Question: What sort of research for cancer do you do????

Sinead Loughran answered on 8 Nov 2016:

I am really interested in how viruses cause cancer and there are quite a few cancers caused by viruses including Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Burkitt’s Lymphoma (which was discovered by a famous Irish Scientist called Denis Burkitt). Most cervical cancer cancers are caused by a virus called the Human Papilloma virus (you may have heard that we have a vaccine for that now which prevents cervical cancer occurring) and some head and neck cancers are also caused by this same virus.
My research involves looking into the cancer cell for the changes that happen when the virus ‘hijacks’ the cell. If we can map these changes then we can understand what the virus does to cause cancer and hopefully we can block or reverse the changes that lead to cancer, maybe even cure these cancers. Cancer researchers are passionate about curing cancer and won’t give up until cancer does!