UCC Biomedical Science Society – Covid Conference February 2021

Guest speakers included Mr. Paul Reid, CEO of the Health Service Executive, Dr. Cillian De Gascun, Medical Virologist and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory and Louise Barry, Chief Medical Scientist at Cork University Hospital.

Róisín Spriggs, Vice Chairperson of UCC’s Biomedical Science Society and 3^rd Year Biomedical Science student said:

 The idea of doing a Covid talk came last April when Dr. Brigid Lucey, Munster Technological University and Dr. Martina Scallan collaborated to develop a lysis buffer to allow increased Covid testing in Ireland. As students, we wanted to highlight the work that our lecturers were doing, and also the work of medical scientists, scientists and other healthcare professionals. We wanted to show the incredible scientific advances that have occurred during the pandemic, and we believe that we did just that!

The conference gave the opportunity for students and members of the public to hear from experts on novel research and their experiences on the frontline of the pandemic over the last year. A major takeaway from the conference was that collaboration and ingenuity are key in overcoming this virus.

The event was incredibly well received and was attended virtually by over 500 people across Ireland and around the world.

In putting on this conference, the students of UCC’s Biomedical Science were able to highlight the important work of biomedical scientists and frontline workers who continue to work every day to keep us safe.

You can watch the recorded discussions and talks from UCC’s Covid Conference online here.