Judith Coppinger

Judith Coppinger is a Senior Lecturer at RCSI's School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, with dual affiliation as Principal Investigator at the National Children’s Research Centre since 2017. Her academic journey includes a PhD in Pharmacology from RCSI (2004), postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute (2005-2011), and faculty roles at UC San Diego (2011-2013) and University College Dublin (2013-2017). Her research focuses on omics-based approaches to uncover dysregulated protein interactions in diseases like cystic fibrosis and cancer, with a particular emphasis on exosome-mediated signaling, kinase inhibitors for CFTR restoration, and BAG3 as a cancer therapeutic target.

Key research areas include cystic fibrosis pathophysiology, lung cancer signaling pathways, and translational therapeutics. Her work spans basic science to clinical translation, such as investigating exosomes as biomarkers for disease progression and targeting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway in cystic fibrosis. She has secured major grants including Science Foundation Ireland funding for exosome-based therapies and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for EV biomarker studies in CF.

Judith has received awards including the Career Development Award (2014), Isenberg Fellowship (2011), and New Investigators Travel Award (2010). Her lab at RCSI collaborates with Trinity College Dublin and the National Children’s Research Centre to advance research in respiratory medicine and cancer biology. Teaching and supervision activities are integral to her role, contributing to training future biomedical researchers.