November 2008 NUI Galway Postgraduate Researcher Awarded Fellowship in The Netherlands

Michael Keeney, a postgraduate researcher at NUI Galway, has been awarded a fellowship, at a prestigious University in the Netherlands, to advance his work in the area of tissue engineering. His focus is on the latest science which aims to persuade the body to heal itself by increasing cell repair in degenerated tissue. Michael Keeney, who is originally from Donegal Town, will spend three months working at Radboud University, Nijmegen, which has a long history of bone and tissue engineering research. He is excited about the opportunity: "This fellowship will allow me a unique opportunity to test our functional biomaterial in one of the best research labs in Europe. The three months should prove invaluable to my research career". At NUI Galway, Michael Keeney is an Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) scholar and is in the final year of his dissertation under the supervision of Professor Abhay Pandit. In November 2007, Professor Pandit and his team were awarded €4.3 million for the development of a Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering research cluster at the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, NUI Galway. According to Professor Pandit: "NUI Galway is developing critical mass in the area of next generation biomaterials. Each individual researcher is playing an important part in our work and Michael is a perfect example. He has been an exemplary student and scientist since he came to the University in 2001. His research is advancing the field of tissue engineering and will have possible applications in bone and cartilage regeneration following injury of damage due to disease". Michael Keeney will be based in the Netherlands from January to March of 2009. The fellowship was awarded by the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). -ends-