A LIMERICK man who has dedicated his medical research to treating an incurable form of cancer was among the winners at the Irish Cancer Society Research Awards.
John Daly, originally from Raheen, was named PhD Researcher of the Year at the annual awards ceremony for his studies into combatting Multiple Myeloma; a type of blood cancer for which there is currently no cure. He is currently doing his PhD in National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).
A past winner of a biomedical research scholarship from the Irish Cancer Society, the Limerick man’s team has focused on a type of immune cell called Natural Killer cells that normally destroy cancer cells, but are unable to detect those of Multiple Myeloma.
They are trying to find ways of boosting these Natural Killer cells so that they can successfully detect and destroy Multiple Myeloma cells which would revolutionise treatment for the disease.
Commenting on his award, John Daly said: “I’m absolutely delighted, a lot of hard work has gone into this so far, not just from me but everyone in my group, and particularly my supervisor and co-supervisor: Prof Michael O’Dwyer and Dr Mattias Carlsten. Things like this are really encouraging and motivating for the next couple of years as we try to move our research on.”
He added that while there is plenty more work to do, he would eventually like to see his research trialled on patients in a clinical setting.
