Judy travels to Kilkenny, attends conferences in Dublin and heads to the lab

Derek’s Laboratory at Trinity College

I’ve had the privilege to study under Derek Doherty, an immunologist at St James Hospital, who has a rich diverse experience. It has been a productive week, crowned with attending the 12th IMM Conference in the Molecular Medicine Institute. I was introduced to Derek by Dr Noel Murphy about 3 weeks ago and I begun my training using flow cytometry immediately. I had always thought it to be a straightforward technique until I started doing it myself! It has transformed my knowledge and skills and also led me to realise that flow cytometry can be used in various ways to avail of information that can be utilised to enrich patient management and research. I am now ready to start on the formal research, where Derek’s group is interested in V gamma delta T-cells in HIV and Hepatitis B and the cytokines produced by this small T-cell population. Through this hands-on exposure, I will be utilising the experience to aid me in designing and streamlining my PHD proposal, and thus in the long term it will direct me on the academic journey I have always wanted.

8^th Nordic HIV Conference

The previous week, I attended the 8^th Nordic HIV conference at Croke Park Conference Centre – the home of Irish football. The theme was ‘Positive Living: Healthy Body, Healthy Mind’. It was a turning point in my medical career: I met with the Author of ‘Still standing the Irish story of HIV and Hope’ and it was wonderful to listen to an Irish view of coping with being an Irish HIV-positive mother with children to look after and to disclose to. It was lovely to meet such a brave woman. I also had the wonderful opportunity to listen to a beautifully delivered and eloquent speech concerning HIV, especially the stigma surrounding it from Her Excellence the President of the Republic of Ireland. She also spoke about breaking the barriers of stigma of HIV with respect to travel, and highlighted how President Obama was committed to lift the travel ban on HIV positive people. It is at this point that I learned that for all these years the USA, a major supporter of developing countries as far as HIV is concerned, actually also practices double standards. You could imagine how shocked I was to come to the reality of such marginalisation. This actually left me perplexed and this has led me to further believe that people living with HIV are the best advocates concerning their plight and all we can do is support their effort.

12^th IMM Conference

This was held at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Trinity College where I listened to top researchers at Trinity, who are also top international researchers in their field, present their magnificent work. What I realised is that the intricate teams of researchers were made up of a diverse group: for example, collaboration involved students at Masters, Ph.D and post-doc level, as well as professors at the highest level, all working and collaborating with other related groups. What I would like to communicate to principle investigators in developing countries is that we need to learn to work together in a friendly manner and have a relationship which will allow us to develop great ideas. We also need to learn to appreciate the important position of students in this respect – for example, Masters students involved in research. I know many postgraduate students in Africa will share a similar experience whereby going through postgraduate studies has been stressful, and coupled with minimal or nonexistant guidance, this leads to the cultivation of a population of copper-bitten intellectuals, many of whom will themselves become academics in the future. You can stretch your imagination to establish the position of students who will happen to be under that particular individual taking into account their background training. But I hope that through these collaborations we see a new breed of professors and lecturers who love themselves and thus will easily work with others for the common good and for good research standards. What I have learnt from this is to be a good teacher. The State of the Art talk was delivered by Prof Esther Sternberg, Head of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behaviour at National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, USA. She has written a book called ‘Healing Places: The Science of Place and Well Being’. This important and beautifully written book shows that contemporary medicine has made the same fundamental error about healing and shows how powerful situations and spaces can be in moving people from illness to health.

Kilkenny Castle

As usual I joined the International Students society of NUIM (which I belong to) to travel and visit the city of Kilkenny. I visited St Mary’s Cathedral, which was magnificent and imposing. It is a beautiful piece of art. I also visited the Dominican Black Abbey which is said to have been set in the heart of the ancient kingdom of Ossory. It is about 700 years old and has withstood difficult times.

I also visited the Cathedral Church of Saint Canice, which is also an old church built so beautifully set opposite the Kilkenny Castle on a distant hill.

I also went to the Christmas market which was bustling with happy Christmas shoppers carrying heavy bags. It was a peculiar sight for me because it was like Christmas was tomorrow.

Kilkenny Castle was my last stop visit of the day. It is such a magnificent and dramatic castle, standing in a strategic place and imposing itself over the whole city. It is on the banks of River Nore which runs through the city. It has existed for over 8 centuries and the original Anglo-Norman stone castle was built for William Marshal (the 4^th Earl of Pembroke) who actually opened the Dominican Black Abbey. In the 13^th century it became the residence of the powerful Butler family for the last 600 years. I just wondered how this family could stay in such a magnificent castle for such a long time with different changes of power during those unstable times. Looks like they always changed sides for their safety. We had a tour inside the castle and unfortunately I have no photos to share as photography is forbidden. This really again struck me that in such day and age photography is forbidden like you are on an American army base or embassy. Needless to say the interior was magnificent, done in a gothic style and lavishly furnished, portraying the elegance and style that changed with the fashion of the day. It is possibly still in my memory. Finally we made it back to watch the decisive match between Ireland and France for World Cup qualifications and we all know what happened at Croke Park.

Judy and Laura in Kilkenny