On 23 May 2019, Eurolife Network Members, guests and academic speakers gathered together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Network. To mark this special occassion, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) hosted the Eurolife Mini Symposium on Research Innovations in Oncology with the honorary scientific guest, Prof. Dr. Lorrain O’Driscoll from the School of Pharmacy, Trinity College Dublin.

Prof. O’Driscoll delivered the Eurolife Distinguished Lecture titled: Hope and hypes of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles in cancer. Prof. O’Driscoll is now the 27th Eurolife Distinguished Lecturer – academic expert to receive the Eurolife Medal promoting a unified vision of the aims of the Network and stimulating interaction between researchers at Eurolife Partner Universities. The presentation was extremely well received by the large audience at the Aula of the Leiden University Medical Center.

About Prof. Lorraine O’Driscoll

“Prof. O’Driscoll holds a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology, MSc (Res) in Clinical Pharmacology, and PhD in Biotechnology. Following her PhD, Lorraine worked on biotechnology/biomedical research studies for US and EU industry (includuing Berlex/Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; Archport Ltd-Axonobel; MediSyn Ltd; MedaNova Ltd.) before returning to academic research & teaching. At post-doctoral level, she gained experience at the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Institute and University of Miami. Prior to joining TCD in 2008, Lorraine most recently held the position of Senior Research Programme Leader, NICB and Lecturer in School of Biotechnology, DCU. Lorraine’s research group focuses on diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers; discovering new therapeutic targets; cancer cells communication via exosomes, microvesicles and CTCs; elucidating and circumventing resistance to targets agents and classical chemotherapy; associations between obesity, metabolic syndrome and cancer.

She has been a Principal Investigator and lead on cancer clinical trials for the All Ireland Cooperative Oncology Research Group since 2006. She is TCD’s Principal Investigator on SFI-supported Molecular Therapeutics for Cancer Ireland; Strand Leader of Irish Cancer Society-supported National Cancer Research Institute, Breast-PREDICT; and Lead Principal Investigator and Chair, EU FP7 EuropeanNetwork Cooperation in Science and Technology focussed on Exosomes & Microvesicles in health & Disease which brings together researchers from 27 European countries, 2 US universities, an Australian Institute and 7 industry partners. Lorraine’s background, drawing on expertise developed in industry and in academia, provides her with expertise in many areas of pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacology and biotechnology including extensive pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo studies and clinical trial development”.