Professor Laure Marignol

Laure Marignol, PhD is Professor in Radiation Biology at the Discipline of Radiation Therapy in the School of Medicine. She is an Elected Fellow of the University. Head of Research for her Discipline, she drove the creation of the Applied Radiation Therapy Trinity (ARTT) research group, while leading her Translational Radiobiology and Molecular Oncology research laboratory. Dr. Marignol has worked for over 12 years on the problem of the selective destruction of cancer cells with ionising radiation, through the design in vitro models, the molecular classification of disease, and innovations in therapeutic approaches. Her work mostly focused on prostate cancer owing to her close relationship with the Urology Department at St James's Hospital. With close to 100 peer-reviewed research works, she is best known for her earlier work on understanding the molecular impact of oxygenation levels on the response of prostate tumours to radiation. Her research also focuses on novel approaches to improving cell lethality by radiation. She is serving as Chair of the Irish Radiation Research Society and advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She sits on the Radiobiology committee of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) and joined the Faculty of their course in Basic Clinical Radiobiology. She holds an editorial position with Nature Scientific Reports. Recipient of the highly competitive St Luke's Young Investigator Award of the Royal Irish Academy of Medicine, she was awarded grant funding from the Irish Cancer Society and Science Foundation Ireland. Dr. Marignol is also known for her ability to train students and Health Care Professionals on the research process. She received a Teaching Award from the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences to develop her 5-step research guide into the online Trinity Research Education Environment (TREE). Priding herself in being fair, a value most appreciated by her students and peers, Dr. Marignol has developed her career through the combination of a love of learning, a need to be challenged and an awareness that kindness is key to progress. She believes in embracing the possibility of a second chance and takes pleasure in exploring a hunch, in hearing the perspective of others and in encouraging the scientific community to continue to explore her field. She lives near Dublin with her husband and three young children. She regularly visits her family in Avignon, France.

  Biological Markers   Biomedical Research Resources, Other   Cancer genetics and cell biology including metastasis   Cell Lines   Clinical Radiobiology   Data Management/Analysis   DNA   Drug Delivery Systems   Exercise   Gene Expression   Genetic Manipulation   Genomics   Inhibitors   Lung Cancer   Mathematical modelling   Medical Outcomes   Metabolism, Protein   Methods of Drug Delivery   Molecular Biology   Oncology   Precision Medicine   Prostate cancer   Proteins and Macromolecules   Radiomics   Radiotherapy   Radiotherapy, Biological response modifiers and chemoprevention   Sex differences in radiation biology   Stem Cell   Therapeutic and Clinical oncology   Tissue Culture   Transgene Expression   Urogenital System   Urology

Radiobiology is a field of science that emerged from our ability to treat diseases with ionising radiation. I am intrigued by the complexity of the biological effects of radiation and feel compelled to pick at the puzzle. Cancer patients will never meet me, but I rejoice in the opportunity to help radiation Oncologists solve their challenges in ensuring that each patient can receive the best treatment for their disease. Radiobiology's pillars were defined by a few great and I feel privileged to have brought this field to Trinity and to both disseminate its legacy and contribute to its future in Ireland and internationally. I have extensively studied the impact of tumour microenvironmental factors on the biology of prostate tumours. My PhD work demonstrated that hypoxia could enable control therapeutic gene expression and has enabled others to purse this approach. My subsequent participation in the debate on the protective effect of hypoxia after radiation exposure, and its ability to affect the efficacy of commonly used chemotherapeutic agents shaped my transformation into an independent PI. My first grant selected for radioresistant prostate cancer cells, establishing a unique model to characterise the molecular mechanisms of the radiation response. I tested the prognostic potential of miRNAs, small, non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression, and identified novel miRNAs regulating radioresistance in prostate cancer cells. I proposed that the signalling pathways that regulate several cancer cells capabilities such as Notch and YB-1 as key to the survival of cancer cells to radiation, and identified deregulation of the Notch-3 receptor across cell line models of advancing disease stages and in patient specimens of high grade disease. My second grant examined the commercial potential of these findings for the development of a novel diagnostic test. Along the way, I have learnt that heterogeneity will prevail, and diversity in approaches is essential. I pushed the boundaries, investigating physical properties (functional imaging), learning the practical challenges of delivering radiotherapy, enabling my colleagues at the Discipline of Radiation Therapy to progress their research in the process. Together, we have demonstrated that molecular imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can advance our ability to assess prostate cancer; we have explored the impact of patient rotation on the treatment of lung cancer patient with radiotherapy. More recently I have questioned the potential impact of the differences between male and female biology. My next research objective is to enable my discoveries to inform both the prediction of clinical outcome to a radiotherapy treatment and the optimisation of a radiotherapy protocol to best treat tumours. To do so, next propose to devise a novel strategy for the selective generation of a large amount of DNA damage in single cancer cells. I have already, amongst others, demonstrated increased cell survival capacity in response to radiation exposure is associated with both reduced induction of DNA DSB and increased DNA repair capacity. While efforts to modify the DNA damage response are yielding encouraging results, this work will leverage my expertise and network, generate new opportunities while maintain the reputation of my unique, internationally recognised radiobiology lab and extended research group.