معرفی
Rosemary O'Connor is Professor of Cell Biology at University College Cork, where she joined the Department of Biochemistry in 1997 and was appointed to her professorship in 2007. She served as Head of the Department of Biochemistry from 2008 to 2010 and as Head of School from 2016 to 2021. She holds a BSc from University College Galway and a PhD from NUI Maynooth, with additional research experience gained in the USA and Germany in both academic (University of Wuerzburg, Wistar Institute at UPENN) and industry settings (Immunogen, Inc.).
Her research program focuses on Insulin-like Growth Factor actions, particularly in cancer and neurodegeneration, with applications extending across multiple biological disciplines. She established the Cell Biology Laboratory at UCC and was a founding Investigator of the Biosciences Institute. Her current work takes an innovative spatio-temporal approach to determine how insulin and IGF-1 receptors emit specific signals in different tissues, using protein modeling and multiple receptor constructs to provide a structural basis for receptor activation. She also investigates the success of IGF-1R inhibition in Thyroid Eye Disease and its potential application to other inflammatory conditions.
Her extensive publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to understanding IGF signaling pathways, receptor dynamics, and their roles in cancer progression and neurodegeneration. Her work spans from fundamental receptor biology to therapeutic applications, with recent publications focusing on spatio-temporal regulation of IGF signaling, mitochondrial dynamics in cancer cells, and connections between IGF signaling and inflammatory diseases.
- Irish Area Section Medal by the Biochemical Society (2007)
- Chair of Gordon Research Conference on Insulin-like Growth Factors in Physiology and Disease (2011)
- Award from Irish Association for Cancer Research for 'Outstanding contributions to cancer research on the Island of Ireland' (2019)
- President of the International Society for Insulin-like Growth Factor Research
Professor O'Connor has supervised 24 PhD students to completion, co-supervised/mentored approximately 20 others, and trained more than 20 postdoctoral researchers and research assistants. She has served on scientific boards and advisory committees for the European Union, Science Foundation Ireland, the Breast Cancer Campaign (UK), and the Irish Cancer Society. She was Director of the structured PhD program in Cancer Biology at UCC and has been instrumental in establishing research infrastructure through her role as a founding Investigator of the Biosciences Institute.
Her laboratory has made significant contributions to understanding IGF receptor signaling, cell adhesion mechanisms, and the role of specific proteins like PDLIM2, HRG-1, PNCI/SLC25A33, and PBK/TOP kinase in cellular processes relevant to cancer and other diseases.
