Irish Cancer Society awards funding to translational research scholarship in ovarian cancer
The Irish Cancer Society is delighted to announce that it has recently awarded funding to Adele Connor, University College Dublin, to undertake a translational research scholarship in ovarian cancer.
Adele Connor has been involved in cancer research since joining Dr Antoinette Perry’s lab in University College Dublin (UCD) in March 2019. During this time Adele focused on developing a urine test for aggressive prostate cancer. Previously, Adele completed an MSc in Biomedical Science at the University of Ulster and received a first-class double honours BSc in Biology and Chemistry from Maynooth University.
Adele explains why she applied for this scholarship: “Within a few months of working with Dr Perry, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in cancer biology. My PhD project has been made possible via an Irish Cancer Society scholarship. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be a part of the wonderful community that the Irish Cancer Society have created.
"Their dedication to advancing our knowledge of cancer combined with their enhancement of Public & Patient Involvement (PPI) creates a positive space where researchers and patients can unite to share their knowledge and experiences. This is so important because it helps demystify clinical scientific environments by making complex research findings easier to disseminate. Now I’m at the very beginning of my PhD journey and I can’t wait to get started and to share my findings with the Irish Cancer Society community”.
Adele describes the focus of her project: “Sadly, early stage ovarian cancer rarely shows any signs or symptoms, resulting in most patients presenting with advanced disease, meaning the cancer has spread and does not respond well to anti-cancer drugs.
"Currently, we don’t fully understand the differences in behaviours in ovarian tumours once they’ve spread and I want to change that. Under the mentorship of Dr Perry, Professor Jeremy Simpson, Professor Donal Brennan and Professor Cliona O’Farrelly, we will image ovarian tumours from around the body to understand how their different cell types and features affect a woman’s response to therapy. With this information, we may better understand which drug combinations individual patients will respond best to.
“During my PhD project, I will work with patients and the gynaecological oncology team at the Mater Misericordia hospital to transfer surgically resected tumours from a small number of women to the lab. There I will grow the tumours in 3D, which will provide a realistic view of how cancer grows in the body. Using microscopy, we’ll look at what they’re made of, their differences and test combinations of promising new anti-cancer drugs. My findings will be given back to the surgeon, which may impact the choice of medicine for these patients. This highly personalised medicine plan could hopefully improve survival from ovarian cancer”.
For more information
Phone
1800 200 700
