Welcome to the course

Thank you for joining us on this course.

Over the next three weeks, we will explore the world of natural products and learn how they can be harnessed to the benefit of the humanity and the world. The weeks are broken down as seen here.

• Week 1: Bioactivity in Natural Products
• Week 2: Natural Products: Opportunities and Challenges
• Week 3: Natural Products and Sustainable Development

Each week will features videos, text articles and quizzes designed to engage and expand your understanding of natural products and how we can best utilise natural resources in a variety of ways.

Find out more about your the educators on this course, and follow their comments by selecting their profiles below and clicking on the follow square.

Prof Helen Sheridan BSc, PhD, FRSC, TCD Professor in Pharmacognosy and Natural Product Sciences in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in TCD, Academic founder and Director of NatPro, the TCD Centre for Natural Products Research and co-founder of Trino Therapeutics Ltd. Helen’s research is in Health Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Natural Product (NP) chemistry, Traditional Medicine (TM), Ethnopharmacology, Global Health and the Bioeconomy. She focusses on addressing global issues that may be resolved using NP approaches.

Dr Maria Pigott BSc (Pharm), PhD, MPSI Maria is a research pharmacist and Head of Science at NatPro in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Trinity College Dublin. Maria is interested in all aspects of drug development from drug discovery and design to human interventional studies, and particularly in the investigation of plants as a source of novel therapeutics for humans and animals. She is a Management Committee member of the COST Action on Medicinal Plants for Animal Health Care: Translating Tradition into Modern Veterinary Medicine (MedPlants4Vet).

Dr Gaia A. Scalabrino, Ph.D. Gaia is a life science professional with strategic and operations experience in product development and sustainability areas across the private and public sectors, currently working as the Executive Director of the NatPro Centre at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Trinity College Dublin. Gaia is a member of the Steering Group of the Irish Bioeconomy Forum, driven by government, and is the first Irish representative on the Board of the International Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research.

Dr Fabio Boylan Associate Professor in Pharmacognosy, Associate Academic Director of NatPro and Director of Global Engagement in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Trinity College Dublin, particularly interested in ethnopharmacology and essential oils. Transdisciplinarity is applied to his approach to teaching and researching, with active engagements with institutions in Brazil, Serbia and Kazakhstan. Dr Boylan supervised several MSc and PhD students from those countries and Ireland to completion.

Assoc. Prof John J. Walsh, BA (Mod), PhD, TCD Associate Professor in Pharmacognosy in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in TCD and Associate Academic Director of NatPro, the TCD Centre for Natural Products Research. John’s research is in Natural Product Chemistry, Drug Discovery and Education. John is the Ireland representative on Committee 13B (Phytochemistry) of the European Pharmacopoeia, Strasbourg.