Meet the Research Team

Professor Leonie Young leads the Endocrine Oncology Research Group, based at The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She is also Scientific Director of the recently accredited Beaumont RCSI Comprehensive Cancer Centre, bringing together the elements of clinical care, research and education at the highest level.  With a strong research team, in the BCI funded laboratories, one of their main focuses is in the area of breast cancer metastasis, with particular concentration on the brain. Professor Young and her team are extensively published and collaborate internationally with world renowned Centres of Excellence e.g. Ludwig Breast Research Centre in Chicago; University of Pittsburgh; Mayo Clinic and more, all in the knowledge that their combined expertise will help to speed up research discovery and effect newer and more efficient drug therapies into the future.

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.

Sean is a research assistant in The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, investigating breast cancer patients and identifying proteins that may represent promising therapeutic targets and advanced disease.

Gordon is a surgical SHO currently undertaking a Clinical PhD in the RCSI labs. His research focuses on patients with inherited mutations, the breast cancer gene, BRCA one and BRCA two – investigating the incidence of DNA methylation. The hope is that the findings from this research will help calculate the risk of breast cancer in women with BRCA DNA meth methylation, to assess the value of targeting these modifications to treat patients with BRCA alike disease.

Louise is a PhD student working in the Breast Cancer Ireland funded RCSI labs. Louise focuses on patients with disease recurrence, particularly those with breast cancer brain metastasis. Brain metastasis patients are often excluded from clinical trials as it’s very challenging.  Scientists are trying to predict that region of dormancy and coming up with targeted therapies to block the progression from that region.

Stephanie Agbana’s research focuses on understanding androgen-mediated mechanisms that facilitate endocrine resistance in breast cancer. Additionally, Stephanie also works on developing humanised models of endocrine-resistant breast cancer using 3D bioprinting technology to develop novel prognostic tools based on patients’ tumour steroid microenvironment.

Daniela is the Emma Hannigan Research Fellow focusing on the role of CDK12 proteins in endocrine system metastatic breast cancer, investigating the use of CDK12 inhibitor in the treatment of metastatic disease.