Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Lab

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Research Engineers

Emer Conroy MSc

After an undergraduate degree in Experimental Physics (Trinity College Dublin) and a Masters degree in Optical Imaging and Optical Information Processing (Queens University Belfast) Emer started out as an Engineer working in R&D focusing on testing and transitioning new products (spectrometers, CCD, and ICCD cameras) from R&D to production.  After  completion of a European Masters in Molecular Imaging (Paris Sud University) Emer joined the CBT lab in order to establish nuclear and CT imaging technologies in UCD.   Emer currently co-ordinates Nuclear, CT and Optical Imaging activities for the CBT lab; training, technical support, imaging protocol design, ethical approvals, local radiation safety officer, licensing etc.

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Research Assistants

Former Lab Members

Research Assistants

Shane Maher

Shane received a 1^st class honours degree in Genetics (BSc) from University College Dublin in 2021. During his degree he carried out a summer research project funded by the Health Research Board, under the supervision of Dr. Maria Prencipe, where he looked at the effect of Serum Response Factor inhibitors on cell proliferation and the cell cycle in prostate cancer cell lines, singly and in combination with the Androgen Receptor inhibitor, Enzalutamide. Upon completion of his summer internship, Shane joined the group in September 2021 as a research assistant. Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, his project focused on targeting co-regulators of the androgen receptor as a novel therapeutic approach for prostate and breast cancer.

Shane Clarke

Shane received a 1^st class honors degree in Genetics and Cell Biology from Dublin City University in 2020. During his undergraduate degree he undertook an internship in the UCD Clinical Research Center located in St. Vincent’s University Hospital. Following on from his undergraduate degree Shane completed his MSc in Diagnostics and Precision Medicine at DCU, receiving a 1^st class honor. Shane joined the CBT group in November 2021 as a research assistant under Dr. Maria Prencipe. His project looked at targeting co-regulators of the androgen receptor as a novel therapeutic approach for prostate and breast cancer.

Christine McCaffrey

Christine graduated from UCD in 2020 at the top of her year with a 1^st class honours degree in Physiology. She was awarded a European Excellence Award Scholarship for her master’s degree in Translational Oncology from Trinity, where she graduated with a 1^st class honours in 2021. From here, she started working as a research assistant in the CBT laboratory under Professor Gallagher and Dr Rahman in December 2021. Christine investigated the applicability of artificial intelligence and digital pathology to predict cancer patient prognosis.

Grace Gormley

Grace received her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from Maastricht University in 2020. There, she took part in an internship at the MERLN Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and completed an internship at the Department of Anatomy & Embryology. In 2021, she moved to Ireland to pursue a Master’s degree at University College Dublin in Biological & Biomedical Sciences where she received a First Class Honor’s, with a focus on Cell & Molecular Biology, and Microbiology. In late 2021, she joined the CBT lab under Prof William Gallagher & Dr Arman Rahman’s group, working on projects involving breast and prostate cancers for the development of optimised prognostic tools and biomarkers.

Darragh Murphy

Darragh joined the CBT group in 2020. His main role is providing support in biostatistics and data management on a number of projects as part of OPTi-Predict group. He was awarded a 1st class honours degree in Medical Science from NUIG in 2019 and went on to complete a postgraduate certificate in Clinical Research in UCD in 2020.

Bronwyn Berkeley

Bronwyn is a research assistant who joined the CBT group in 2018. Her project focuses on integrating non-invasive biomarkers (from serum and urine) with clinical data to better risk-stratify men for Prostate Cancer biopsy. This work spans the groups of Assist. Professor Antoinette Perry and Professor William Watson.  She was awarded a B.A. in Human Genetics from the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin in 2018. Her thesis was under the supervision of Prof. Campbell and involved the characterisation of an animal model of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. She is a Naughton Fellow, completing a project with the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in 2017.

Megan Berkeley

Megan is a Translational Data Co-ordinator/Research Assistant who joined the group in 2019. Her focus is on the data management of two projects as part of OPTi- Predict: TAILORx and iProspect. She acts as a key link between UCD and Cancer Trials Ireland in this respect. She also handles data management issues for the OPTi- Predict and acts as an important support for the project management and reporting aspects of the project. She was awarded a B.A. in Human Genetics from the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin in 2018. Her thesis was under the supervision of Prof. Gwenyth Farrar and involved the optimisation of AAV-mediated gene therapies for inherited retinal degenerations.  She also completed an internship at the Cancer Genetic Clinic, Mater Private Hospital under the supervisorship of Prof. David Gallagher.

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

Dr. Claudia Aura is an MD. specialising in Anatomy Pathology. Claudia graduated from the University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina and obtained the Official Recognition of Doctor of Medicine and Anatomy Pathology Specialist in 2006 from the Ministry of Education and Science, Madrid, Spain.   Claudia has 8 years of research experience working as a Molecular Pathologist in Valld’HebronInstitutd’Oncologia, Barcelona, Spain.   Claudia joined Sys-Mel, a Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways Program,  in Cambridge, UK in April 2015 to assess the manual scoring of immuno-histochemistry on melanoma patient samples.  This work was completed in April 2017 at the Katholic University Leuven, Belgium, under the direction of Dr, Joost van de Ord where Claudia was also was involved in the characterization, classification, and evaluation of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) in Vertical Growth Phase in Primary Melanomas Samples.

Claudia joined the CBT lab as a Research Pathologist in July 2017 to support research pathology and tissue analysis requirements within the Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre, BREAST-PREDICT which involved assisting with the validation and optimization of antibodies for Immunohistochemical staining, carrying out automated assessment of tissue staining using the available software programs, engaging with colleagues and providing training in pathological assessment techniques where required.

Dr. Nebras Alattar PhD, MSc., BSc. Physics

Nebras is working as part of OPTi-PREDICT project funded by SFI. His responsibility centers on analysis, quantification and validation of digital images from IHC stained tissues and developing automated quantification.  Previously he worked on developing optical systems and coherent algorithms for the investigation of pathological bacteria in Nonphotonics & Nanoscopy research group /School of Physics/UCD. This project was funded by SFI/ TIDA.

Dr Cathriona Kearns PhD, AMRSB

Cathriona is a CAROLINE IRC research fellow cofounded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions assessing and communicating risk in the area of translational breast cancer oncology, on an inter-sectoral project with Oncomark, Cancer Trials Ireland and EuropaDonna Ireland. She is an interdisciplinary scientist with a background comprising of the natural sciences, social sciences and medicine. Cathriona has over 20 years’ experience working as an applied, research and epidemiological scientist. Her PhD was an interdisciplinary study evaluating environmental and health risks from pesticide usage, awarded by Queens University Belfast. She worked with the Health Protection Agency London and the Public Health Agency Northern Ireland as an epidemiological scientist and regional surveillance co-ordinator for Northern Ireland in the areas of respiratory, gastro-intestinal and zoonotic diseases for 10 years and prior to that as an applied research scientist with the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Northern Ireland. She is an affiliate of QUB, Ulster University and University of Maryland.

Seodhna is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow working as the translational research co-ordinator under the OPTi-PREDICT project funded by SFI. She achieved her PhD in 2016 under the supervision of Dr Declan McKenna in the Genomic Medicine Research Group at Ulster University on the role of microRNAs and epigenetic regulation in prostate cancer. Her research interests focus on identifying novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cancer for directing personalised cancer therapy. She is hoping to use these interests to help in the fast-tracking of clinical decision support systems for both prostate and breast cancer using clinical cohorts in both the prognostic and predictive settings. She was awarded her BSc degree in Biomedical Sciences from Queen’s University, Belfast in 2010 and her MSc degree in Biomedical Sciences with Specialist Study in Haematology and Transfusion Sciences in 2011.

Dr. Charles C. Weige PhD, BSc Genetics

Charles is a senior postdoctoral fellow under the breast cancer arm of the OPTi-PREDICT project. He is involved in the immunohistochemical validation of the OncoMasTR panel and the interrogation of how each of the proteins impact breast cancer development individually. He received his PhD in Genetics from Texas A&M University in 2012, under Dr. Clinton D Allred, studying the role of estrogen receptor beta activation in reduced risk of colon cancer incidence in women. He held a previous postdoctoral position with Dr. Phillip J Buckhaults at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of South Carolina from 2013-2016, conducting synthetic lethal screening in combination with loss of TP53. His research interests focus on personalized medicine approaches to cancer treatment.

Bruce Moran MSc PhD

Bruce is a core bioinformatician supporting the Irish Cancer Society collaborative research centre BREAST-PREDICT. Previously he worked on the FP7 funded ANGIOPREDICT consortium focusing on metastatic colorectal cancer. His broad research interest is the application of next generation sequencing data to the study of cancer development and progression. This involves but is not limited to RNAseq, exome and methylation data types. He has also collaborated on projects involving medullary carcinoma and cardiomyopathy.

Laoighse Mulrane BSc MSc PhD

Laoighse Mulrane completed her PhD in the CBT lab in 2013. Currently funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Laoighse’s research interests include microRNAs involved in tumourigenic processes in breast cancer, controlling factors in endocrine resistant breast cancer and identification and validation of breast cancer biomarkers.

Triona NiChonghaile PhD

Triona Ni Chonghaile started her scientific career with 1^St class honours degree in Biomedical Science from the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) in 2002. She then went on to receive her PhD in Biochemistry from NUIG in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Samali. Her PhD studies sparked an interest in the BCL-2 family of proteins, which led her to pursue a clinically relevant postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Anthony Letai at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, Boston. Triona joined the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Laboratory in March 2014.  Triona’s research interests involve utilising novel technologies to try and understand why certain cancers are resistant to chemotherapy and deciphering how best to treat the resistant cancers.

Sudipto Das, B.Tech, M.Res, PhD

Sudipto completed his Bachelors of Technology (B.Tech) in Biotechnology with distinction in 2007 from India, followed by a Masters in Research (M.Res) in Biomedical Sciences from University of Glasgow, U.K. In 2012, Sudipto completed his PhD in Cancer Genetics from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland under the supervision of Prof. Ray Stallings. Through his doctoral studies, Sudipto developed a strong interest in epigenetic mechanisms underlying cancer development and progression. Since, 2013 as an Irish Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow he is currently investigating the role of DNA methylation in regulation of the angiogenic switch and response to anti-angiogenic agents in metastatic colorectal cancer patients using novel next-generation sequencing approaches.

Girish Mallya Upudpi MSc

Girish finished his M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2010 at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, with a focus on Signal/Image Processing. He carried out research at the Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC) in IIT, focusing on prostate cancer localization from multispectral MRI.  Between July 2011 and June 2014, he worked in the CBT lab and in OncoMark Ltd. He has considerable experience in digital scanning of tissue slides, and in image analyses. A large part of his work has been the development and implementation of image segmentation algorithms for IHC images (e.g., Nuclear, Membrane, Micro-vessels).  His responsibilities in the CBT lab included the creation of a digital repository of slides, and automated image analyses for the BREAST-PREDICT project. He continues research on image processing, especially image segmentation, which is his primary area of interest.

Research Managers

Dr. Luciana Herda PhD, MSc, MPharm

Dr. Luciana Herda is the Project Manager for the Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre BREAST-PREDICT. Luciana graduated from “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Bucharest, Romania) with a Distinction MPharm in 2012 and subsequently pursued an MSc in Drug Discovery and Development at University College London School of Pharmacy, which she successfully completed in 2013. Following this, Luciana joined the Centre for Bio-Nano Interactions (UCD) in December 2013 as a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher and full-time PhD student, part of the PathChooser ITN programme. Her work focused on strategies to design functionalised nanoparticles for targeting and controlled negotiation of biological barriers (blood-brain barrier). Luciana joined the BREAST-PREDICT centre and CBT lab in February 2018.

PhD Students

Dr. Karima Khalifa 

Dr Flavia Genua

Flavia received her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology in 2015 at the University of Pisa, in Italy. She then completed her MSc in Molecular Biotechnology in 2017 (University of Pisa, Italy) with top grades. Subsequently she was awarded an Erasmus traineeship fellowship to work at the University of Edinburgh for 7 months. She joined the CBT Lab in October 2018 as a PhD Student with a scholarship from the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science. Her project focused on the correlation between Colorectal Cancer and Microbiome status.

Lisa Dwane BSc

Lisa received the Bachelor of Science degree from UCD in 2013, majoring in Pharmacology. Funded by Breast-Predict, the Irish Cancer Society’s Collaborative Cancer research centre, she began her PhD in the CBT lab in October 2013. Her research is mainly focused on the deubiquitinating enzyme, USP11, and its role as a potential novel therapeutic target in ER+ breast cancer.

Brian Mooney BSc

Brian completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry in UCD. He was then awarded an Irish Cancer Society Scholarship to carry out the research project titled “The role of the anorectic neuropeptide CART in breast cancer”. Brian’s main research interests include biomarker discovery and development, functional genomics and dissecting cell signalling networks.

Kate Connor BA (Mod)

Kate completed her undergraduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry in Trinity College Dublin, and began her PhD in the CBT lab in 2011. Her research focuses on two main areas; 1. The effect of PI3K mutations on the response to treatment in Invasive lobular Carcinoma. 2. Determing the structure of the receptor for the cocaine and amphetamine regulated transctript, a molecule which is associated with poor response to tamoxifen in ER positive, lymph-node negative tumours.

Louise Walsh BSc

Louise received her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in 2013 graduating top in her class with a 1^st class honours degree. Louise joined the CBT laboratory in October 2013 and her interests lie in the in vitro and in vivo validation of novel kinase variants for therapy in the Invasive Lobular Carcinoma subtype of breast cancer.