Dr Antoinette Sabrina Perry B.A., PG DIP., Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Cell and Molecular Biology, UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science,
O’Brien Science Centre
orcid.org/0000-0002-6108-512X, Scopus ID: 8102556100
Contact: antoinette.perry@ucd.ie
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Biographical sketch:
Dr Perry studied at Trinity College Dublin, where she graduated with a BA in Human Genetics in 2001. She subsequently secured a post-graduate scholarship from the Irish Research Council to fund her PhD in the field of prostate cancer epigenetics, which she carried out at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College Dublin. Upon award of her PhD in 2007, Antoinette continued her post-doctoral research in this field at TCD. In 2009, she was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Irish Cancer Society, and subsequently a Young Investigator award from the US Prostate Cancer Foundation (2011-2014). In 2015, Antoinette was appointed as the Breast-Predict Lecturer in Cancer Biology at the School of Biomedical and Biomolecular Science at UCD. In 2018, she took up a post as Assistant Professor in Genetics and Cell Biology at the School of Biology and Environmental Biology, UCD. From 2019-2021, Antoinette was the Vice Principal for Equality Diversity and Inclusion in the UCD College of Science. During this period, she also successfully chaired her School’s application for an Athena SWAN gender equality bronze award. Antoinette served on the Executive Council (as Honorary Treasurer) of the Irish Association of Cancer Research from 2018-2020. Antoinette is the current Head of the Cell and Molecular Biology degree programme at UCD.
Research Interests:
Dr Perry’s research focuses on cancers of the prostate and ovary. She has a particular interest in translational epigenetics; understanding the role of epigenomic aberrations in the pathogenesis of these cancers and harnessing these aberrations to develop prognostic and predictive biomarkers. Research in her lab centres around trying to translate these discoveries into “liquid biopsies” that can act as surrogates for non-invasive tumour detection and monitoring.
Another area under active investigation by the Perry team in these two cancer types, is the potential for plant-derived therapies. Research is currently concentrating on the Cannabis sativa plant, which is an abundant source of cannabinoids, several of which show promising anti-cancer activities. Dr Perry’s group focuses on evaluating the molecular mechanisms behind these effects.
Selected publications:
E O’Reilly, K Khalifa, J Cosgrave, H Azam, M Prencipe, JC Simpson, WM Gallagher, A. S. Perry. Cannabidiol Inhibits the Proliferation and Invasiveness of Prostate Cancer Cells. Journal of Natural Products (2023). PMID: 37703852
Silva, K. Glennon, M. Metoudi, B. Moran, S. Salta, K. Slattery, A. Treacy, T. Martin9, J. Shaw, P. Doran, L. Lynch, C. Jeronimo, A. S. Perry*, D. J. BrennanϮ* Unveiling the epigenomic mechanisms of acquired platinum-resistance in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. International Journal of Cancer (2023). PMID: 36883413
Silva R, Moran B, Baird AM, O’Rourke CJ, Finn SP, McDermott R, Watson RWG, Gallagher WM, Brennan DJ, Perry AS. Longitudinal analysis of personal cfDNA methylome patterns in metastatic prostate cancer. Clinical Epigenetics (2021). PMID: 34454584
Van Hemelrijck M, Ji X, Helleman J, Roobol MJ, van der Linden W, Nieboer D, Bangma CH, Frydenberg M, Rannikko A, Lee LS, Gnanapragasam VJ, Kattan MW; Members of the Movember Foundation’s Global Action Plan Prostate Cancer Active Surveillance GAP3 consortium (A Perry); Reasons for Discontinuing Active Surveillance: Assessment of 21 Centres in 12 Countries in the Movember GAP3 Consortium. European Urology (2019) 75(3):523-531. PMID:30385049
Silva R, Moran B, Fahey C, Finn S, Brennan D, Gallagher WM, Perry AS. Evaluating liquid biopsies for methylomic profiling of prostate cancer. Epigenetics (2020) 15(6-7):715-727 PMID: 32000564
E O’Reilly, A. V. Tuzova, A. L. Walsh, N. M. Russell, O. O’Brien, S. Kelly, O. Ni Dhomhnallain, L. DeBarra, C. M. Dale, R. Brugman, G. Clarke, O. Schmidt, S. O’Meachair, D. Patil, K. L. Pellegrini, N. Fleshner, J Garcia, F. Zhao, S. Finn, R Mills, M. Y. Hanna, R. Hurst, E McEvoy, Movember GAP1 Urine Biomarker Consortium, W. M. Gallagher, R. P. Manecksha, C. S. Cooper, D.S. Brewer, B. Bapat, M.G. Sanda, J. Clark, A. S. Perry. epiCaPture: A urine DNA methylation test for early detection of aggressive prostate cancer JCO Precision Oncology (2019) PMID: 30801051
