Meet the Research Team

The Endocrine Oncology Research Group is lead by Dr Leonie Young and is based at York House, RCSI, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Dr Young graduated from Trinity College Dublin and completed her PhD training at University College Dublin in 1997. From 2001 she has lead the breast cancer research group, and has since published a number of papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. She has also secured important grant funding, most notably in 2008 in the form of a Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator Programme Award.

Dr Ann Hopkins is based in the RCSI Education and Research Centre in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. Dr Hopkins received her PhD in Pharmacology from University College Dublin and spent several years working in the Epithelial Pathobiology Research Unit in Emory University, Atlanta, USA, before returning to Ireland in 2004. Dr Hopkins is currently leading the Cancer Adhesion Biology Laboratory.

Senior research technician Fiona Bane is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the lab, including equipment, lab personnel and supplies. In addition, Fiona is involved in the construction of tissue microarrays and biomarker staining, which provides a robust resource in determining how our proteins of interest correlate with clinicopathological parameters.

Sinead Cocchiglia is a senior research technician in the Endocrine Oncology Group. Her primary duty is to contribute towards the development of both on-going research and new research projects. Her responsibilities also include managing the daily running of the lab, training and troubleshooting molecular techniques within the group, and project managing the biomedical research aspect for the team.

Damir is interested in understanding why a significant portion of patients do not see the same efficacy with the current hormone treatments. His research is involved in merging pre-clinical work with genomic profiling of cancer tissue to better understand the mechanisms of disease recurrence and to help devise effective strategies to overcome it.

Sara’s research is focused on identifying and analyzing the gene network involved in the development of endocrine resistance. In particular, she is looking at developing new therapeutic targets and biomarkers of response to therapy for ER-positive metastatic breast cancer. She is currently funded by Breast Cancer Ireland.

Nicola’s research is focused on analysing large-scale transcriptomic datasets to find aberrant patterns of gene expression driving metastatic breast cancer. Currently, she is applying correlation network analysis to RNA sequencing data from patient-matched primary breast and distant metastatic tumour samples. Funding is provided by Breast Cancer Ireland.

Siobhan’s current research focuses on investigating the clinical potential of receptor tyrosine kinases as therapeutic targets in breast cancer brain metastasis. Funding is provided by Breast Cancer Ireland.

Karen’s research focuses on tumour heterogeneity in endocrine-resistant breast cancer. Specifically, she is looking at different cell types and their potential to spread or metastasize to other parts of the body. Karen is currently funded by Science Foundation Ireland.