Prof. Annette Byrne

Principal Investigator

HEAD - PRECISION CANCER MEDICINE GROUP

Prof Annette Byrne is Professor (Physiology) and Head of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM) Group which was established in 2008 at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

In 1999, having gained a PhD in Cell Biology at the University of York, UK, Prof Byrne was awarded the John Kerner fellowship in Gynaecologic Oncology from the University of California, San Francisco. During this period she was engaged in the elucidation of novel angiogenesis targets involved in the development of ovarian cancer, as well as interrogating the in vivo activity of novel therapeutics.

Subsequently, Prof Byrne was recruited as Scientist by Pharmacyclics LLC (Sunnyvale, California) to investigate the mechanism of action of a new class of radiation/ chemotherapy under clinical development. In 2003 Prof Byrne relocated to New York where she was employed as Senior Scientist in Angion Biomedica Corp, whose main focus was developing therapeutics which manipulated angiogenesis signaling pathways. Prof Byrne returned to Ireland in 2005 to the position of Principal Investigator at University College Dublin's Conway Institute. During this engagement she was instrumental in establishing Ireland's first comprehensive Tumour Xenograft Facility and translational Pre-clinical Imaging Centre.

Prof Byrne was recruited to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2008 as tenured Lecturer (Physiology) and Principal Investigator, RCSI Centre for Systems Medicine & Dept of Physiology and Medical Physics. Prof Byrne was promoted to Snr Lecturer in 2013 and to Associate Professor in 2017. 

In 2019 Prof Byrne attained the position of full Professor.

in 2020 Prof Byrne became Director of the National Preclinical Imaging Centre (NPIC)

Dr Alice O’Farrell

Research Programme Manager

I graduated from Loughborough University in 2005 with a BSc in Human Biology. I subsequently completed a Masters at Cranfield University in Molecular Medicine before embarking on a Cancer Research UK funded PhD at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Bradford, which I completed in 2011. During this time I established a panel of bioluminescent colorectal cell lines which were used to analyse the effects of various anticancer agents, including vascular disrupting agents, in a variety of tumour models.

I moved to RCSI in 2012 as a Marie Curie Fellow to work on the AngioTox project where I performed the preclinical imaging experiments. I have subsequently worked on a number of projects where I have led the preclinical imaging and tumour model studies.

In 2017 I moved into research programme management as the Project Manager for GLIOTRAIN, an RCSI-led H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Network. I currently work on the GLIORESOLVE project, which is a follow-on project to GLIOTRAIN and is an RCSI-lead Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Network.

Dr Frank Lincoln

Postdoctoral Researcher

I earned my Bachelor's degree in Bioanalytical Science from Technological University Dublin in 2011. During my studies, I was fortunate to gain hands-on lab experience, which deepened my passion for research. My final-year thesis explored the impact of pro-inflammatory cytokines on the pancreatic alpha cell proteome in diabetes.

After completing my Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Biochemistry at RCSI in 2017, I became increasingly interested in bioinformatics. I focused on using computational tools to study cellular behaviour and complexity in 3D organoid systems, with the goal of optimizing cell therapy development and organoid-based models.

In 2024, I joined Prof. Byrne’s group as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where I contribute to a range of multi-omics projects. My work combines advanced omics technologies and machine learning-based models to identify biomarkers that can improve precision medicine for patients with brain tumours and colorectal cancer.

Mr Liam Shiels

Senior Tumour Biologist

In 2002 I graduated from St Mary’s University College (Twickenham, UK) with a BSc (Hons) degree in Health & Human Science, and Sport Science. Following this I spent 5 years working at GE Healthcare as a lab technician. As part of the pre-clinical R&D team I performed biodistribution studies and QC batch release testing for a number of radiopharmaceutical product.

In 2010 I joined Prof Byrne’s group as part of the SFI Funded Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer Ireland (MTCI) strategic research cluster. As part of this cluster I performed a number of pre-clinical studies investigating novel treatments for breast cancer. I also assisted in a number of studies as part of the FP7 funded AngioTox and AngioPREDICT projects.

In 2015 I completed my MSc by research in Prof’s Byrne’s lab.

Currently I am investigating the efficacy of novel treatments in metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) using clinically relevant surgical orthotopic models of CRC.

Mr Colum Connolly

research assistant

I completed my B.Sc. in Biopharmaceutical science at Dundalk institute of technology (DKIT) in 2020.  

My first experience of research was my fourth year thesis; gene expression of protein kinase 2 (Chk2) in irradiated and non-irradiated human embryonic kidney 293 cells (HEK293). It was through this experience that I knew I would like to pursue a role in research.

My first position upon leaving college was working in Enfer medical carrying out Covid- 19 PCR testing during the pandemic. It was a great experience working in a Highly regulated busy environment.

In Oct 2022 I joined the PCM group as a research assistant. My role centres around the HEA funded RADCOL project. The aim of the project is the development and validation of a CT-based Radiomics signature for early detection of colorectal liver metastases and post treatment disease recurrence. This is a collaborative effort between RCSI, Queens university Belfast (QUB) and the National Preclinical Imaging Centre (NPIC).

Mr Mohannad Dabbour

marie curie PhD Candidate

During my Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy, obtained at Jordan University of Science and Technology in 2019, I developed an interest in cancer research motivating me in taking part in an in vivo Pharmacokinetic study in a murine model at the department of Pharmaceutical Technology.

Following on from my B.Sc., I was granted with the Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship to study Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (MSc) at the University of Pecs, Graduating in 2022. During my studies I worked on a research project aiming to develop a 3D co-culture in vitro model for the rare lung cancer disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis. For this project, I applied multiple in vitro modelling techniques and validated these models using Biomolecular assays.

I was recently accepted onto the GLIORESOLVE PhD programme funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie DN initiative. During this research project, we will employ bioinformatics analysis and spatial proteomics to Identify novel TME subtype-specific treatments for GBM. In collaboration with BAYER AG, we aim to assess these novel treatments in clinically relevant pre-clinical models.

Dr Suzanne Murphy

RCSI StAR MD scholar

I graduated with a degree in general nursing from Trinity College Dublin 2011. Following this I worked as a staff nurse and later a clinical nurse manager while completing a post graduate qualification in tissue viability and wound management.

I returned to full time study in 2015 and completed a medical degree in RCSI. After graduating in 2020 I completed my internship as an academic intern in the Mater, carrying out research into neurological development in children with ventriculomegaly between the National Maternity hospital and Temple Street.  

I completed my basic surgical training in Beaumont hospital and began working as a neurosurgery registrar in  December 2022. In July 2023 I started my MD through the RCSI StAR MD programme. During this time I will continue to work in neurosurgery in Temple street.

Dr Kate Connor

Radiomics and Neuro-oncology Collaborator

I graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2011 with a B.A. Mod in Medicinal Chemistry. I  subsequently began my PhD in the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics lab at University College Dublin, funded under Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer Ireland (MTCI). During this time my research focused on deciphering the signalling and epigenetic regulation of the neuropeptide CART (The cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript) in hormone driven breast and endometrial cancer.

In 2016 I joined Prof. Byrne's group to work as a post-doctoral researcher on an SFI/EI TIDA award, in collaboration with Utrecht University. The main goal of this work was to enhance bevacizumab efficacy in glioblastoma (GBM) through a novel, anti-invasive theranostic delivery system. This study successfully established a nanoparticle packaging system capable of delivering RNAi in an invasive orthotopic model of GBM.

From 2017-2022 my research has focused on the development of improved, clinically faithful preclinical GBM models with the overall aim to guide biomarker and pre-clinical drug development strategies for precision therapy. Funded by an RCSI Industry Seed Fund (2017-2018), in collaboration with Champions Oncology and the Beaumont Hospital brain tumour biobank, my work aimed to establish highly characterized, clinically relevant, orthotopic PDX models of intractable GBM (and lung cancer brain metastases (LCBM) pathologies). Since 2019 my work has focused on the establishment of contrast enhanced CT protocols and novel pre-clinical radiomic pipelines for the monitoring and interrogation of invasive orthotopic GBM models. More recently (2021) I began a project which aims to understand whether a novel gene therapy approach may be utilised to prevent seizure generation and propagation in brain tumour related epilepsy.

In 2023 I joined Trinity College Dublin as a Research Fellow, and in Feb 2025 I was appointed Assistant Professor in Physiology.

Dr Kieron White

Bioinfomatics Collaborator

I completed my Bachelor's degree in Biological and Medical Sciences at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2018. Following completion of my Undergraduate degree, I was involved in the RCSI StAR summer internship scheme where I worked on a project to investigate the improvement of drug delivery in Glioblastoma using nanotherapeutics.

Following on from the StAR internship, I was accepted onto the GLIOTRAIN PhD programme funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 766069. My research project is focused on ‘Identifying new tumour microenvironment (TME) contexts of vulnerability in glioblastoma.’ During this project, we studied multi-omic profiling datasets from >800 GBM patient samples. This analysis revealed novel TME classifiers which may support future precision immunotherapy approaches in intracranial malignancies.

During my PhD project, I have been fortunate to spend time on secondment at INSERM Paris, where we performed multiplex immunohistochemistry to modify and validate the MCP-counter method for application in GBM. Moreover, during a virtual secondment with the Jackson Laboratory (JAX), we have looked at the effect of extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) on the GBM TME.

I completed my PhD in Feb 2023 and started a post-doctoral research position in the PCMG. This project, titled ‘Interrogation of novel Glioblastoma Subtypes towards an improved Precision Medicine Approach for Brain Tumour Patients’, will be building on from my PhD findings.

In Feb 2024 I joined the Subklewe Lab, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as a Post Doctoral Researcher (Bioinfomatics)