THE IRISH MIND »
L–R:Young Scientist of theYearwinners Sarah Flannery (1999), ThomasGernon (2000) andAddyOsmani (2003)
lakes. She has completed studies on the aquatic habitats of peatlands, agricultural, upland, urban and forested landscapes aswell as con- structedwetlands. The 1978winnerDonaldMcDonnell
says hewas equally interested in busi- ness and sciencewhen hewas at sec- ondary school in Crescent College, Limerick and that his career could have gone down either route. “However,win- ning the Irish and European Young Sci- entist competitions in 1978 as a fifth-year student opened up somany doors [research internships, scholar- ships and educational opportunities] that I quickly got the ‘research’ bug and never looked back.” After his Leaving Certificate, hewent
toUniversity College Galway (UCG) to studymarine biology but found that he wasmore interested in biomedical re- search. “Upon completion ofmy BSc in biochemistry in 1983, Imoved to Baylor College ofMedicine (BCM) inHouston, Texas to studymolecular biologywith Dr Bert O’Malley.” Coincidentally, he was the second ‘Young Scientist’ to studywithDr O’Malley, the other being Dr JohnMonahan, the firstwinner in 1963. McDonnell completed his training as
a postdoctoral fellowat SmithKline Pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia, before returning to BCMas an assistant pro- fessor. During this time, he developed a specific interest in drug discovery and in particular in the identification of drugs that could be used for the treat- ment and prevention of breast and prostate cancers. Hewas then offered a chance to be involved in early stage
company Ligand Pharmaceuticals in Southern California, operating in his own area of research. “Although I loved academia, thiswas
too good an opportunity to pass up and I joined the company as head ofmolec- ular biology in 1991. I spent a fantastic three years at Ligand Pharmaceuticals and sawthe company develop froma ‘jeans and t-shirt’ start-up to a ‘shirt and tie’ publicly traded company. The experiencewasmade evenmore satis- fying as it affordedme the opportunity tomake substantial contributions to the development of some very novel medicines that are nowbenefiting patients.” In 1994,wanting the academic free-
domtowork on any problemhe thoughtwas interesting and forwhich he could get funding, hemoved his fam- ily toNorth Carolina to take up a fac- ulty position in the School ofMedicine atDukeUniversity inDurham. Cur- rently, he is the Glaxo-Wellcome Profes- sor ofMolecular Cancer Biology and the chairman of theDepartment of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at DukeUniversity. “In this position I oversee the research efforts ofmy own laboratory and serve as the administra- tive head of a department that is com- prised of 24 additional research laboratories,” he says. Martynn Sheehan, a student at Con-
vent ofMercy inMoate,won the award in 1982 for her ‘Lichensmay be used for medicine’ project. “The project in- cluded botanical speciation, chemical extraction andmicrobiological chal- lenge and conclusively demonstrated medicinal effect,” she explains.
‘It probably didn’t changemy career path, but it did make it
easier.My suspicion is that this is true formost of the top prize- winners’
According to Sheehan,winning the
award drove her career choice onto a scientific path. “Iwent on to study biochemistry andmicrobiology inUCG. Since graduation, I haveworked in the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland and theUS andwith the IrishMedicines Board.” She is currently senior regula- torymanager at Pfizer. “In the spirit of continuous learning, I
have recently transferred to the area of biopharmaceuticals. This affordsme the opportunity to continuemy scien- tific development in an applied fashion and interactwithmany talented and innovative professionals in Ireland.” One of themost high-profilewinners
over the years has been Sarah Flannery fromScoilMhuire Gan Smál in Blarney, Cork,who featured on the front page of newspapers around theworld after
Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 75
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