On October 25th 2019, the Physiology Dept of the Royal College of Surgeons organised a symposium and raffle to raise awareness surrounding brain tumour diagnosis and to raise vital funds for local charity, Brain Tumour Ireland. Dr Brona Murphy, GLIOTRAIN PI and senior lecturer in Physiology at RCSI gave an overview of key results from her lab, whilst GLIOTRAIN students Viktorija and Archita presented scientific updates from their PhD Projects. The hash tag #wearahatday proved exceptionally popular, with almost the whole department turning up wearing a range of very fetching hats. The presenters even got involved, as you can see in the pictures. The event was a huge success, raising in the region of €1000 for Brain Tumour Ireland.

Pictured L – R: Dr Kate Connor, Ms Fiona Keegan (Brain Tumour Ireland),
Ms Viktorija Juric, Ms Archita Biswas.

On October 30th 2019, Archita and Viktorija, along with RCSI post-doctoral GBM researcher Dr Kate Connor and Trinity College Professor of Neurophysiology of Epilepsy, Prof Mark Cunningham took part in a Brain Tumour Ireland event to update patients and their families on research being undertaken in brain tumours in Ireland. Dr Kate Connor presented first, giving attendees an overview of the research activities of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM) Group with a focus on the research being undertaken in GBM in her presentation "New ways of tackling Glioblastoma in the lab". GLIOTRAIN student Archita next presented her talk, entitled "Analysis of two extreme groups of glioblastoma patients". Archita's project seeks to exploit the differences in DNA, RNA and proteins between patients who respond well to therapy and those who respond less well, with the hope that these differences might lead us to new treatment options for those patients who do not respond well to current standard of care drugs. Viktorija Juric presented her research in a talk entitled "A potential new treatment strategy for brain tumour patients". Viktorija used drugs that target specific machinery in cancer cells that mean they keep growing and dividing uncontrollably. The drugs are showing early promise in the lab as they have been shown to kill GBM cancer cells, however the next steps will be to check the mechanism of how the drugs are doing this. It will also be important to confirm that the drugs cross the blood brain barrier and reach the GBM tumour. Prof Mark Cunningham rounded off the excellent evening with a talk explaining his research into treating the epilepsy that arises from the presence of a brain tumour. There were some really good and interesting questions from the audience for all of the speakers.

PPI is a crucial aspect of the GLIOTRAIN outreach strategy and all PIs and ESRs are encouraged to take as many opportunities as possible to get involved in PPI events, schools visits, fundraisers and any other events that help to engage with the wider public and patient communities.

In Feb 2019, Yahaya Yabo and Dr Anna Golebiewska (LIH) hosted a number of high school students from the local area who were on a short internship to the lab. They conducted a lab tour and demonstrated immunofluorescence technique to the students. In March 2019 Dr Golebiewska also participated in the 'Cancer research lab' event organised for the general public within the 'Relais pour la vie' event.

GLIOTRAIN has featured twice in full-length articles in the IBTA's annually published "Brain Tumour" magazine. This has been key in terms of patient engagement, scientist engagement and clinician engagement with the project: the magazine (published annually, approximately 14,000 copies) is sent for free to recipients in 111 countries and widely distributed at international neuro-oncology and cancer conferences. In 2018, an introduction to the project was published with information about the project and PhD training. A glossary was included to explain scientific terminology. The second full-length feature article on GLIOTRAIN (right) was published in May 2019. In this article, each of the GLIOTRAIN Students wrote a short piece describing their project, with the final article being compiled by the Project Manager. Importantly, contributing to this article was a key area of training for the GLIOTRAIN students as the article was written at an appropriate level for a non-scientific audience who have some understanding and engagement / interest in the topic. A vocabulary dictionary was again provided at the end of the article where students had to describe unavoidably scientific language in a simple way - assisting the readers and developing their understanding of the project as a whole.

In March 2019, Mr Ayoub Lasri (RCSI) took part in an event arranged by the Embassy of France in Ireland, "My Thesis in 3 minutes in French". The event was organised as part of the Francophonie Festival. Ayoub presented his PhD project, "Multi-scale mathematical modelling of non-Darwinian dynamics in therapy-induced drug resistance in GBM" at the event which took place at RCSI. Ayoub was awarded the Outreach Prize for his presentation. Congratulations to Ayoub for winning the Best outreach prize for his presentation!

GLIOTRAIN was represented by Dr Alice O'Farrell at The Patient Voice in Cancer Research IV event held at UCD on 11th April 2018. We were delighted to be able to showcase the research plans for GLIOTRAIN and also get some ideas for Patient Public Interaction. PPI is a key part of the training aspect for our PhD students as the benefits of being able to explain your scientific work to a lay audience are beneficial for all and will be key in the future where patient panels will be part of the grant application review process. There were some great talks and networking opportunities with patient advocates and we look forward to building on this in the coming years.

On Friday 9th March 2018 Prof Annette Byrne, GLIOTRAIN Coordinator and Mr Stephen McNally, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital took part in a joint event hosted by Brain Tumour Ireland and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. This was a free event to update the general public on the treatment of GBM from a clinical perspective and also to give updates on the research landscape of the disease, including the ongoing research into GBM being undertaken in the Byrne Group. We welcomed around 50 members of the public to the event and received some great feedback. We look forward to organising similar events in the future. Many thanks to BTI for co-hosting this event.

GLIOTRAIN was represented by Programme Manager Dr Alice O'Farrell, PI Dr Brona Murphy and ESR Viktorija Juric at the "Research and Healthcare Responses to the Challenge of Brain Conditions in Ireland" Conference held at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland on 6th March 2018. The conference, organised jointly by the Irish Brain Council and the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, kicked off #brainawarenessweek. The event focussed on the societal challenges and funding requirements for all brain conditions in Ireland.