Cancer

Cancer research has led to significant advances in our knowledge of the disease and new targets for its diagnosis and therapeutic manipulation. However, how these are applied to patients still represents a significant challenge for the cancer research community.

The cancer research group in the Institute aim to advance knowledge of this disease and identify new targets for its diagnosis and therapeutic manipulation with a view to improving the prognosis for patients in the clinical setting.

We are strengthened through involvement in two national cancer networks; Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer in Ireland and the Prostate Cancer Research Consortium, which not only give access to a larger critical mass of cancer researchers and clinicians but also facilitate international collaborations.

This unique diversity allows the cancer group to interact and share ideas across the research and clinical spectrum with the vision to bring basic findings into clinical reality. Most importantly, it gives access to the clinical dimension of the disease with access to biological samples.

Members of the group are also involved in the translational section of Cancer Trials Ireland (www.cancertrials.ie), which is the national cancer clinical trials network. These interactions will allow the cancer group to leverage off their basic understanding of cancer into clinical utility.

Research Focus

Basic biology of cancer

• effects of hypoxia on epigenetic regulation
• molecular mechanisms of cytokinesis 
• regulation of survival pathways
• oncogenic signalling networks

Translational research for the discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets

• biomarkers in melanoma, breast and prostate cancer
• tumour imaging using near-infrared fluorochromes
• novel anti-cancer agents