Innovative Clinical interventions for Uveal Melanoma -Developing Novel Drugs and Biomarkers Impacting Patients

Prof. Breandán Kennedy

Breandán Kennedy, professor in Pharmacology at University College Dublin, was awarded with a Breakthrough Cancer Research Innovation Grant 2024 in partnership with Citi.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a poor prognosis cancer driven by cells that produce melanin pigment in the eyes and other tissues. Although a rare cancer, UM is notorious for resistance to treatment when spread to vital organs like the liver, brain, or lungs. Our mission is to bring renewed hope to patients through personalised diagnosis and treatments.

His project has two main objectives:

Developing Biomarkers: We are investigating factors in the blood of UM patients, particularly in a sub-compartment called “extracellular vesicles” (minuscule particles cells use for communication). These “biomarkers” can by repeatedly measured and help predict whether a patient’s UM will spread and if a cancer drug is showing signs of treatment effectiveness.

Our ultimate goal is to create or tailor medicines for optimal patient-specific results. By unique access to an unbiased genetic screen that identified genes required for UM survival we will validate the potential of these therapeutic targets in our human UM research models.

The overarching aim of the project is to develop personalised treatments for UM patients while also exploring methods for predicting cancer spread and identifying the most suitable medicine for each individual.