I received my BSc in Biotechnology and subsequently his BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology from Waterford IT, where I was awarded the Enterprise Ireland undergraduate science student. Following an MSc in Biotechnology at the University of Ulster, I completed my PhD in DNA repair and cancer epigenetics within the lab of Prof Colum Walsh, which led to an Innovation Award from Invest Northern Ireland. Dr Dunne’s postdoctoral career at Queen’s University Belfast was focussed on developing early models of cancer dissemination to identify targetable biology. Through a visiting fellowship at the Candiolo cancer research institute (Torino) and placements at the University of Oxford, he established an interdisciplinary research programme aimed at the development of biologically-informed molecular stratifiers of disease to aid in prospective clinical translation.