Personal Summary

I am a scientific professional with 10 years of experience in cancer research (6 years post PhD) and close to 2 years of experience in medical software sales and support. I am a born problem solver and a lifelong learner. I like to figure things out, understand things and leave them in a better place for the next person coming along. Originally from Greystones in Co. Wicklow I now live in Navan with my wife who is from Brazil and our 11-month-old daughter.

 

Early Education and Work Experience

I attended St Patricks NS from 1994-1999 and St Kevins NS, both based in Greystones from 1999-2002 for my primary school education and I attended St Brendan’s CBS secondary school in Bray before going to DIT for my primary degree in Bioscience which was a 3-year ordinary degree course and 1-year add on level 8 honours degree in Biomolecular Science. During these years I had various small jobs here and there, I worked with my Dad who was CCTV engineer and helped with cabling, computer network and camera installations at different sites around Dublin over the course of different years. During transition year I had work experience placement at Xtravision in Greystones and also at Orahova Montessori School as a creche assistant. During that summer I also worked as a Kitchen porter/Gardener at the Holy Faith Convent in Greystones as a summer job. During the summer of my first year at DIT I also worked as a General Operative at Green Star Recycling plant in Bray. The following summer I worked for about a month as a shop assistant at the St Vincent De Paul Charity Shop in Greystones before I got a research summer student internship at DIT.

 

Early Research Experience

In 2010 I undertook an SFI-funded summer internship for about 8 weeks at the FOCAS Institute at DIT. This was probably my first real introduction to real-world research and exposure to techniques like cell culture, western blotting, IHC and other assays. The project was with Dr Alan Casey at the NanoLab where I worked with examine the toxicity of low doses of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on HACAT skin cell lines. Zinc oxide is the main component in Talcum powder and Sudocream although the nanoparticle formulations are found in various sunscreens due to their ability to absorb UV radiation. In 2011 I also followed on this study as part of my 3rd year project. For my 4th year project, I then got involved in a cervical cancer research at the coombe hospital examining two biomarkers using a two-colour IHC staining kit from Roche; CINtec plus. That November I graduated  at the top of my class with an honours degree in biomolecular science and subsequently l started a PhD at the same lab at the Coombe Hospital/Trinity College Dublin.

 

PhD

For my PhD I examined three different biomarkers MyD88, TLR4 and MAD2 which are associated with chemoresistance, inflammation, cancer stemness and senescence in ovarian cancer. This saw examine all three markers by IHC although rather than manually as previously but using the Ventana Automated immunostaining platform. I also constructed some tissue microarrays for conglomerating all the patient samples into a single section for staining each marker and needed review patient data, get the block and slides from archives, work with the pathologist to get slides marked and we also did a small primary-metastatic-recurrent full face section pilot study. For the different markers I then had to knockdown or overexpress them with siRNA or plasmid transfections in a couple of different ovarian cancer cell lines. I then had to confirm knockdown/overexpression using both PCR and western blotting and also examine the impact on their regulatory microRNAs miR-21, miR-146a and miR-433. I also performed cytotoxicity experiments to determine the effect of knockdown or overexpression on cell sensitivity to paclitaxel. Knocking down TLR4 sensitised cells to paclitaxel and knockdown of MAD2 rendered them highly resistant to paclitaxel by inducing cellular senescence. We also performed Affymetrix microarray analysis on RNA extracted from these respective knockdowns to further interrogate the different pathways affected.

 

Post-PhD

After completing my PhD in 2016 I worked at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology as research assistant for about 8 months. Here I helped worked up some additional IHC biomarkers for Ovarian cancer, built additional TMAs and helped to manage the ovarian cancer biobank, collecting bloods, tissue, consent forms, reviewing charts., updating the patient database and supervising interns. I also had a mini project looking at assessing a relationship between clear cell ovarian cancer and endometriosis using laser capture microdissection. I then went on to start my first post-doc with the discipline of radiation therapy at TCD. This time looking at a single biomarker associated with radioresistance in prostate cancer. This project was more focused on trying commercialise the biomarker; YB-1 as a diagnostic test. For this I assessed multiple commercially available antibodies to look at YB-1 expression and cell localisation with western blotting and IHC. I also was solely responsible for the supervision of a number of MSc students, interns from Michigan, MD students and had to correct their thesis and show them various lab techniques from cell culture, irradiating cells, clonogenics, IC50 experiments, PCR and Western blotting. I even took on some other MD students from the paediatrics disease research group who needed help doing PCR. This project also saw the PI and I attend a 5-day workshop on entrepreneurship and innovation to look at how to potentially commercialise the biomarker test.

 

The following year I took up a new position with the Department of Surgery at TCD where I worked on an oesophageal cancer biomarker project. For this, I spent 13 months on secondment in Dundee and working at St Andrews University. This was a step up in the number of biomarkers as I got in multiplex immunofluorescence, spatial biology and digital pathology. For this pre-neoadjuvant treated biopsies were sent to Scotland and I multiplex stained serial sections of 140 different specimens, 5 sections per specimen and 5-plex staining panels each section. I also did a brief bit of RNA extraction from FFPE and did some fluorescent western blotting with the odyssey to confirm antibody specificity. Following staining and scanning with a Zeiss Axioscan whole slide imager I used Definiens Tissue Studio software to develop algorithms for analysing the images and then analysed the biomarker data along with the clinical data to determine the impact on survival and other factors. For my final years as a postdoc with TCD I returned to work with my PhD research group examining platelets and circulating tumour cells. This was an SFI funded industry fellowship with Becton Dickinson who had set up a new facility down in limerick. For this project we used MDA-MB-231 cells as a model of breast cancer metastasis and co-cultured them with and without platelets and with and without Aspirin pre-treatment. This is due to the fact that epidemiological studies have shown that aspirin prevents advanced-stage breast cancer as its an anti-platelet agent. For this I cultured cells in 2D and 3D and performed various assays including PCR, immunofluorescence, scratch and invasion assays and also examined samples with the BD Rhapsody single-cell analysis system. I also performed flow cytometry to assess platelet activation following aspirin treatment and developed a plate-based aggregometry assay. The role also involved processing circulating tumour cells from breast and ovarian cancer patients using different technologies including Screen cell filters and Parsortix and Clear Cell FX1 microfluidic devices. There were also ongoing collaborations with a number of other academic institutions and industry partners on various other research projects.

​

Following this role, I took up a 21-month post with Indica Labs, a field-leading digital pathology and AI company as a Field Applications Scientist. This saw me learn the ins and outs of software, getting a more in-depth look at deep learning and some of its applications. My role saw me covering the EMEA region, I was responsible mainly for academic customers but also industry customers in Ireland, UK, Austria, Nordics, Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Europe. This role was to support and train them in the use of the software either through remote calls, emails or on-site visits and through attending various tradeshow events such as EACR, ECP, ESTP, DPC and bi-yearly user group meetings.​​

​

Throughout these roles and afterwards, I have continued to develop my knowledge in various areas including data analytics and visualisation, clinical trials operations and project management.