Rate My Professor Philip Dunne

Dr Philip Dunne is a Reader in Molecular Pathology in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. He also serves as Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute in Glasgow. His research programme investigates mechanisms underlying disease progression in colorectal cancer, with particular interest in signalling associated with early dissemination of tumour cells and their interaction with the tumour microenvironment. The work includes development of molecular subtypes using signalling associated with intrinsic epithelial and extrinsic stromal and immune components of the tumour. Dr Dunne employs a wide range of laboratory techniques combining in vivo and in vitro molecular biology, in situ molecular pathology and in silico translational bioinformatics. His interdisciplinary approach involves digital pathology and histology characterisation of human tumour tissue samples, followed by molecular profiling, translational bioinformatics analyses, biomarker assessment and validation, and development of pre-clinical models for testing therapeutic strategies. He contributes to national colorectal clinical trial panels and international clinical/translational consortia, linking findings to prospective clinical trials across Europe.

Dr Dunne holds a BSc in Applied Biology and Biotechnology (Honours) from Waterford Institute of Technology (2001) and a PhD from Ulster University (2010) on the role of MBD4, DNMT1 and MLH1 in DNA methylation and repair. His career appointments at Queen’s University Belfast include Research Fellow (2010–2015) and S:CORT Fellow (2015–2016, Belfast-Oxford). He was Visiting Fellow at the Istituto di Candiolo, University of Torino (2016–2017). He was appointed Reader in Molecular Pathology and Group Leader in 2022. Dr Dunne teaches on multiple programmes including the MSc Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics, PG Certificate in Bioinformatics and MRes in Translational Cancer Medicine, covering topics such as cancer cell signalling, hallmarks of cancer, molecular pathology and data analysis. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications on colorectal cancer molecular subtyping and phenotypic plasticity, including work published in Nature Genetics and Nature Communications.