DrPaula Cunnea

Dr Paula Cunnea is an Advanced Research Fellow and Group Leader based in the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre, in the Division of Cancer. Paula leads a research group with Professor Christina Fotopoulou, focused on investigating tumour heterogeneity in high grade serous ovarian cancer, developing different ex vivo 3D patient derived models of ovarian cancer, and applying different bioengineering approaches to cancer research. Paula runs multidisciplinary projects in the area of chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer and development of novel therapeutics to target this chemotherapy and PARP inhibitor resistance.

Paula joined the Ovarian Cancer Action Research centre in 2012, and initially worked on a collaborative FP7 European Union funded project (Ovarian Cancer Therapy – Innovative Models Prolong Survival, OCTIPS), aiming to identify and characterise the cell population within an ovarian tumour that causes the patient to relapse, and to develop novel therapies in innovative model systems to combat the development of resistance to chemotherapy.

Paula obtained her primary BSc degree in Biomedical Science/Applied Science from Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Paula achieved her PhD in December 2006 following post-graduate research in the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Paula worked as a postdoctoral researcher in National University of Ireland Galway and Queen's University Belfast prior to joining Imperial College.