Professor Kienan Savage is the Professor of Molecular Oncology at the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research – Queen’s University Belfast and is the Scientific Lead of the Belfast Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.

Kienan’s basic and translational research interests focus on understanding the cellular DNA damage response/repair systems with a particular emphasis on the DNA damage-driven immune response in breast cancer. In line with this, Kienan’s group was involved in the identification of the DNA damage-induced activation of the cGAS/STING pathway and its role in innate immune activation.

More recent work from the Savage lab has focused on harnessing this knowledge to enhance responses to immune checkpoint blockade therapies by identifying rational chemotherapeutic combinations.