Mark Berney is a PhD candidate in the School of Chemistry in Trinity College Dublin. His PhD research, funded by a grant from the Irish Research Council, focuses on enzymes that repair DNA damage. These enzymes may be involved in acquired resistance to chemotherapy in hard to treat cancers, as well as some genetic diseases. Mark works on developing small molecule inhibitors of these enzymes, as well as chemically modified strands of DNA that can be used as probes to study the enzymes in their natural environment inside cells. As a Fulbright awardee in the University of Chicago, he will conduct further research on biological applications of modified nucleic acids.