Dr Ronan Broderick attended the University of Galway for his undergraduate studies, obtaining a BSc in Biomedical Science in 2007, graduating with First Class honours. He then undertook a PhD position in the laboratory of Professor Heinz Peter Nasheuer, studying the regulation of human DNA replication.
Following his PhD studies, Ronan began a post-doctoral position at the University of Oxford in the laboratory of Professor Wojciech Niedzwiedz in 2013. During his time at Oxford, he made fundamental contributions to the understanding of how chromosomes are separated during mitosis and how DNA double-strand break repair is carried out.
In 2017, Ronan relocated with the Neidzwiedz laboratory to the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, where he later became a Senior Scientific Officer (2022). During his time at the ICR, he discovered that a nuclease called EXD2 is required for efficient DNA replication in human cells and that loss of this nuclease selectively kills BRCA-mutated cancer cells. He then shifted his research focus to telomere biology, elucidating the role of EXD2 in the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT); a telomere maintenance mechanism supporting the proliferation of 10-15% of all cancers, including aggressive tumours with no current useful treatments such as high-grade glioma.
In 2024 Ronan was awarded an MRC Career Development Award to establish his own group at the University of Birmingham. Current research in the Broderick laboratory aims to understand the molecular mechanisms of ALT, with a particular focus on the contribution of DNA repair and DNA replication fork stability to this process. This work also seeks to identify therapeutic targets to selectively eliminate ALT-reliant cancer cells and to characterise biomarkers to aid the diagnosis and/or stratification of ALT-reliant cancers.