Annette Byrne

Professor Annette Byrne is a leading academic at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, where she serves as Professor of Physiology and Head of the Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM) Group. She has held this position since 2019 after progressing through roles as Lecturer (2008), Senior Lecturer (2013), and Associate Professor (2017). Her research focuses on precision medicine approaches for colorectal and brain cancers, integrating multi-modality molecular imaging, Next Generation Sequencing, and patient-derived xenograft models.

• PhD in Cell Biology (University of York, 1999)
• John Kerner Fellowship in Gynaecologic Oncology (UCSF, 1999-2001)
• Scientist at Pharmacyclics Inc. (2001-2003)
• Senior Scientist at Angion Biomedica Corp. (2003-2005)
• Principal Investigator at UCD Conway Institute (2005-2008)

Her research interest lies in precision cancer medicine, particularly elucidating predictive biomarkers (genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic) and identifying novel therapeutic targets. Key methodologies include radiomics, fluorescence-guided surgery, and systems modeling of apoptosis pathways. She has pioneered Ireland's first Tumour Xenograft Facility and Translational In Vivo Imaging Centre.

Recent publications highlight her work on cross-species radiomics, cell-free DNA analysis, and glioblastoma microenvironment subtyping. Her Marie Curie networks (Gliotrain, Glioresolve) and COLOSSUS project have trained 25+ PhD researchers in brain cancer therapeutics.

• Over €45M in national/international grants
• Member of Royal Irish Academy (2025)
• Highly cited in Cancer Discovery, Annals of Oncology, and Nature journals

She supervises multiple PhD candidates and leads the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group, which utilizes computational approaches and molecular imaging to improve cancer treatment outcomes. Her GLIORESOLVE and EDIReX projects focus on tumor microenvironment manipulation and distributed PDX infrastructure.