Group Leader

Dr. Conway completed his PhD in 2017 in Prof. Adrian Bracken’s lab at Trinity College Dublin. His Doctoral work focused on defining the function of a new vertebrate-specific family of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 proteins, called PALI1 and PALI2.

For his Post-doc, Dr. Conway joined Prof. Diego Pasini’s group at the IEO in Milan where he worked primarily on the contribution of H2AK119ub1 to transcriptional repression and chromatin compaction. This work focussed in particular on the tumour suppressor BAP1 and how to target BAP1-null cancers.

Dr. Conway returned to Ireland in 2022 to establish his own research group at UCD focused on the mechanism of chromatin architecture dysregulation in cancer.

PhD Student

Molly graduated in 2022 from a BSc in Biotechnology at the National University of Ireland Galway. She has experience as a Research Assistant in the NUI Galway Cancer Biobank, where she investigated the link between patient miRNA expression patterns and response to cancer treatment.

As an undergraduate she was awarded a HRB Summer Student Scholarship which gave her the opportunity to complete a translational research project under the supervision of Dr. Nicola Miller. This project focused on identifying potential biomarkers in saliva for the non-invasive diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

Molly’s doctoral research focuses on identifying new therapies for high-grade serous ovarian cancers through targeting transcriptional networks and chromatin machinery.

PhD Student

Emma obtained her undergraduate degree at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin. During this degree she conducted research on rare childhood malignancies, including diffuse midline gliomas, under the supervision of Prof. Adrian Bracken.

Emma has also worked as a research assistant at the Conway Institute, UCD under the supervision of Prof. Antoinette Perry.

Her PhD is focused on understanding the mechanisms of epigenetic dysregulation in acute myeloid leukemia and how to leverage this information to identify rational therapeutic targets.

PhD Student

Maeve completed her undergraduate degree in Human Genetics at Trinity College Dublin during which she gained experience working with genetic models of AMD under the supervision of Dr Matthew Campbell, focusing on their characterisation and exploring potential treatments.

During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded a US summer internship scholarship. This project, supervised by Dr Debasish Sinha, focused on the immunology driving AMD and potential therapeutic targets.

Her PhD research is centred on defining the transcriptional circuitry of primary patient AML in order to understand intra-patient heterogeneity and minimal residual disease.

PhD Student

Marten completed his BSc in Molecular Biology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 2021. He conducted his Bachelor's research at the Department of Toxicology where he studied the application of SAHA-derived HDAC inhibitors in leukemia.

He remained at the JGU for his Master's degree during which he gained experience in Mass Spectrometry and Next Generation Sequencing. His Master's thesis was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Oliver Krämer studying direct protein-protein interactions in AML cells.

Marten’s PhD project is focussed on evaluating the role of histone post-translational modifications in transcription regulation.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Urbi Roy completed her PhD in 2023 in Prof. Sathees C. Raghavan’s lab at the Indian Institute of Science, India. Her doctoral research focused on delineating the mechanistic aspects of genomic fragility associated with lymphoid cancer, focusing particularly on a T-cell transcription factor, BCL11B. Her studies led to the identification of a novel oncogenic role of AID in inducing hypermutation outside the Ig loci. In addition, she has experience in working on microRNA-mediated regulation of target genes.

During her PhD, Urbi was awarded the Prof. Joseph D Padayatty memorial award-2021 for elucidating a fundamental mechanism that utilizes a post-transcriptional regulatory strategy to orchestrate V(D)J recombination during B cell development. This work was published in Cell Reports.

Her post-doctoral research in the Conway lab focusses on exploring the role of the PAX8 transcription factor in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Orla Deevy completed her PhD in 2021 with Prof. Adrian Bracken’s lab at Trinity College Dublin. Her doctoral research investigated the functions of PRC2 in development and congenital disorders. She continued in Prof. Bracken’s lab for 1 year of postdoctoral research, using isogenic disease model systems to explore disrupted epigenetic pathways in human growth disorders.

Orla has gained broad expertise across molecular, cellular, chromatin, and developmental biology, having also completed research projects under the supervision of Prof. Emily Bernstein (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY), Dr. Haruhiko Koseki (RIKEN Center, Japan), and Dr. Micha Drukker (formerly of Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany). In addition, she has excellent scientific communication skills having worked as a professional medical writer with Eli Lilly and Company before joining the Conway lab.

Orla's postdoctoral research in the Conway lab is focused on understanding the role of chromatin modifiers in human diseases.

PhD Student

Sarah completed her undergraduate degree in University College Dublin, obtaining a BSc in Genetics in 2024. During her degree she investigated the function of the ASXL3 plant homeodomain and its role in the developmental disorder Bainbridge-Roper Syndrome. This project was done under the supervision of Dr. Eric Conway.

During her undergraduate degree Sarah was awarded the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences Summer Scholarship. This project, also supervised by Dr. Conway, focused on characterising oncohistone mutations and their effect on Polycomb activity.

Sarah rejoined the lab as a PhD student where she will continue to work on oncohistone mutations and how they perturb histone modifcations and chromatin organisation.

Open to PhD and Post-Doctoral candidates inquiring about applying for fellowship opportunities.