Last Thursday was the final of UCD’s ThesisIn3 competition and it was won by BiOrbic PhD student Morgan Morris. As a result, Morgan will now be representing Ireland in the Universitas 21 international Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition that will run from the 20 September to the 4 October.

ThesisIn3 is an opportunity for researchers to develop their communication skills by attempting to explain their work in three minutes in as engaging a way as possible, as well as gain some experience for the broader, 3MT competition. Meanwhile, the 3MT began in 2008 in Australia and aims to make research more accessible to non-specialist audiences.

Morgan’s entry, titled ‘Lactose in 3: A Cash Cow for Targeting Tumours‘, starts with an interesting statement: cows kill cancer. But how is this possible? Morgan goes on to explain how his innovative work uses lactose to target cancer drugs to specific cells in the body – something he terms a ‘bovine bullseye’ – helping to prevent the side effects cause by systemic drugs.

Morgan joined BiOrbic in 2018 under the supervision of Dr Paul Evans in UCD Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB). His 3MT entry will be uploaded to YouTube soon and we look forward to supporting him at 3MT 2021!

Congratulations Morgan!