UCD scientist wins European Young Researcher Award at Euroscience 2010

In recognition of outstanding work in the early stages of his scientific career, Dr Donal Brennan, a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCD Conway Institute, has been awarded the European Young Researcher Award at the Euroscience Open ? 2010. This is the first time that an Irish based researcher has won the award.

The award acknowledges Dr Brennan’s work on the identification and validation of breast cancer-associated biomarkers, and his strong motivation to translate this research into clinical reality.

A specialist registrar in obstetrics & gynaecology at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, Dublin, Dr Brennan has been using the latest in high-throughput protein screening technology to identify and validate new biomarkers of breast and ovarian cancer as well as trying to improve how assay data is interpreted in clinical laboratories.

Dr Brennan exemplifies a new generation of scientists who recognise the importance of the translational aspect of their research. He believes that there is ‘a pressing need for improved and innovative strategies to expedite the translation of cancer biomarkers from the discovery phase into the clinical setting in order to inform therapeutic decisions’.

With his principal investigator, Professor William Gallagher and collaborators in Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, Dr Brennan has used image analysis in conjunction with the IHC assay to provide pathologists with an automated, analytical approach to interpret and quantify data. This has far greater potential for increased accuracy of analysis and interpretation of the results. The research is primarily funded by the Health Research Board of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the European Commission.

Euroscience promotes a strong and open European society through science and technology. It is an independent grassroots voice for research–based knowledge in Europe that brings together people working or interested in science, technology and the humanities through communication, open discussion and collaboration between them.