Governance

Executive committee of the IACR

Prof. Mark Lawler – President

Professor Lawler currently holds the position as Chief Molecular Geneticist, Director of Cancer Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory St James's Hospital and Associate Professor Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. His research interests involve the use of the knowledge of molecular and cellular processes in the treatment of malignancy.

Dr. David Waugh - Secretary

Doctor David Waugh currently holds the position as Reader in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast.

Dr. Sharon McKenna - Treasurer

Dr. Sharon McKenna graduated from the University of Leicester in 1990 with an Honours Degree in Molecular Biology. She then obtained her Ph.D. at the Leukaemia Research Fund Laboratories, in the University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK. Following several years of post-doctoral research at Cardiff and the Department of Biochemistry, U.C.C., Dr. McKenna was appointed College Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, U.C.C. in September 1999. She lectured on various aspects of Biochemistry and the Molecular Basis of Disease to undergraduate Science, Medical and Dental students.

Dr Michael Carty

Dr. Carty received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Biochemistry at the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 1986. He then obtained a Fogarty International fellowship to carry out post-doctoral research at the National Institutes of Health at Bethesda, MD, U.S.A, in the area of DNA replication in mammalian cells.

Prof. Bill Watson

Associate Professor of Cancer Biology, School of Medicine and Medical Science, UCD, Dublin
Prof. Watson received his PhD degree in Biochemistry from the Department of Biochemistry, University College Cork in 1995, after undertaking his PhD studies in the Department of Surgery and Biochemistry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, he then undertook his post-doctoral research in University of Toronto and the Toronto General Hospital in Canada, before returning in 1997, to Ireland as a College Lecturer/Director Surgical Research Laboratory in the Department of Surgery, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, University College Dublin and was appointed senior lecturer in 2005. Dr Watson is a Principal Investigator in the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research and Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre. He is also Lead Co-ordinator of the Cancer Biology Group in the Conway Institute consisting of 29 lead investigators. Dr Watson is also council member of the Irish Association for Cancer Research and Section editor of the Scientific Discovery section of the BJUInt

Prof. Rosemary O’Connor

Prof. O’Connor carried our her PhD thesis work under the supervision of Thomas G. Cotter on the identification of myeloid-specific differentiation antigens using new monoclonal antibodies. She took up a post-doctoral Fellowship at the Pathology Institute at the University of Wurzburg to characterize antigens identified by monoclonal antibodies circulating in the serum of stomach carcinoma patients. She then moved to the Wistar Institute at U. PENN in Philadelphia and studied the role of cytokines in the growth and differentiation of childhood lymphocytic leukemias and generated a series of human T cell lines with cytotoxic potential.

Prof. Elaine Kay

Consultant Histopathologist/Professor of Pathology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin
Professor Elaine Kay is a consultant histopathologist in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and Professor of Pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She has served on the Board of the Faculty of Pathology since 1996 and as the National Specialty Director for Histopathology in the Republic of Ireland. She has an active research interest in solid organ malignancies with particular focus on markers with diagnostic utility and on markers of disease progression and response to treatment.

Dr. Lorraine O’Driscoll

Lecturer in Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin
Dr. Lorraine O’Driscoll received her B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Pharmacology, University College Dublin and then carried out her Ph.D. studies in Dublin City University, focussing on multiple drug resistance in cancer.
She worked in research for industry (including studies for Berlex; MedaNova Ltd.; Medi-Syn.; Archport Ltd.) before returning to academic research and teaching. Dr. O’Driscoll most recently held the positions of Senior Programme Leader in RNA Biomarker Identification and Translation and Clinical Research Co-ordinator at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology, Dublin City University (DCU). During this time, she lectured on biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, pharmacology, biomedicine and clinical trials in the School of Biotechology, DCU, and was awarded DCU’s Albert College Fellowship and DCU’s inaugural Research Fellowship. Dr. O’Driscoll trained at the University of Miami, Berlex, San Francisco, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University in technologies not previously established in Ireland. In October 2008, she was appointed Lecturer in Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin. The main focus of Dr. O’Driscoll’s research group is on the identification of new diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers & therapeutic targets and, through a bi-directional translational approach, to bring this to the benefit of individual cancer patients through clinical trials. Dr. O’Driscoll is a member of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science’s Research Committee, council member of the IACR, member of EACR and of ICORG, Editorial Board member for 4 journals and Guest-Editor for books on molecular biology techniques and on cancer drug targets.

Dr. Robert O’Connor

Senior Programme Leader -Translational Cancer Pharmacology, National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology, Dublin City University
Robert O'Connor graduated from University College Dublin in 1991 with an Honours degree in Pharmacology. He moved to the School of Biological Science in Dublin City University completing his Ph.D. in 1995 on the analytical pharmacology research of a group of anti-leprosy agents. Dr. O'Connor then moved to the National Cell and Tissue Culture Centre in DCU for a Post Doc studying inhibitors of Multidrug Resistance in Cancer. This work successfully characterised a number of inhibitors of cancer drug resistance.

Dr. Tracy Robson

Dr Tracy Robson holds the post of Reader in Molecular Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast.
Tracy Robson obtained her PhD in Molecular Radiation Science from Imperial College London. Her first academic post was as Lecturer in Radiation Science at the University of Ulster in 1997 and she then moved to the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University of Belfast in 2004 take up the post of Reader in Molecular Pharmacology, within the newly established, Molecular Therapeutics research team.

Dr. Jacintha O’Sullivan

Senior Research Scientist -Education and Research Centre, St. Vincent’s University Hospital/UCD
Jacintha graduated from University College Dublin in 1995 with a first class honours degree in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. She then carried out her Ph.D. studies at the Adrinodack Biomedical Research Institute, Lake Placid, New York and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in the area of cancer cell biology.

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