Trinity student Eileen Diskin wins prize at Falling Walls Lab

November 2011

Trinity College Dublin PhD student Eileen Diskin, School of Natural Sciences, has received an award at the Falling Walls Lab international conference for her presentation on her research into antibiotic resistance. The Falling Walls Lab: Share Your Breakthrough initiative, took place in Berlin on 8 and 9 November, offers the opportunity to 100 excellent young academics and professionals to present their breakthroughs in three minutes.  A distinguished jury of experts from academia, research institutions and business awarded prizes to the three most inspiring breakthroughs. See here for more on Eileen and the Falling Walls Lab

Eileen is conducting her research in Professor David Coleman's laboratory in the School of Dental Science. She is being supervised by Alison Donnelly and David Taylor, School of Natural Sciences. Eileen is a graduate of the MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation where she did her dissertation, a study of gorilla tourism in western Uganda, under the supervision of David Taylor.

Eileen's attendance at this conference was as a result of her involvement in the TCD/UCD Innovation Academy. In her presentation, Eileen discussed breaking the walls to antibiotic resistance, explaining that antibiotic resistance is traditionally thought of as a human problem. However, this is no longer the case as antibiotics are being used in agriculture and other contexts leading to bacteria in wildlife also becoming resistant. Her PhD research uses flamingos as an indicator to show the extent of this resistance in nature. Eileen’s research is focused on the link between wildlife and human health, as the built-up resistance in wildlife has the potential to transfer to humans.