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Prof. Jacintha O'Sullivan

Prof. Jacintha O'Sullivan is a Professor in Translational Oncology, based at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI), Trinity College Dublin, St. James’s Hospital. She is the Director of the MSc in Translational Oncology, Education lead for the Trinity, St. James’s Cancer Institute and the Education and Outreach Coordinator in TTMI. She graduated from University College Dublin in 1995 with a first class honours degree in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. She then carried out her Ph.D. training at the Adirondack Biomedical Research Institute, Lake Placid, New York and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in the field of cancer cell biology. In 2000, she moved to the University of Washington, Seattle as a NIH funded postdoctoral fellow where she investigated how cellular instability events are crucial in driving disease progression in inflammatory diseases and cancer. In 2003, Jacintha returned to Dublin to the Centre for Colorectal Disease, St. Vincent’s University Hospital/UCD as a Senior Scientist to establish and direct a translational gastrointestinal research program. She was appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Trinity College Dublin/St. James's Hospital in 2010 and promoted to Professor in 2016.

She is internationally recognised in the area of translational gastrointestinal work with many publications in high impact journals and her work has attracted funding from many different sources; Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, Irish Cancer Society, Irish Research Council and from industry collaborators. She has filed and published many patents to drive the innovation and commercialisation aspects to her research programme. She has graduated a large number of postgraduate Ph.D. and MD students and is passionate about career mentoring for Ph.D. students and research fellows.

Currently, Prof O'Sullivan directs a translational gastrointestinal (GI) research team in the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI) in collaboration with clinical and surgical colleagues. She utilises well established bio-banking structures to drive this GI translational research program. Prof. O'Sullivan's current translational research themes include;

1. Development of diagnostic platforms to stratify cancer risk and response to targeted therapies for gastrointestinal diseases.

2. Development of novel patented therapeutics to be used in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment setting for gastrointestinal cancer patients (Colorectal and Oesophageal cancers).

3. Elucidating how the tumour microenvironment cross talks to the immune system in GI patients.

4. Importance of metabolism, inflammation and obesity in driving disease progression and in regulating treatment response in GI diseases.

The outputs of these translational themes will benefit patient care, treatment and management for gastrointestinal diseased patients