Rosemary O'Connor joined the Department of Biochemistry in 1997. She was appointed as Professor of Cell Biology in 2007, was Head of the Department of Biochemistry from 2008 to 2010, and Head of School from 2016-2021. Prior to this, she held appointments as Lecturer/Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Biochemistry. She holds a BSc. from University College Galway and a Ph.D. from NUI Maynooth. Research experience was gained in the USA and Germany in academia (the Institute of Pathology of the University of Wuerzburg, Germany and the Wistar Institute at U PENN, Philadelphia) and in Industry (Immunogen, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts) where her contributions led to new drug discovery and clinical trials. In UCC she established the Cell Biology Laboratory which focuses on Insulin-like Growth Factor actions particularly in cancer and neurodegeneration, although applications of this research extend to most branches of biology. She was a founding Investigator of the Biosciences Institute and was Director of the structured PhD program in Cancer Biology. She has supervised 24 PhD students to completion, co-supervised/mentored circa 20 others as well as >20 postdoctoral researchers and research assistants. Prof O’Connor has served on scientific boards and advisory committees for the European Union, Science Foundation Ireland, the Breast Cancer Campaign (UK), and Irish Cancer Society. She was awarded the Irish Area Section Medal by the Biochemical Society in 2007 and chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Insulin-like Growth Factors in Physiology and Disease in 2011. She received an award from the Irish Association for Cancer Research for "Outstanding contributions to cancer research on the Island of Ireland" in 2019 and is the current President of the International Society for Insulin-like Growth Factor research.

Background: Insulin and Insulin-like Growth Factors (IGF-I and II) are for development, metabolism, growth and maintenance of tissues, and their activity is dysregulated in type 2 diabetes, cancer and disorders with an inflammatory component. Despite the fundamental nature of the Insulin/IGF system, and extensive knowledge on its ligands, receptors (IR and IGF-1R), and canonical signalling pathway, the mechanisms underlying the different biological actions of Insulin and IGFs in normal physiology and disease are still poorly understood. It is still not well understood how cell, tissue and disease contexts or specific regions of each receptor their overall signalling output. These mechanisms have been challenging to uncover because the IGF-1R and IR are ubiquitously expressed and both receptors may be active in cells at the same time. Moreover, although insulin and related analogues are widely used to successfully control diabetes, drugs that inhibit IGF activity have been largely unsuccessful in different cancers. However, anti-IGF-1R antibodies that were originally developed for testing in cancer have recently been successfully repurposed for the treatment of Thyroid Eye Disease (TED). This highlights the potential to effectively inhibit IGF activity in this, and potentially other, inflammatory conditions. Current research: Our research programme is taking an innovative spatio-temporal approach (including in cell proteomics and advanced imaging) to determine how insulin and IGF-1 receptors emit specific signals in different tissues. We are using protein modelling and multiple receptor constructs to provide a structural basis for how these receptors are activated and regulated in different contexts. We are also aiming to establish a mechanistic basis for the success of IGF-1R inhibition in TED and provide a rationale for targeting the IGF-1R in other inflammatory conditions.

Second Year Science Introductory Molecular Biology (ML2001)Fourth Year Biochemistry Cell and Developmental Biology (BC4001)PhD Scholars Programme in Cancer BiologyPhD Programme Molecular and Cell Biology  MSc. Biotechnology:  Molecular Biology (BC6001)  MSc. Molecular and Cell Biology with Bioinnovation