ProfessorWilliam Gallagher

Professor William Gallagher BSc PhD CBiol MSB is a Professor of Cancer Biology in the UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science and Former Director of the UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research (2016-2021).

Prof. Gallagher is co-lead of an emerging virtual institute (All-Island Cancer Research Institute) that aims to bring together cancer researchers across the island of Ireland within an overarching research programme [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFk1YFeJ6Ho&t=15s].

More recently, Prof. Gallagher assumed the role of Deputy Director of Precision Oncology Ireland (www.precisiononcology.ie; 2019-2024), a nationwide Strategic Research Partnership funded by Science Foundation Ireland focused on developing better treatment strategies and diagnostics for cancer patients.

Prof. Gallagher was the Director of the first Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre, BREAST-PREDICT, which received 7.5 million euro in funding from 2013 to 2018 (www.breastpredict.com). His primary research interests are in the areas of cancer biology and molecular therapeutics.

Prof. Gallagher originally graduated from the Department of Biochemistry, UCD in 1993 with a 1st Class Joint Honours degree in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry. Subsequently, he obtained a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Cancer Research UK Beatson Laboratories in Glasgow. In 1997, he moved to Paris to undertake a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (currently Sanofi-Aventis). Afterwards, he returned to Ireland upon receipt of an Enterprise Ireland Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1999-2000) and, subsequently, a Marie Curie Return Fellowship (2000-2001).

In 2001, he was employed in a permanent capacity as College Lecturer at UCD within the former Department of Pharmacology. In 2005, he was appointed Senior Lecturer within the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and was promoted to Associate Professor of Cancer Biology in 2006. In September 2009, Prof. Gallagher took up the position of Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation at the UCD College of Life Sciences, and was appointed a Conway Fellow at the UCD Conway Institute.

In 2007, he co-founded OncoMark Ltd. which is a private company centred on the development and application of biomarker panels and associated technologies, on both tissues and biological fluids (www.oncomark.com). He is currently Chief Scientific Officer of OncoAssure Ltd (formerly OncoMark Ltd.).

A major focus of Prof. Gallagher's research work is the identification and validation of candidate biomarkers of breast cancer and melanoma, with particular emphasis on translation of transcriptomic and proteomic datasets into clinically relevant assays. In addition, his team utilises lentiviral-based approaches to investigate the functional relevance of candidate tumour progression-associated genes at both in vitro and in vivo levels, as well as engages in preclinical evaluation of novel anti-cancer agents.

Prof. Gallagher has a track record of success in attracting European funding and has participated as a co-ordinator/partner in several EU framework programmes. He previously co-ordinated three Industry-Academia Partnership (& Pathways) Programmes in breast cancer (Target-Breast), melanoma (Target-Melanoma), and prostate cancer (FAST-PATH). He co-ordinated the FP7 programmes, SYS-MEL, which used systems medicine approaches to develop new diagnostic solutions in melanoma (www.sysmel.com), and RATHER, which focused on new rationalised therapy options for difficult-to-treat breast cancer (www.ratherproject.com).

Since 1999, he has attracted more than 65 million euro in research funding from both national and external sources, over 28 million euro of this as a principal applicant. Together with Prof. John Crown, Prof. Gallagher was also co-PI on a major Science Foundation Ireland-funded Strategic Research Cluster, Molecular Therapeutics of Cancer Ireland, which ran from 2009 to 2014 (www.mtci.ie). This was one of the most extensive organ-independent programmes in translational cancer research within Ireland, involving extensive collaboration with pharmaceutical, biotech and imaging companies.

Prof. Gallagher has received a number of awards based on his research work to date, including the BACR/AstraZeneca Young Scientist Frank Rose Award in 2004, the St. Luke's Silver Medal Award in 2008, and the RAMI Doctors award in Oncology in 2013. Prof. Gallagher has had productive collaborative interactions with a variety of other industrial partners throughout his research, and has filed multiple patents. Research Links: Research in SBBS | Mechanisms of Disease (Cancer) Research in SBBS | Model Organisms Research in SBBS | Cancer Biology & Therapeutics Lab | BREAST-PREDICT | Oncomark Limited.