ProfessorDonal Brennan

Donal Brennan is a Clinician Scientist who graduated from the UCD School of Medicine (2003) and received a PhD in Cancer Biology (2008) from UCD.  His research interests include ovarian cancer immunology, obesity related carcinogenesis and the development of evidence-based survivorship services for women living with and after cancer. He has helped develop and continues to work with a number of patient advocacy groups, firmly believing that patients should be involved in all stages of research and service development plans. Donal has received several awards for research, and was  the inaugural recipient European Young Researcher of the Year in 2010. In 2016 he was appointed as UCD Professor of Gynaecological Oncology and Consultant  Gynaecological Oncologist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin.  Donal and his team subsequently developed the UCD Gynaecological Oncology Group which was accredited as an  European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) Centre for Ovarian Cancer surgery in 2020 and ESGO training site in 2021 and is now the largest gynaecological cancer centre in Ireland. It is also now accredited by the Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynaecologists as a trainign centre. Donal is  also a  principal investigator in Systems Biology Ireland and leads multiple clinical and translational research projects. In 2023 he was appointed National Clinical Lead for Cancer Research in Ireland at the National Cancer Control Program and is also Chairperson of the National Clinical Trials Oversight Group in the Department of Health.