Cancer

UCD is an established leader in the fields of cancer and personalised medicine, exploring new person-focused approaches using the latest interdisciplinary research from fundamental biological and medical sciences, computer science and clinical expertise. The breadth and depth of our cancer research spans many schools, centres and programmes, fostering excellence and collaboration to improve personalised patient treatment and care.

We believe we have the blueprint for how cancer research and cancer care will look in Ireland in the 21st century
   
  - Professor Walter Kolch

Top 10

Professor Des Higgins in Nature's Top 10 most highly cited research publications of all time

€11.9m

€11.9 million research award in the field of precision oncology from SFI

2nd

Professor Walter Kolch is ranked 2nd in the world for most “Precision Oncology” citations (Google Scholar)

2021

Professor William Gallagher is SFI Researcher of the Year

Research Units and Programmes

All-Island Cancer Research Institute

All-island consortium focused on data-driven discovery science, innovation for health and developing a knowledge economy, in an interdisciplinary approach to health, co-led by UCD's Prof William Gallagher. 

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UCD Cancer Trials Cluster

The UCD Cancer Trials Cluster is a collaborative initiative between UCD and its clinical partners, St Vincent’s University Hospital, the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, and the Cancer Clinical Research Trust, dedicated to measurably enhancing the health and wellbeing of people with cancer through innovative and excellent clinical research. 

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Precision Oncology Ireland

A consortium of universities, cancer research charities, and international companies developing new diagnostics and therapeutics for personalised cancer treatment.

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UCD Clinical Research Centre

Translational Research centre at UCD that supports research across a wide range of disease areas.

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Systems Biology Ireland

Investigating new therapeutic approaches to disease using computational modelling, with a focus on cancer at a systems level.

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UCD Centre for Bioinformatics

Supporting researchers in the areas of bioinformatics, genomics and molecular evolution, focus on sequence alignment, short peptides, protein structure prediction, cancer and pathogens.

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UCD Centre in Translational Oncology

A centre for fundamental and clinical research dedicated to fostering excellence in cancer research and improving personalised patient treatment and care.

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UCD Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research

Interdisciplinary centre exploring mechanisms of health and disease towards the development of preventative strategies and novel diagnostic and therapeutic solutions.

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Irish Prostate Cancer Outcomes Research

A nationwide prostate cancer registry which captures high-quality information from newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients in the Republic of Ireland.

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UCD Centre for Precision Surgery

Bringing together clinicians, researchers and industry to improve surgery, working closely with UCD Anatomy, UCD Biomedical Engineering, UCD Computer Science and RCSI.

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BREAST-PREDICT

A country-wide collaboration between UCD, TCD, RCSI, DCU, NUIG, UCC and Cancer Trials Ireland, funded by the Irish Cancer Society.

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Diagnostic Imaging Research Group

The national training centre for radiography with facilities for education and research including a state-of-the-art imaging suite on the UCD campus.

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UCD Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Lab

Examining extrinsic and intrinsic factors involved in cancer biology and treatment responses as well as the development of novel cancer screening tools and therapies.

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Model Systems for Biomedical Research

Findings from this research are leading to novel methods for maintaining health and for diagnosing and treating disease in humans.

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Impact

epiCaPture: A Urine Test to Catch Prostate Cancer Dr Antoinette Perry

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Oncomark: Spin-out focused on the development of novel panels of cancer biomarkers to aid treatment decisions and allow more tailored patient management

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CLUSTAL: World-leading computer programs used in Bioinformatics for multiple sequence alignment

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Featured Researchers

Prof William Gallagher

Director of BREAST-PREDICT, Co-Lead of AICRI, Deputy Director of Precision Oncology Ireland & co-founder of Oncomark, specialised in identification and validation of molecular determinants of tumour progression in breast cancer and melanoma.

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Dr Antoinette Perry

Co-director of the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics laboratory at the UCD Conway Institute, research focus on translational cancer epigenomics, Co-founder of UCD spin-out EpiCapture.

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Prof Amanda McCann

PI and Senior Conway Fellow in the UCD Conway Institute, Professor in the UCD School of Medicine, specialises in the mechanisms underlying chemoresistance for women with triple negative breast cancer.

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Prof Walter Kolch

Director of Systems Biology Ireland (SBI) and leading international proponent of precision medicine, specialised in quantitative proteomics to characterise dynamically changing signalling complexes in response to mitogenic stimuli.

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Prof Owen Smith

Professor of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine of UCD School of Medicine, Consultant Paediatric Haematologist at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Dublin and Chief Academic Lead to the Children's Hospital Group.

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Prof Helen Roche

Fellow of UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research and UCD Institute of Food and Health, specialised in human nutrition and molecular medicine (nutrigenomics). 

View Helen's profile
19 June 2023

Innovations in Oncology

  • UCD Research, SBI, AICRI

Biology and medicine are morphing into data-driven sciences, and the dream of precision or 'personalised' medicine — finding the right medicine for the right patient at the right time — is coming into reach. Learn about how Professor William Gallagher and colleagues in the All-Island Cancer Research Institute and Professor Walter Kolch at Systems Biology Ireland are 'Enabling personalised medicine for cancer patients across the island through digital revolution,' in our special feature from the frontiers of cancer research.

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31 March 2022

Irish Examiner article: Cancer knows no borders — neither should we

  • Prof William Gallagher, Prof Mark Lawler

The Good Friday Agreement led to a doubling of collaborative cancer research on the island of Ireland in last 20 years, with a coming together of cancer research organisations in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the US. Now, the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI) will build on these decades of collaboration between three nations - a world leader in the fight against cancer.

Learn about AICRI Read article

Publications

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January 2018

Clustal Omega for making accurate alignments of many protein sequences

Protein Science

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December 2018

Learning from data to predict future symptoms of oncology patients

PLoS ONE

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March 2016

Lysosome triggered near-infrared fluorescence imaging of cellular trafficking processes in real time

Nature Communications

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January 2016

Integration of genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data identifies two biologically distinct subtypes of invasive lobular breast cancer

Scientific Reports

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UCD School of Medicine
UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences
Mater Misericordiae University Hospital
St Vincent's University Hospital