dublin, Ireland.

24 November 2013: Dr. Peter McKeown and Anish Kumar introduce visitors and schoolchildren to the use of Arabidopsis as a model organism at the “Next Top Model” competition as part of the Galway Science Festival.

22 November 2013: Dr. Edna Curley and Dr. Galina Brychkova complete their SFI TIDA Entrepreneurship Training Course at the DCU Ryan Academy by presenting their Plant Bio-Business Elevator Pitches to a panel of 10 judges from the business sector.

21 November 2013: Nimblegen (Roche) visiting SpillaneLab.

15 November 2013: SpillaneLab members Reetu Tuteja, Anish Kumar and Martin Braud attend VIBE 2013 meeting in NUI Galway.

15 November 2013: Our lab’s collaboration with Dr. Mary O’Connell’s lab (DCU) on Molecular adaptation of telomere associated genes in mammals is published in BMC Evolutionary Biology.

Morgan CC, Mc Cartney AM, Donoghue MT, Loughran NB, Spillane C, Teeling EC, O Connell MJ. (2013) Molecular adaptation of telomere associated genes in mammals. BMC Evol Biol. 2013 Nov 15;13(1):251.

11-12 November 2013: Dr. Tatsuo Kanno (Japan) visiting SpillaneLab.

7 November 2013: Our lab’s epigenomics paper identifying parent-of-origin effects on transcript levels in triploid plants accepted in DNA Research.

Donoghue MT, Fort A, Clifton R, Zhang X, McKeown PC, Voigt-Zielinksi M, Borevitz JO, Spillane C. (2013) CmCGG Methylation-Independent Parent-of-Origin Effects on Genome-Wide Transcript Levels in Isogenic Reciprocal F1 Triploid Plants. DNA Res. 2013 Nov 7.

5 November 2013: P.K. ANISH KUMAR represents Botany and Plants Science at the Post graduate open day at Bailey Allen Hall, NUI Galway.

4-5 November 2013: Prof. Spillane attends annual SFI Science Summit in Athlone, Ireland.

3-7 November 2013: Dr. Peter McKeown is invited by the Croatian Ministry of Science & Education to participate in reaccredition panels for two Croatian plant research institutes (Agricultural Institute of Osijek and Croatian Forestry Research Institute).

27-30 October 2013: Prof. Spillane invited participant and presents research at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Conference in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

25 October 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane gives invited talk at EMBRAPA, Brasilia, Brazil. 

24 October 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane gives invited talk at Universidade Federale de Uberlandia, Brazil.

23 October 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane gives invited talk at Universidade Federale de Lavras (UFLA), Brazil.

22 October 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane research visit to Chemistry Department and the Botany Department of University Sao Paolo.

21 October 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane, Theme Leader for Sustainable Energy & Agroproduction in the Research Brazil Ireland (RBI) initiative gives presentation on the theme at the launch of RBI in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The RBI launch was made by the Irish Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn.

15-17 October 2013: Prof Charles Spillane is invited speaker on oilseeds biotechnology (focussing on Camelina sativa) at European BioJet Fuel Mission to Saskatoon, Canada.

10-11 October 2013: Dr. Galina Brychkova, Sandesh Swamidatta and Peter Ryder attend “GMO Technology Conference:The Regulation and Use of GMO Technology in Ireland.”, The Printworks, Dublin Castle

10 October 2013: Our lab’s collaboration with Dr. Anne Parle-McDermott’s lab (DCU) on miRNA regulation of genes involved in neural tube defects (NTDs) published in Human Mutation.

Minguzzi S, Selcuklu SD, Spillane C, Parle-McDermott A. (2013) An NTD-Associated Polymorphism in the 3′ UTR of MTHFD1L can Affect Disease Risk by Altering miRNA Binding.
Hum Mutat. 2013 Oct 10.

9 October 2013: Dr. Peter McKeown attends meeting with collaborators at University of Milan to discuss ongoing plant polyploidy research.

3-6 October 2013: IITA: NUI Galway PhD student Gezahegn Girma gives talk on “Ploidy level, morphological variation and genomic diversity between and within guinea yams” at the 1st Global Conference on Yams, Accra, Ghana.

20 September to 22 November 2013: Dr. Edna Curley and Dr. Galina Bruchkova undergo entrepreneurship training via the SFI TIDA funded “Get Started Technology Venture Programme” 2013. (DCU Ryan Academy, 3013 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24)

17 September 2013: Peter Ryder (3rd year Ph.D student) adjudicated at a secondary school (Coláiste Iognáid, Co. Galway) debate on the ethics of cloning as part of an outreach program of the Genetics and Biotechnology lab.

1-3 September 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane attends the 7th European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) Conference in Greece.

20 August 2013: Visit of Tony Dolan and Francis Njange Kamau from Baraka Agricultural College, Molo, Kenya, which functions as a Farmers Training Centre for smallholder farmers in Rift Valley Province. The mission of the College is ‘to promote SARD in Eastern Africa through dialogue, participatory education, training research and extension’.

5-11 August 2013: PhD student Girum Azmach travels from IITA to Nairobi, Kenya for a Molecular Breeding workshop on Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS).

23 July 2013: Publication of:

McKeown P.C. Keshaviaiah C., Fort A., Tuteja R., Chatterjee M., Varshney R., Spillane, C. “Harnessing genomics to improve nutritional content and bioavailability of plant-derived foods” (2013) in: “Biotechnology in Agriculture and Food Processing: Opportunities and Challenges” (Panesar P.S. and Marwaha S.S., eds., CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group USA).

11 July 2013: Visit of Andy Doyle, Tillage Editor of the Farmers Journal to our research group. Andy is a Council Member of the Irish Tillage and Land Use Society and member of the Crops and Energy Commodity Stakeholder Group which was involved in the production of the Tillage Sector Development Plan 2012.

10 July 2013: Andrea Guazzotti from Prof Lucia Colombo’s lab in Uni Milano visits our lab under COST HAPRECI STSM to conduct collaborative research on ovule development in Arabidopsis thaliana.

26 June 2013: Our lab’s paper on emerging opportunities for harnessing heterosis in crops accepted in Trends in Biotechnology.

McKeown PC, Fort A, Duszynska D, Sulpice R and Spillane C (2013) Emerging molecular mechanisms for biotechnological harnessing of heterosis in crops. Trends in Biotechnology (in press). Impact factor: 9.148

24-28 June 2013: Amanda Tabib (PhD student, SKB Lab, Monash Uni, Australia) presents poster at ICAR 2013 Sydney on results from collaborative research project on trinucleotide expansions between Spillane Lab and SKB Lab (Monash University, Australia) on “Phenotypic variation in a local island population of Arabidopsis thaliana“. This work is based on collections of accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana we have established across the island of Ireland.

27 June 2013: Dr. Peter McKeown is re-elected as Secretary of the Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust.

6 June 2013: Matheus’s work on identification of novel miRNAs in Protostomes published in Journal of Molecular Evolution. Well done Matheus!

de Souza Gomes M, Donoghue MT, Muniyappa M, Pereira RV, Guerra-Sá R, Spillane C. (2013)
Computational identification and evolutionary relationships of the microRNA gene cluster miR-71/2 in protostomes. J Mol Evol. 2013 Jun;76(6):353-8

27 May 2013: Reetu’s work on pigeonpea mitochondrial genome sequencing accepted in DNA Research. Well done Reetu!

Tuteja R, Saxena RK, Davila J, Shah T, Chen W, Xiao Y-L, Fan G, Saxena KB, Alverson AJ, Spillane C, Town C and Varshney RK (2013) Cytoplasmic male sterility associated chimeric ORFs identified by mitochondrial genome sequencing of four Cajanus genotypes. DNA Research (in press). Impact factor: 5.2

21-22 May 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane attends GARNet Plant Synthetic Biology Conference at the University of Nottingham, UK.

18-21 May 2013: Our lab’s bioinfomatics work on “Computational identification and evolutionary relationships of the microRNA gene cluster miR-71/2 in Protostomes” wins the SBBq Award for best poster presented during the XLII Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SBBq) held in Foz do Iguaçu, Parana, Brazil, May 18-21, 2013. Well done Matheus!!

16-17 May 2013: Our lab majorly involved in the hosting and organisation of the Irish Plant Scientists Association Meeting 2013 (IPSAM2013). Seven talks and two posters by Spillane lab members. Masters student Heike Huther wins prize for best poster! Well done Heike!

16-17 May 2013: Reetu Tuteja gave a talk on ‘Pigeonpea improvement by sequencing of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes’ in IPSAM meeting, Galway, Ireland.

15-16 April 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane attends Hunger-Nutrition-Climate Justice Conference in Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland.

2-4 April Dr. Peter McKeown attends meeting of the Ecological Genetics Group (EGG) at Queen’s University Belfast.

27 February 2013: Prof Tim Sharbel (IPK Gatersleben) visits NUI Galway to give aBPS Seminar on apomixis

14-15 February 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane attends the Bioeconomy in the EU Stakeholders Conference in Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland.

31 January 2013: Our lab’s research demonstrating epigenetic parent-of-origin effects on gamete fertility and ovule number in triploid plants published in New Phytologist.

Duszynska D, McKeown PC, Juenger TE, Pietraszewska-Bogiel A, Geelen D, Spillane C. (2013)
Gamete fertility and ovule number variation in selfed reciprocal F1 hybrid triploid plants are heritable and display epigenetic parent-of-origin effects. New Phytol. 2013 Apr;198(1):71-81.

15-16 January 2013: Prof. Charles Spillane attends the Feeding the World in 2050 meeting in UCD, Dublin.

15 January 2013: Mercy Kitavi’s research (collaboration with IITA) on genetics and epigenetics of East African Highland Bananas presented in Banana Genomics session at at Plant and Animal Genome XXI, San Diego, USA.

15 January 2013: Dr. David Magee (UCD) presents overview of collaborative work on cattle imprinting with UCD Animal Genomics group at the Animal Epigenetics session at Plant and Animal Genome XXI, San Diego, USA.

14 January 2013 – Prof. Ian Graham (CNAP) gives invited talk in BPS Seminar series.

12 January 2013: Reetu Tuteja’s research (collaboration with ICRISAT) on next generation sequencing of pigeonpea mitochondrial genomes presented in Cool Season Legumes session at Plant and Animal Genome XXI, San Diego, USA.

6-7 December 2012– Prof Charles Spillane invited as external examiner for PhD student in University of Leicester.

23rd November 2012: Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr. Peter McKeown attend board meeting of conservation charity Genetic Heritage Ireland

Oct 31- Dec 2, 2012: PhD student Gezahegn Tessema (NUIG/IITA) visits the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center (IBRC), Japan for Training and research work on SuperSAGE for characterisation of flowering and sex-related genes in Guinea yam.

9-12 Sept 201: Prof Charles Spillane gives presentation on FAO-EPSO initiative on Joint FAO & EPSO Conference on Plant Sciences for Sustainable Crop Production to EIARD group of donors for agricultural research in Nyon Switzerland.

2-4 Sept 2012 – Prof Charles Spillane sits on ERC Advanced Investigator (LIfes Sciences) grant evaluation panel, Brussels.

27-28 September 2012: Prof Charles Spillane evaluating grant proposals at COST DC Food and Agriculture meetings, Brussels.

21 September 2012: Prof Charles Spillane attends FAO-EPSO meeting in Brussels.        

17-19 September 2012: Prof Charles Spillane attends CGIAR-CAADP meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

24 August 2012: Prof Charles Spillane is invited external examiner for PhD student from Prof Ueli Grossniklaus lab, University of Zurich.

9-11th July 2012: Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr. Peter McKeown (COST MC Members) attend the Harnessing Plant Reproduction for Agricultural Improvement (HAPRECI) COST Meeting at the University of Porto. Poster presentation.

25-27 June 2012 – Prof Charles Spillane is one of the major organizers of the international Joint FAO & EPSO Conference on Plant Sciences for Sustainable Crop Production, Rome (IT), June 201

23-26th June 2012: Dr. Peter McKeown is speaker and session chair at the Annual Conference of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE 2012) at the National Convention Centre, Dublin.

1 June 2012 – Prof Liam Dolan (Oxford University) visits Botany and Plant Science as external advisor to degree program.

28-31 May 2012 – Prof Charles Spillane invited reviewer / panel member on ERC Advanced Investigator panel, ERC Brussels.

7-10th May 2012: Prof Charles Spillane, Dr. Peter McKeown and Antoine Fort attend the International Conference for Polyploidy, Hybridization and Biodiverstiy (ICPHB 2012) at the Czech National Botanic Gardens, Pruhonice Castle, Czech Republic. Antoine Fort & Dr. Peter McKeown presents SFI polyploidy work in talk and poster.

3-4^th May 2012 – Prof. Ortrun Mittlesten Scheid visits NUI Galway lab for PhD viva of Dorota Duszynska

3-5th April 2012: Dr. Peter McKeown is session chair at the Irish Plant Science Association Meeting (IPSAM 2012) at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.

2 April 2012  – Prof Spillane attends Genetic Heritage Ireland meeting in Dublin.

26 March 2012 – Prof Spillane attends the National Committee on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to review grant proposals, Department of Agriculture, Backweston, Ireland.

17 March 2012 – Prof Charles Spillane attends COST Sustainable Protein Supply Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

14-16 March 2012 – Prof Charles Spillane attends COST DC meeting Amsterdam for evaluation of COST network applications.

9th February 2012: Spillane Lab is host and organiser of the AgroBiodiversity Ireland – Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Annual Conference (AgBioDiv2012) held at NUI Galway.