PAUL FLEMING BEng
PhD Research Postgraduate (2006-2009)

e: paul.fleming@ul.ie

t: +353-61-202471

Paul Fleming graduated from the University of Limerick with a first class honours degree in Biological Sciences (Education) in 2006. For his final year project, Paul investigated the respiratory techniques of Aphelocheirus aestivalis, a water bug, and the effect of temperature and dissolved oxygen content on oxygen uptake. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to examine the structures which allowed the species to utilise dissolved oxygen without surfacing. After completing his final year project, Paul decided to pursue further research and was awarded an advanced scholarship from the University of Limerick in addition to an IRCSET postgraduate scholarship.

PhD Project Title: Validation of a Microfluidic Platform to Enable High Throughput Screening of Various Compounds

Major pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies are adopting a committal to work within the “European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing”. As such, there is now considerable focus on developing in-vitro toxicity assays to reduce the number of animal tests. Toxicity studies are a vital pre-requisite to clinical trials and are required in-house so as to produce drugs with the appropriate toxicity levels which will aid in the treatment of certain cancers, organ failure and genetic disease. Current toxicity screening methods such as the Embryonic Stem Cell Test (EST) are reliant on cytological rather than molecular markers. This means that only cytopathic effects within the assay system are detected. The addition of specific molecular markers to the screening methods to improve sensitivity and scope will be examined.