Firstly, to what extent does the University College Dublin (UCD) and the UCD College of Science offer a dynamic environment for study?

UCD is Ireland’s largest university. We are also proud to have the biggest urban campus of any European university, and this makes for a vibrant community located in a fantastic setting close to the centre of Dublin. The UCD College of Science is based in a state-of-the-art building at the heart of the campus. It is one of the largest faculties in the University, covering life sciences, as well as chemistry, physics, mathematics, geology and computer science. Having all these science disciplines within a single college provides the ideal environment for inter- and cross-disciplinary teaching and research.

When did you become interested in life sciences?

I was interested in biology from a very young age. Similar to many kids, I was fascinated by the world around me and wanted to understand how life on Earth works – particularly that which couldn’t be seen with the naked human eye. At university, I studied microbiology, but then became a mammalian cell biologist. For more than 20 years I have been working on aspects of human cell function, trying to answer basic questions about how they work. Having this passion for fundamental life science is essential to my current role as Vice Principal International for UCD Science as I aim to inspire the next generation of young people around the world.

For how long have you held the role of Vice Principal International and what are some of the benefi ts associated with the position?

I have held this position at the UCD College of Science for the last three years. In this role, I work closely with the Vice Principal Internationals from the six other UCD Colleges, and also with colleagues in our International Offi ce to promote UCD abroad. The work is varied and takes me around the world; a single trip can involve meetings with ambassadors and government ministers, university partnership negotiations, attending education fairs and teaching classes in high schools. In the last three years, UCD has placed a great deal of emphasis on its global activities, so this role has become more complex and time consuming as we endeavour to enhance worldwide recognition of our scientifi c activities in Ireland and in UCD.

The position of Vice Principal International has given me the chance to interact with young people who are thinking about pursuing a career in science. I particularly enjoy delivering classes in high schools, demonstrating how the basic biology taught in text books links to cutting-edge research and the problems that we are trying to solve at UCD.

What other responsibilities do you have at UCD?

I currently have several roles at UCD, all of which come with different challenges. When I am at home in Dublin, I run a research group of 10. My lab develops and applies innovative

Cell Biologist Professor Jeremy Simpson has held a fascination for life sciences from a young age, a passion which has been translated into his research and academic endeavours today. Here, he discusses his role as Vice Principal International and the numerous benefi ts that come with such a position

A passion for life sciences

50 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION

LIFE SCIENCES

With around 30,000 students – 6,000 of whom are international and come from over 120 countries – University College Dublin (UCD) promotes university life as an intellectually stimulating pathway to discovery and a stepping stone to prominent scientifi c careers. More than 50 per cent of UCD’s undergraduates go on to undertake postgraduate studies, demonstrating its fi rm commitment to these values. “The ethos is to provide the highest quality teaching experience, informed by the latest research, and delivered in a dynamic and interactive way,” explains Professor of Cell Biology Jeremy Simpson, who also holds positions as Head of School of Biology & Environmental Science and Vice Principal International for the UCD College of Science. “We want the students we are teaching today to become the top class researchers of the future – UCD brands itself as ‘Ireland’s global university’.”

The University is particularly proud of its international outlook; aiming to utilise inter- and cross-disciplinary research to tackle 21st Century world challenges, it forges strong collaborations between students, researchers and academics from a mixture of backgrounds and experiences. “Indeed, even my own research group of 10 includes seven different nationalities,” Simpson adds.

UCD SCIENCEBoasting the broadest science programme throughout the whole of Ireland, UCD Science offers a range of undergraduate and graduate courses across all the science disciplines, as well as access to leading academics from its newly instated UCD O’Brien Centre for Science. The contemporary O’Brien Centre provides research facilities for data analytics, computation and earth sciences, and has become home to over 2,000 undergraduate students, 1,500 graduates and numerous researchers from a variety of fi elds.

The Centre is world renowned and offers the largest capital investment in science in the history of Ireland (approximately €175m). It also provides state-of-the-art, refurbished laboratories and active learning environments (including classrooms and lecture theatres). UCD aims to enhance innovation, outreach and public engagement activities through the opening of this new resource.

UCD INTERNATIONALThe UCD International team is dedicated to promoting the many opportunities available to its students from overseas. Having a global impact, particularly in an educational sense, is important to UCD, which runs world-class, innovative programmes led by an internationally acclaimed staff. These high-quality programmes can be adapted according

SCIENCE SCHOOLS

UCD Science has a number of prominent schools

• School of Biology and Environmental Science

• School of Bimolecular and Biomedical Science

• School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

• School of Computer Science and Informatics

• School of Geological Sciences

• School of Mathematical Sciences

high-throughput imaging approaches to further our understanding of how cells work. I also oversee the BSc degree in Cell and Molecular Biology and the MSc in Imaging and Microscopy. This role provides leadership opportunities with respect to the content and direction, and is a great platform for interacting with students. I also teach on these and other degree programmes within the wider life science disciplines.

Cell screening and automated imaging are two of the main focal points of UCD Science research. What are the core objectives of these studies? Are there any clinical applications for these projects?

Currently, we are working on a number of screens looking at nanoparticle entry into cells. Although this work is not yet at the clinical stage, nanoparticles have huge potential as drug delivery vectors as they can potentially be targeted to specifi c cell types in the body. We are using cell screening and RNA interference technologies to further understand the mechanisms by which nanoparticles interact with, and enter, cells. This research will ultimately inform the design of next generation drug delivery agents.

Is there anything in particular you hope to achieve during your tenure with UCD Science?

I currently see my main responsibility as being to inspire the next generation of students to become world-class researchers. This in turn will further enhance the international recognition of UCD and UCD Science, and all of the great research that is being carried out here.

University College Dublin is one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities with a vibrant, international research community. Investigators at the UCD Cell Screening Laboratory are working on a number of projects that are taking full advantage of the University’s state-of-the-art technologies

Ireland’s global university

www.internationalinnovation.com 51

to the future learning requirements of students and graduates.

In addition, UCD has set up educational programmes and campuses across the globe, including a number of overseas offi ces. This ‘global footprint’ – as UCD calls it – is enabling the University to develop a high-level, worldwide reputation, providing UCD students with better opportunities to study abroad. It also creates a strong network of international students, generates global employment benefi ts and expands its potential to form transnational research collaborations.

CELL SCREENINGOne example of the University’s inter- and cross-disciplinary research is the Cell Screening Laboratory located within the UCD’s School of Biology and Environmental Science. This cutting-edge facility, led by Simpson and fi nanced by Irish funding agencies such as Science Foundation Ireland, aims to bring together key infrastructure – scientists specialising in cell culture, robotics, automated microscopy and advanced image analysis solutions – to address cell-based challenges.

The Cell Screening Laboratory is working on a number of screens, exploring nanoparticle entry into cells – an emerging area that, although not quite at the clinical stage, could have applications in drug delivery vectors as they hold potential to target specifi c cell types in the body. “We are using cell screening and RNA interference (RNAi) technologies to further understand the mechanisms by which nanoparticles interact with and enter cells,” Simpson clarifi es. “This research will ultimately inform the design of next generation drug delivery agents.”

Housed under UCD Science, the Lab is able to take advantage of global networks to collaborate with investigators from other disciplines as well as UCD research facilities and clusters such as the Centre for Bionano Interactions, the Conway Institute for Biomedical Research and the Earth Institute. “The type of approaches available in the Cell Screening Lab can be exploited not only by life science researchers, but also, for example, chemists developing new biologically active molecules that require testing,” asserts Simpson. “As the image analysis is highly quantitative and potentially involves individually assessing several million cells, a strong link to mathematics is also important.”

EXPLORING THE GENOMEOne key objective of the Cell Screening Lab is to carry out genome-wide RNAi studies, an

approach which originates from Simpson’s time at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Recently, Simpson and his team collaborated with Rainer Pepperkok’s lab at EMBL, whereby they published screens providing the fi rst structured assessment of how human cells secrete material – an important biological process performed by all regulated cells. The collaborators became the fi rst to provide a detailed insight into how this is coordinated by the human genome.

Moreover, through post-human genome sequencing, the Lab has accumulated a large amount of functional information relating to the proteins that exist in cells. The wider challenge here, however, is to evaluate the resulting information and examine how these components interact to give cell networks and tissue their functionality.

In another project, the researchers are utilising high-quality quantitative imaging technology to decipher the complexities of the internal cell environment, as well as the signifi cance of spatial and temporal information, in order to better understand how cell organelles are arranged and controlled. “We are investigating how the different organelles communicate with each other, and how they transport material between themselves,” Simpson adds. “We probe the mechanisms by which cells internalise materials from the outside, for example protein toxins, which can potentially be very harmful to cells.”

Other work being conducted in the Lab includes the examination of cell shape. To this end, cells are exposed to different substrates – a project the team hopes will lead to further understanding of cell behaviour when interacting with human-made biomedical devices.

A LIFE LESSONIn true UCD spirit, the research conducted within the Cell Screening Lab is used to instruct teaching programmes for both under- and postgraduates. Encouraged by and replicated in all UCD Science research labs, this invaluable experience enables students to witness ongoing investigations fi rst-hand. “We hold a number of small group practicals in our research space and provide student access to the research microscopes,” Simpson explains. “I believe this is a great example of how research informs teaching programmes,” he concludes, encouraging students worldwide to take advantage of the progressive thinking and state-of-the-art facilities on offer at this ‘global University’.

SCIENCE AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

OBJECTIVESThe Cell Screening Lab aims to:

• Develop and apply innovative high-throughput imaging approaches to further our understanding of how cells work

• Increase knowledge of the mechanisms by which nanoparticles interact with and enter cells

• Inspire the next generation of students to become world-class researchers by providing the highest quality teaching experience, informed by the latest research

KEY COLLABORATORSDr Rainer Pepperkok, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany

Professor Donal O’Shea, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland

Professor Kenneth Dawson; Professor David Brayden, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

FUNDINGScience Foundation Ireland

Irish Research Council

CONTACTProfessor Jeremy SimpsonProfessor of Cell Biology

School of Biology & Environmental ScienceScience Centre WestBelfi eld, Dublin 4

T +353 1716 2345E jeremy.simpson@ucd.ie

http://bit.ly/Jeremy_Simpson

www.ucd.ie/hcs

@jezsimpson_ucd

PROFESSOR JEREMY SIMPSON holds BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Warwick, UK, and has conducted postdoctoral work at the Scripps Institute in San Diego, USA.

For more than nine years he was a research scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. Simpson is currently Professor of Cell Biology at UCD and Head of the School of Biology & Environmental Science, as well as Vice Principal International for the UCD College of Science. He has authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles, specifi cally in the area of traffi cking in mammalian cells, and automated microscopy screens.

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