Dr. Stephen Maher

Stephen Maher graduated from RCSI in 2004 with a PhD in Oncology. Having spent 3 years as a visiting fellow at the National Cancer Institute in the USA, in 2007 he returned to Ireland and the Department of Surgery at Trinity College Dublin, St. James's Hospital as a research fellow. In 2010 he established his own research group before moving to the University of Hull and Hull York Medical School in 2012 as a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, where he set up and led the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics lab. During his time at Hull he gained substantial teaching experience and qualifications, and is a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Subsequently he developed and directed the MSc in Translational Oncology at Hull. Additionally, he acquired funding for and established an optical imaging and radiotherapy core. He has successfully supervised 9 PhD students and has mentored several postdoctoral researchers. In 2016 Stephen returned to TCD as the Ussher Assistant Professor in Translational Oncology, Radiation Therapy and Chemotherapy. Here he leads national and international collaborative programmes in translational oesophageal and pancreatic cancer research, focusing on IPMN biology and patient risk stratification, radiobiology, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy resistance. He has established and runs unique hypoxia and radiotherapy research cores at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute. He has secured in excess of €4.5m in competitive research funding, is well published in the field of microRNAs, GI cancer and therapeutics research, and has won numerous national and international research awards. Stephen delivers oncology teaching at both the UG and PG level at TCD and is on the teaching advisory board for the Trinity St. James Cancer Institute. In 2020 he was promoted to Associate Professor and is currently the Director of Postgraduate Studies for the School of Medicine. Stephen was elected to fellow of TCD in 2024.

  Apoptosis   Apoptosis, molecular control   Autoimmune and hypersensitivity diseases   Autoimmunity   Bioinformatics   Breast cancer   Cancer genetics and cell biology including metastasis   Cell cycle control   Cell Death   Cellular, molecular and developmental immunology   Chronic Disease   Chronic inflamation   Coagulation biochemistry and disorders   Cytokines, Nitric Oxide   Cytoskelton, cell division   DNA transcription and translation   Gene targeting in breast cancer   Gene therapy   Gene transcription in human cancer   General surgery, upper GI, colorectal and breast   Genetic/Molecular epidemiology   Genomics   Haemotology   Human genetics   Immune system   Immunoassays   Immunochemistry and immunogenetics   Immunological response to surgical trauma   Immunotherapies   Immunotherapies for Cancer   Inflammation and coagulation syndromes   Inflammatory bowel disease   Innate immunology   Intra and intercellular signalling   Leukemias and lymphomas   Leukocyte Biology   Mammilian and human genetics and genomics   Membrane and protein trafficking   Mucosal immunology   Oesophageal cancer   Oesophageal, gastric, intestinal and pancreatic diseases   Oncogenes, apoptosis and tumour development   Protein processing, stability and regulation   Protein sequence, function and expression   Quantitative and molecular genetics   Radiotherapy   Radiotherapy, Biological response modifiers and chemoprevention   Regulatory methods of gene expression   RNA processing, stability and degradation   Stem Cell biology and hematopoiesis   Therapeutic and Clinical oncology   Therapeutic radiography   Tumour immunology and immunotherapy   Vascular Biology, Thrombosis

Stephen has always been interested in cancer and its treatment. Having completed a PhD that examined T cell biology and interleukin-2 therapy for melanoma and renal cell carcinoma, he moved the the National Cancer Institute in the USA to pursue postdoctoral studies in the anti-tumour potential of a newly discovered cytokine, interferon-lambda (IL-29). Over the past 15 years his research interests have largely focused on understanding and predicting tumour response and resistance to more conventional, broadly applicable, cancer treatments, specifically chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Stephen's group examines the influence of the microRNA compartment, DNA damage response and, more recently hypoxia, on regulating cellular sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy in oesophageal and mesothelial tumours. His team is internationally recognised as leaders in translational radiotherapy research. More recently he initiated and leads an award-winning pancreatic cancer research programme. Being a member of the department of surgery at TTMI, based at St. James's Hospital in Dublin, his work is highly patient centric.