Valerie McKelvey-Martin

"Attending the Molecular Prevention Course highlighted the importance of approaching cancer from a biosystem perspective and determining afresh that this disease will not, forever, continue to outwit us."

Valerie McKelvey-Martin, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Biomedical Sciences
University of Ulster, Coleraine

In August 2008, Professor McKelvey-Martin attended the NCI Molecular Prevention Course. She found the content of the course to be extensive, ranging from an overview of carcinogenesis to microarray approaches in cancer prevention and featuring lectures on the immune system and cancer; the role of inflammation in cancer; and public health genomics in cancer control and prevention. Of particular interest to Professor McKelvey-Martin were the lectures on understanding the role of epigenetics for cancer prevention, the more controversial stem cells and cancer story, and the lecture on biomedical informatics for molecular prevention studies describing NCI's cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG). With the increasing awareness of the complexity of cancer, Professor McKelvey-Martin considers the integration of relevant biological and clinical silos with appropriate IT infrastructure, software, and information models to be an exciting advance in addressing this complex disease.

Professor McKelvey-Martin completed her doctorate in mammalian genetics at the University of Ulster, Coleraine in 1986 and later worked as a post-doctoral research officer in molecular biology at the University of Ulster and Queens University, Belfast. In 1989, she returned to the University of Ulster at Coleraine as a Lecturer in Molecular Biology; she became professor of Molecular Biosciences in 2003. A member of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, Professor McKelvey-Martin's research interests are focused on DNA damage and repair studies within the Institute's Cancer and Ageing Research Group.

Papers published by Professor McKelvey-Martin include:

• Doherty SC, McKeown SR, Lopez JA, Walsh IK, McKelvey-Martin VJ (2006) Gene Expression in normal urothelium depends on location within the bladder: A possible link to bladder carcinogenesis. European Urology 50:290-301.
• Wasson GR, McGlynn AP, O'Reilly SR, McNulty H, McKelvey-Martin VJ, McKerr G, Strain JJ, Scott J and Downes CS (2006) Global DNA and p53 region specific hypomethylation in colonic cells is induced by folate depletion and reversed by folate supplementation: measurement by a novel methylation sensitive comet assay. J. Nutrition 136:2748-2753.
• Rajab NF, McKenna DJ, Diamond J, Williamson K, Hamilton PW and McKelvey-Martin VJ (2006) Prediction of radiosensitivity in human bladder cell lines using nuclear chromatin phenotype. Cytometry: Part A, 69A:1077-1085.
• McKenna DJ, McKeown SR, and McKelvey-Martin VJ (2008) Potential use of the comet assay in the clinical management of cancer. Mutagenesis 23:3 183-190
• Wasson GR, McKelvey-Martin VJ and Downes CS, (2008) The use of the comet assay in the study of human nutrition and cancer. Mutagenesis 23:3 153-162