Dr. Barry graduated with an Honours Degree in Biochemistry in 1991 from University College Cork (UCC). This was followed by a PhD investigating novel mechanisms of transcellular lipid metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN), Philadelphia, USA. A post-doctoral fellowship also at UPENN, involved investigating isoprostanes as indices of oxidant stress. Upon returning to Ireland at the end of 1999, she joined the Cork Cancer Research Centre as a Health Research Board post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Barry was appointed Lecturer in Pharmacology, UCC, in 2002. In 2014, Dr. Barry graduated with an MA in Teaching and Learning, UCC, in Higher Education.

Research

Dr. Barry’s research focuses on cancers with few treatment strategies and with no significant improvement in overall survival rate, namely, oesophageal and renal cancers. The paucity of therapeutic options, their associated morbidity, has led vital research for new therapeutic strategies. Research on epigenetic gene silencing and on epigenetic drug-induced re-expression of tumour suppressor genes may influence future optimal treatment strategies and predict responses in oesophageal and renal cancer patients.

Funders

Breakthrough Cancer Research

LTA Enhancement Fund, UCC

Health Research Board