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, the Education lead for the Trinity, St. James’s Cancer Institute. 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 received the honour of college fellowship in 2019 for recognition of research excellence in her subject area and has served as external assessor for many Ph.D. students, taught courses, and grant reviews nationally and internationally. She has filed and published many patents to drive the innovation and commercialisation aspects to her research programme. She has graduated 26 postgraduate Ph.D. and MD students and is passionate about career mentoring for Ph.D. students and research fellows. She was awarded IRC Research Ally Award for recognition of excellence as a supervisor/mentor. 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.
