Prof. Dolores J. Cahill, Professor of Translational Science at UCD School of Medicine, University College Dublin
Prof. Dr Dolores Cahill has over 25 years expertise in high-throughput protein array, antibody array, proteomics technology development,automation and their biomedical applications, including in biomarker discovery, diagnostics and personalised medicine. She is Professor of Translational Science, School of Medicine and at the Conway Institute at the University College Dublin (UCD) (2005-present). With her research group & collaborators, she has achieved key breakthroughs in developing and demonstrating applications of high throughput array technology in biological, diagnostics & medical research. Prof. Cahill pioneered this research at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany (1996-2003) and holds several granted international patents in this vital field. Some of her activities include:
In 1996, she co-founded Protagen AG (https://protagen.com/) in Dortmund, including with Prof. Helmut Meyer, as a spin-out of the Max-Planck-Institute to commercialise her discoveries. Protagen Protein Services (https://protagenproteinservices.com/) a 2014 spin-off company of Protagen delivers expert protein, antibody, proteomics & peptide contract services to the pharmaceutical industry & health care sectors. Both companies have advanced these technologies & applications; Protagen has screened and profiled the autoantibody repertoire of over 20,000 patients (https://protagen.com/data-and-insight...). Protagen AG and Protagen Protein Services have over 200 employees in 2018. Since 2016, Prof. Cahill is a shareholder & Advisory Board member of Atturos Ltd, Prof. Stephen Pennington’s UCD spin-out company nvolved in improved Prostate Cancer diagnosis (http://atturos.com/ and http://atturos.com/company/advisors/).
She received her Honours degree in Molecular Genetics from Trinity College Dublin (1989) and her PhD in Immunology from Dublin City University (1994). While studying in Trinity, she was awarded the Irish American Fellowship Prize (1988) to research at Prof. Pringle’s laboratory in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. During her undergraduate & PhD studies, she worked, including as Assistant Manager, in fine-dining Country Clubs in Long Island, New York (4 summers) & in Tenafly, New Jersey (4 summers). On obtaining her PhD, she obtained an EU ‘Human Capital & Mobility’ Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Technical University, Munich, Germany (1994-1995). Prof. Cahill became Group Leader of the Protein Technology Group in the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Genetics, Berlin (1996-2003). She obtained an Associate Professor position, in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Director of Proteomics Core, RCSI, Dublin (2000-2005). Since 2005 – present, she is Full Professor of Translational Science in the School of Medicine, University College Dublin and she has extensive management experience, including successfully obtaining funding from the European Commission (FP4, FP5, FP6, FP7 and Horizon 2020), Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Health Research Board & successfully writing, project managing, publishing & reporting on all financial & regulatory aspects in academic & private sectors, in the companies she co-founded.
She has over 100 peer reviewed publications, with over 5000 citations and a H-index is 31, which is in the top 10% globally for the Biomedicine discipline. Prof. Cahill is internationally recognised for her biomedical research, publications and patent record in life sciences, biotechnology, personalised healthcare, personalised medicine, diagnostics, biomarker discovery and validation, proteomics, biotechnology, high content protein and antibody arrays and their biomedical, diagnostic and clinical applications. Her publications have demonstrated utility and applications in the research, commercial & clinical sectors and include characterisation of antibodies specificity (including therapeutic antibodies), biomarker discovery, diagnostics, assay development, protein-interaction studies, proteomics, large scale/systems biology research, validating biomarker panels in diagnostic clinical trial, personalised medicine and assessing immune related adverse events.
She has given over 100 Keynotes Lectures in Ireland, UK, Europe, USA, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, South America. For example, she is invited to the ‘5th Precision Medicine and Biomarkers Leaders’ Summit’ in Munich in September 2018 & will Chair a Roundtable on Personalised Medicine and Adverse Events to discuss whether lessons can be learned from cancer immunotherapy and immune related adverse events to provide insight into understanding adverse events and personalised medicine and finding adverse event predictive biomarkers
