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CBT Lab

Welcome to the Cancer Biology & Therapeutics (CBT) Lab website.

Research carried out in The Cancer Biology and Therapeutics laboratory established by Prof. William Gallagher focuses on a variety of investigations on the extrinsic and intrinsic factors involved in cancer biology and treatment responses as well as the development of novel cancer screening tools and therapies.  Under the guidance and leadership of Prof. Gallagher a dynamic research group led by 5 UCD PIs in the College of Science with complementary, yet diverse cancer biology research strands has evolved.

Prof. William Gallagher focuses on identifying and validating molecular determinants of tumour progression in breast cancer, prostate cancer and melanoma, with a particular interest in the biomarker and drug development arenas. Dr. Maria Prencipe (SFI Starting Investigator) focuses on the mechanisms of resistance to hormone therapy in breast and prostate cancer with the goal of identifying novel and more effective treatments especially for the advanced stages of these diseases. Dr. David Hughes (Assistant Professor of Cancer Epidemiology) leads the molecular epidemiology team which examines how nutritional, genetic, metabolic, and microbial factors may affect the initiation and progression of cancer, with a focus on gastrointestinal cancer.  Dr Antoinette Perry (Assistant Professor in Genetics and Cell Biology) leads the translational prostate and ovarian cancer epigenetics team; focused on understanding the role of epigenomic changes in the pathogenesis of cancer and harnessing these changes to develop prognostic and predictive biomarkers. She also has an active research programme investigating terrestrial and marine plant-derived anti-cancer compounds. Dr. Arman Rahman (Translational Research and Engagement Manager, Precision Oncology Ireland (POI)) co-leads the POI multiplex tissue imaging platform that focuses on cancer biomarker discovery and validation using tissue based detection methods (IHC, ISH) and digital pathology.

We benefit from a wide array of collaborations with academic and industrial groups at both national and international levels. Our work is supported primarily by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the European Commission (under the 7th Framework programme), the Health Research Board (HRB), the Irish Research Council (IRC), as well as charitable sources such as the Irish Cancer Society.  The CBT group has been involved in multiple nationally funded research centres, Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnership and Pathways Programmes and FP7 funded European consortiums. We collaborate with several industrial groups, both indigenous and internationally based. In particular, our research group continues to have close ties with a spin-out company co-founded by Prof. Gallagher, namely OncoMark Ltd. (www.oncomark.com). The CBT Lab also enjoys fruitful interactions with a wide range of basic, translational and clinical researchers in Ireland and further afield.  In addition, our team utilises lentiviral-based approaches to investigate the functional relevance of candidate tumour progression-associated genes at both in vitro and in vivo levels, as well as engage in preclinical evaluation of novel anti-cancer agents.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The CBT lab is a diverse multicultural team committed to promoting equality and inclusiveness for all its staff, student members and visitors to our lab.   Our lab unites cancer researchers from three different UCD schools, namely School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, School of Biology and Environmental Science, and School of Medicine; all of which received  Athena SWAN accreditation through a Bronze medal in 2019 . The Athena SWAN charter recognises advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all.