Trinity Medical Researchers Awarded Prizes at All Ireland Cancer Conference

Posted on: 17 December 2008

Presentations from two Trinity College Research Laboratories were awarded  prizes at  the 4th All-Ireland Cancer Conference, which took place recently and was attended by over 400 national and international  researchers, cancer care providers and cancer policy makers. An international judging panel selected the TCD presentations along with presentations from Belfast City Hospital and New York University as the four prize winners at the Conference. 

Dr Prerna Tewari, a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Mark Lawler, St James’s  Hospital and Trinity College Dublin presented her work highlighting the role of DNA repair genes in the development of Multiple Myeloma , a common B cell malignancy. This project, involving a collaboration between Professor  Lawler and Dr Paul Browne in the Department of Haematology, TCD, together with Professor Anthony Staines,  DCU and Dr Steven Chanock, National Cancer Institute, Washington USA   –  in collaboration with Epilymph, a European epidemiological study of lymphoproliferative disorders, identified for the first time, a potential  role for a number of genetic variants in specific DNA repair genes in the aetiology of this haematological malignancy.

Dr Martin Barr, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Ken O Byrne, St James’s  Hospital and Trinity College Dublin also won a prize for his work on the regulation of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and its receptor in non small cell lung cancer.  He identified the importance of epigenetic regulation of VEGF receptor in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLCs) cell lines, pinpointing a role for neuropilin-1(NP1) as a critical survival factor in NSCLC cells. The discovery  may allow future targeting of NP1 in lung cancer cells.