Bronwyn Irving

Bronwyn Irving

Profile

Bronwyn graduated from Newcastle University with a MSci in Biomedical Genetics. During her degree she undertook a summer placement within the Northern Institute for Cancer Research investigating the role of ING3 in prostate cancer under Dr Olivier Binda. She also sought out charity funding from Luke's Life Legacy to complete a placement at UCL's Institute of Child Health investigating the sensitivity of low grade glioma to oxovanadium derivatives under Dr Andy Stoker.

Throughout her degree and through the completion of these placements Bronwyn developed an interest in cancer and particularly brain tumour research. She obtained a MRC Discover Medicine North East (DiMeN) Doctoral Training Partnership PhD studentship under the supervision of Dr Heiko Wurdak at the University of Leeds and Dr Anestis Tsakiridis at the Unviersity of Sheffield. 

Research interests

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and malignant brain tumour in adults. Despite patients undergoing surgical resection and an aggressive combination of radiation and chemotherapy >90% of patients relapse. As a result GBM patients have a poor prognosis of only 12-15 months.

GBM tumours are characterised by diffuse infiltration into the brain parenchyma and extensive intertumoral heterogeneity. Bronwyn’s project is focused on developing an human organoid model to investigate the invasive potential of brain tumour cancer stem cells as well as explore links between normal embryonic development and tumourigenesis.

http://www.dimen.org.uk/overview/student-profiles/the-best-treatment-for-every-patient-profiles/bronwyn-irving

https://anestistsakiridis.wixsite.com/tsakiridislab

Qualifications

  • MSci Biomedical Genetics