Catríona is a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at the School of Medicine (Faculty of Education and Health Sciences). Catríona’s research interests are focused around understanding the cell-intrinsic metabolic rewiring and how it influences tumor immunity. Catríona current research projects are investigating the metabolic vulnerabilities in certain genetic subtypes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). She is focused on manipulating these metabolic liabilities to enhance immunotherapy response in NSCLC patients. The development of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has brought some successful outcomes to patients with advanced-stage NSCLC, but the majority of patients remain unresponsive to immunotherapy. The modest response rates highlight an urgent need for new therapeutic approaches to augment the antitumor immune response.

Publications

Catríona M Dowling, James Phelan, Julia A Callender, Mary Clare Cathcart, Brian Mehigan, Paul McCormick, Tara Dalton, John C Coffey, Alexandra C Newton, Jacintha O'sullivan, Patrick A Kiely, ‘Protein Kinase C Beta II suppresses colorectal cancer by regulating IGF-1 mediated cell survival’ Oncotarget, 2016

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991501/

 

Catríona M Dowling, Sheri L Hayes, James J Phelan, Mary Clare Cathcart, Stephen P Finn, Brian Mehigan, Paul McCormick, John C Coffey, Jacintha O'Sullivan, Patrick A Kiely, ‘Expression of Protein Kinase C Gamma promotes cell migration in colon cancer’, Oncotarget, 2017.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5641114/

 

Josephine Hai, Hua Zhang, Jin Zhou, Zhong Wu, Ting Chen, Eleni Papadopoulos, Catríona M Dowling, Val Pyon, Yuanwang Pan, Jie Liu, Roderick Bronson, Heather Silver, Patrick Lizotte, Jiehui Deng, Joshua Campbell, Lynette Sholl, Christine Ng, Ming-Sound Tsao, Cassandra Tahakurdin, Adam Bass, and Kwok-Kin Wong, ‘Generation of Genetically Engineered Mouse Lung Organoid Models for Squamous Cell Lung Cancers Allows for the Study of Combinatorial Immunotherapy’ , Clinical Cancer Research, 2020.

https://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2020/05/04/1078-0432.CCR-19-1627.abstract

 

Fei Li, Wai-Lung Ng, Troy A. Luster, Hai Hu, Catríona M Dowling, Katy Hollinshead, Paula Zouitine, Hua Zhang, Qingyuan Huang, Michela Ranieri, Wei Wang, Zhaoyuan Fang, Ting Chen, Jiehui Deng, Kai Zhao, Hon-Cheong So, Alireza Khodadadi-Jamayran, Mousheng Xu, Val Pyon, Shuai Li, Yuanwang Pan, Kristen Labbe, Christina Almonte, John T. Poirier, George Miller, Richard Possemato,  Alec C. Kimmelman, Jun Qi, Kwok-Kin Wong ‘Epigenetic CRISPR Screens Identify Npm1 as a Therapeutic Vulnerability in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer’, Cancer Research, 2020.

https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/80/17/3556.short

 

Fei Li, Qingyuan huang, Troy Luster, Hai Hu, Hua Zhang, Wai-Lung Ng, Alireza Khodadadi-Jamayran, Wei Wang, Michela Ranieri, Ting Chen, Jiehui Deng, Zhaoyuan Fang, Val Pyon, Catríona M Dowling, Ece Bagdatlioglu, Christina Almonte, Kristen Labbe, Heather Silver, Alexandra Rabin, Thales Papagiannakopoulos, Peter Hammerman, Vamsidhar Velcheti, Gordon Freeman, Jun Qi, George Miller and Kwok-Kin Wong, ‘In vivo epigenetic CRISPR screen identifies Asf1a as an immunotherapeutic target in Kras-mutant lung adenocarcinoma’, Cancer Discovery, 2019. 

https://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/content/10/2/270.abstract