Ms. Caroline Barry

I spent four years in UCD undertaking a degree in Industrial Microbiology. Here I learned about the different aspects of microorganisms and how they relate to different areas of the industrial sector ranging from genetics, environmental, biosynthesis to medical. My fourth year project involved looking at bacterium known as Rhodococcus equi. This bacterium is an important pathogen of pneumonia of foals. The basis of the project was to determine the virulence of the virulence associated proteins (VAP) genes.

After my degree, I worked as a Clinical Data Coordinator in Quintiles and Innovex in Dublin. My main duties and responsibilities included all aspects of validation of Clinical Trials data. This involved, among other tasks, reviewing data discrepancies, statistical analysis, generating and updating data queries, the review and update of quality control tasks and ensuring that patient data listings were correctly maintained in compliance with the national and international regulatory authority.

I undertook a Masters in Biomedical Diagnostic in the Biomedical Diagnostic Institute (BDI) in DCU. This was a multidisciplinary course that dealt with a wide range of topics from genetics, immunology to nanobiotechnology. The project for my Masters was developing a compact disc (CD) based centrifugal microfluidic device for the determination of proteins in milk. Following on from the Master’s, I worked as a research assistant for 9 weeks in the same institute.

In December 2009, I started my PhD in the Adaptive Sensors Group in National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) here in DCU. The objective of my PhD is to determine the enzyme activity of glucose oxidase in a novel material known as ionogels. These ionogels are ionic liquid polymer gels and are based on ionic liquids.

The Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death, is estimated that there are 170 million diabetics worldwide. Point-of-care (POC) glucose biosensors play an important role in the management blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes. One of the most commonly used enzymes used in glucose biosensors is glucose oxidase (GOx). GOx is one of the most widely studied enzymes. It is a biorecognition enzyme which recognises the glucose molecule and acts as a catalyst to produce gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of glucose and oxygen. The focus of my project is to study the catalytic effect of glucose oxidase in an ionogel. This will provide a platform for measuring the enzyme activity for a wide range of enzymes.

Conferences:
Ionogel-biosensor: Novel Ionogels Based on Ionic Liquids as platforms to measure Enzyme Activity of Glucose Oxidase in Real Time. European Materials Research Society (EMRS), Strasbourg, France 6th -11th June 2010
Optical Approaches for the Determination of Proteins in Biological Matrices. International Dairy Federation (IDF) Mastitis Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand. 21st-24th March 2010