Date:

Tuesday 21st September 2021, 3pm to 4pm

Link:

https://ucc-ie.zoom.us/j/92066716240?pwd=R1J2ZE1Zd2pRcnhhNEdyb21pem9Udz09

Summary

Professor Connolly is a medical oncologist and clinical investigator with expertise in the development of biomarkers of response to anti-cancer therapies, and the design and conduct of clinical trials that test investigational new drugs in the treatment of patients with both early- and late-stage cancers. This inaugural lecture will focus on advances in HER2-positive breast cancer, ER-positive breast cancer and the area of survivorship; through translational and collaborative cancer research efforts.

Bio

Professor Roisin Connolly was appointed as the Professor Gerald O’Sullivan Chair in Cancer Research at University College Cork (UCC) and Cork University Hospital in September 2019. Prior to same, Roisin was an Associate Professor of Oncology (Breast and Ovarian Cancer Program) and Co-Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) at Johns Hopkins, US and continues to hold an adjunct position. She graduated with a 1^st class honors medical degree from Trinity College, Dublin in 2001 and completed medical oncology fellowship training in both Ireland and at Johns Hopkins.

Professor Connolly is a medical oncologist and clinical investigator with expertise in the development of biomarkers of response to anti-cancer therapies, and the design and conduct of clinical trials that test investigational new drugs in the treatment of patients with both early- and late-stage cancers. She has led numerous multicenter clinical trials in collaboration with the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC), and the Eastern Co-operative Oncology Group (ECOG)-ACRIN in the US. Professor Connolly is Study Chair for the international phase III ECOG-ACRIN study (E2112) investigating the epigenetic agent entinostat in combination with hormonal therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer. She recently received the prestigious ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Award 2019 for excellence in clinical investigation.

Roisin is Director of Cancer Research @UCC and a Principal Investigator with Cancer Trials Cork at CUH. In 2020, Prof Connolly took on the role of Co-Chair of the Cancer Trials Ireland Breast Disease Specific Group and is Lead Applicant for a proposed Health Research Board funded UCC Cancer Trials Cluster. She recently received an Irish Cancer Society grant to support a Women’s Cancer Survivorship Clinic in Cork, which she is leading with Professor Josephine Hegarty (School of Nursing) and multiple collaborators across the region. Her goal is to improve outcomes for patients with cancer through innovative clinical and translational research, in collaboration with UCC, national and international researchers.

Learn more about Prof Connolly's research interests and publications at the below link.

Prof Connolly's research page