Impact

Publications

Spin-Out Companies

Microgen Biotech is a research-orientated spin-out company from enviroCORE at  SETU Carlow that provides bioremediation solutions for the treatment of contaminated soil, groundwater and toxic sediment.

The company uses an exclusive combination of natural soil degrading bacteria and site specific organisms coupled with Ecopile engineering in their unique treatment process. The company was established by Dr Xuemei Liu, a PhD graduate from SETU Carlow, and focuses primarily on the Chinese market.

Microgen Biotech’s technology allows site-specific microbes to adapt quickly to their soil environment and facilitate a slow release system for the introduction of huge numbers of highly active pollutant degrading cells, ensuring a highly efficient remediation process.

Through collaboration with the researchers in enviroCORE, Dr Liu identified a number of bacterial strains with commercial potential. She believed that these strains, developed via her own work as a student and by other researchers in enviroCORE, could be applied to industrial bioremediation projects in China. Microgen Biotech was set up as a spin-out company to commercialise these strains in addition to providing technical know-how and site-specific project management through collaborations with Chinese companies.

Outreach Activities

Part of the enviroCORE ethos stems from the firm belief of its researchers that science and technological development are tools and investment to serve society and community at local, national, and global levels. This is reflected by our approach in developing our projects and educating our students. We value and we pay a lot of attention to human potential and we always aim to reach this, both for our own scientific recruiting in the future, and for raising awareness of what we do in the community and making science and research more approachable to the public.

Cell Explorers

Cell EXPLORERS is a national science education and outreach programme established in 2012 by scientists in NUI Galway.  The aim of the programme is to promote a hands-on discovery of molecular and cellular biology at primary school level (5th and 6th class). The activities involve each child extracting DNA and building DNA models in a fun and well supervised environment.

The Cell EXPLORERS team  in SETU Carlow brings the Fantastic DNA School Roadshow to primary schools in Carlow and surrounding counties. Primary schools are also encouraged to bring their students to the SETU Carlow campus during science week (November) for demonstrations in our science laboratories.

Established in May 2017, the SETU Carlow team is coordinated by Dr Guiomar Garcia Cabellos. Dr. Garcia-Cabellos is assisted by team leaders; Dr Gary Cahill, Dr. Kieran Germaine and Dr Rosemary O’Hara, as well as many of our postgraduate students. The team are active research scientists within envirocore .

If you are interested in us visiting your school or would like to arrange a visit to SETU Carlow during science week please contact the Cell EXPLORERS SETU Carlow team  here .

Other outreach activities include:

• • Science Week and Open Day which take place in November every year. During these events we are delighted to host primary and secondary school students and their teachers, offering them popular science activities, careers advise, tours of our facilities and direct one to one contact with our researchers.
  • Sci Fest. This is an annual event where young students from local schools are encouraged to engage with science in an active, inquiry based, collaborative manner. We take an active role in this event by judging the various entries and discussing their projects with the students on a one to one basis.
  • School visits and public lectures: These are great opportunities to communicate our research and disciplines in a non-technical manner to the wider community. They also raise environmental awareness in the community, with topics including pertinent issues such as global warming, food security and resource sustainability.
  • Local authority participations: Recently enviroCORE advises the Carlow County Council Steering Committee for the Sustainable Energy Action Plan, under The Covenant of Mayors. The Covenant of Mayors is a European movement to mobilise local and regional authorities to meet and exceed the EU 20-20-20 targets of 20% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels, 20% reduction in primary energy use by improving energy efficiency and 20% of EU energy consumption to come from renewable resources.

Engagement with social media; you may find the enviroCORE Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/envirocore/ Please visit and like our page to get our news and developments.