UCC postgraduates demystify scientific data

A MORE effective vaccination for many viruses could result from research in University College Cork’s microbiology department.

The work of one of its postgraduate research team earned her the top prize in a competition which required students to explain the their work in plain English.

Heather McLaughlin developed the findings of a former postgraduate student who had identified a gene in the listeria monocytogenes bacteria which is required to make iron available from the body. As iron is needed by bacteria to cause infection, the research aimed to find out if removing the gene would reduce the level of infection caused by listeria.