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Dr. Fiona Freeman

Associate Professor (Ad Astra Fellow)

Dr. Fiona Freeman is an Associate Professor and Ad Astra Fellow in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD). She graduated in Biomedical Engineering in 2011 and earned her PhD from the University of Galway in 2016, focusing on developing new strategies for bone tissue regeneration. Afterward, Dr. Freeman was awarded two prestigious postdoctoral fellowships: the Government of Ireland IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship. These fellowships provided her with opportunities to work as a postdoctoral researcher in renowned labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brigham and Women's Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, and Trinity College Dublin. She is the recipient of the prestigious New Investigator Recognition Award (NIRA) from the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) (2020) and was named a Top Innovator under 35 from MIT Technology Review in 2023.

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fiona.freeman@ucd.ie
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Dr Amanda Guitián Caamaño

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Amanda Guitián Caamaño is a postdoctoral researcher in the Freeman Lab at University College Dublin (UCD). She earned her biology degree in 2017 and her PhD cum laude in 2024 from the University of A Coruña, Spain. Her PhD research at the Biomedical Research Institute of A Coruña (INIBIC) focused on metastatic melanoma and developing therapies to combat treatment resistance, supported by a prestigious PFIS grant from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). She completed research stays at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK), CIB-Margarita Salas in Madrid, and CiMUS in Santiago de Compostela. Currently, in collaboration with Hooke Bio, her research evaluates the Mera platform's efficacy compared to existing 3D culture systems to optimize T-cell therapies for liver cancer and osteosarcoma.

amanda.guitiancaamano@ucd.ie
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Dr Victor Burgueño Sandoval

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Víctor Burgueño Sandoval is a postdoctoral researcher in the Freeman Lab at University College Dublin (UCD). He earned his degree in Chemistry in 2018 and his PhD cum laude in 2024 from the University of Barcelona, Spain. His doctoral research at the Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona (PCCB) focused on combining an oncolytic adenovirus with chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of retinoblastoma, neuroblastoma, and Ewing sarcoma. During his PhD, he also completed a research stay at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona.
Víctor's current work explores the cGAS/STING pathway as an immunomodulatory target in osteosarcoma. His research aims to develop nanoparticle-based delivery systems to selectively activate STING and enhance anti-tumor immune responses.

victor.sandoval@ucd.ie
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Dr Aoise O'Neill

Postdoctoral Researcher

Aoise O’Neill is a postdoctoral researcher in the Freeman Lab at the UCD Conway Institute. She earned her BSc in Industrial Biochemistry from the University of Limerick in 2018, and then spent two years in Vancouver, Canada, working at AbCellera Biologics. During her time there, she contributed to therapeutic antibody discovery for infectious diseases. Aoise returned to Ireland to pursue a PhD in tumour immunology at the University of Galway. Her PhD research focused on investigating post-translational modifications as drivers of stromal cell immunosuppression in colorectal cancer, with the goal of targeting this mechanism to reignite innate anti-tumour immunity within the tumour microenvironment.

Aoise’s current work explores the STING pathway as a novel immunotherapeutic target in osteosarcoma, investigating nanoparticle delivery of a STING activator in combination with chemotherapy to enhance anti-tumour immunity and improve disease outcomes.

aoise.oneill@ucd.ie
Jordan O'Donoghue PhD Researcher

Jordan Christopher O'Donoghue

PhD Researcher

Jordan is a PhD researcher in the Freeman Lab based in the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research. Jordan earned his BSc Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UCC in 2021. He then went on to earn an MSc Biochemistry from UCC in 2023, with his research focused on the role of IGF-1R proteolysis in breast cancer metastasis.

Jordans current work focuses on the cGAS/STING pathway as an immunomodulatory node in osteosarcoma. Combining novel bioengineering approaches, and his background in cell biology, immunology, and biochemistry, his work aims to develop nanoparticle delivery systems for the targeted stimulation of STING as a means of bolstering anti-tumour immunity.

jordan.odonoghue@ucdconnect.ie
Máire Coghlan

Máire Coghlan

PhD Researcher

Máire is a PhD student in the Freeman Lab. She obtained her BSc degree in Biomedical, Health, and Life Sciences at UCD in 2024. Máire's current research focuses on developing and characterizing Patient-Derived Tumor Spheroids (PDTS) from patient tumour samples as a clinically relevant 3D cancer model of osteosarcoma

maire.coghlan@ucdconnect.ie
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Erick Solorio Gonzalez

PhD Researcher

Erick is a PhD student in the Freeman Lab and is Mexican-born. He has a background in Biomedical Engineering, holding a BSc from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara (2021), and a 2-year MSc in Nanotechnology from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey (2024). Erick’s current research focuses on designing and developing an osteosarcoma-on-a-chip device that mimics the osteosarcoma tumour microenvironment.

erick.soloriogonzalez@ucdconnect.ie
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Ruth Gregg

PhD Researcher

Ruth is a PhD research student at UCD, currently in the first year of her 4-year PhD at UCD. Ruth received an MEng (Hons) in Materials Science from University of Oxford, with her Masters project specialising in biomaterials. Ruth’s research focuses on developing an ultrasound-responsive hydrogel implant for immunomodulation driven bone regeneration. This work is supported by the EU HORIZON-MSCA-2022-COFUND scheme through the CÚRAM-MedDevDoc program.

ruth.gregg@ucdconnect.ie
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Palesa Caroline Mphaka

PhD Student

Palesa is a PhD research student at University College Dublin in the NIBRT GlycoScience group. She is currently in the first year of her 4-year PhD programme at UCD. Palesa received a bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine from SUA, Tanzania and has recently completed her MSc in Precision Medicine at University College Dublin (2024). Palesa's research focuses on investigating how glycans influence chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer using advanced 3D engineered models. This work is supported by the EU HORIZON-MSCA-2022-COFUND scheme through the CÚRAM-MedDevDoc program.

palesa.mphaka@ucdconnect.ie