cork and biopsy needle 

This is the cork from the champagne that was opened when I got my PhD viva. My mentor stuck the silver coin in it, for luck I think….  In hindsight I have been lucky, in that I have enjoyed most opportunities during my career.

In order to measure the effect of the nutrient / food element we need to take tissue samples. This biopsy needle represents many adipose (fat) and/or muscle tissues people donated to science to help us understand more in relation to why certain dietary elements are either good, or not so good for us.

jar of coral

I keep this jar of coral and shells in my office. I love the sea, because it is fresh and strong, calming but also furious.

fruit, nut and plastic lemon

This collection of dried out foods, an orange and apple, the shell of a walnut and a plastic lemon represent the range of different foods we might test. Alternatively, sometimes we might take a food element out of its natural form and present it in capsules, so we can give volunteers a specific dose. The capsules are a form of yeast β-glucan (or spent brewer’s yeast) which may have the ability to train our immune system…. Diet can up- or down- regulate our immune response – hence the term immune training. At present my team is very interested in understanding how we can use diet to up/ down regulate metabolism to impact immune responses.  We’ll let you know how we get on in a few years……. 

pestle, mortar, hairdryer

Pestle and mortar – this bridges the kitchen with the lab. You might use this in the kitchen to blend some spices. This is an old one we found in the lab for this exhibition. It could have been used to crush food extracts or drugs for experiments or homogenise little biopsy samples – but more elaborate gadgets have since replaced these. Likewise, the hair dryer!  We regularly need to dry things out at different stages during our experiments, and now we have dedicated equipment for doing all these kinds of things. 

Researcher Profile

helen roche

Originally from Limerick with strong connections to Clare, Helen now lives in Dublin with husband, Jonathan and her teenage children, Elliot, Klara and Hugo and Daisy their nutty cockerpoo.

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helen roche

Originally from Limerick with strong connections to Clare, Helen now lives in Dublin with husband, Jonathan and her teenage children, Elliot, Klara and Hugo and Daisy their nutty cockerpoo.

Find Out More