Dr Niamh Buckley graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 2002 with a First Class Honours Degree in Biochemistry. She then carried out her Ph.D. training in the Department of Oncology (Queen’s University Belfast) under the supervision of Prof. Paul Harkin. Following this, she then worked as a post-doctoral researcher with Dr Paul Mullan in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (Queen’s University Belfast). During this time she investigated the role of the breast and ovarian tumour suppressor gene, BRCA1, in stem cell regulation and mammary gland differentiation.

Dr Buckley was awarded the prestigious Breast Cancer Now fellowship in 2013 to develop novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies in BRCA1-mutant and/or triple negative breast cancer. In 2016 she was appointed as a Lecturer in Personalised Medicine and Pharmacogenomics in the School of Pharmacy (Queen’s University Belfast). Her research focuses on the integration of in vitro, in vivo, bioinformatics and pathology approaches to identify key pathways underpinning poor outcome breast cancer and use detailed knowledge of this biology to identify appropriate targeted treatment options, personalising therapy in an area of unmet clinical need.

Dr Buckley’s work has led to a number of significant publications in leading cancer research journals and she has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including European Association of Cancer Research (EACR) Young Scientist Award (2012), Roche Gold Medal Award (2011) and School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences Post-Doctoral Researcher of the Year (2012).