Alexandra Bennion, studies Translational Oncology at Trinity College Dublin. She graduated with a degree in Biology from Duke University. Her research is focused on Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which disproportionately affects African Americans. She is identifying unique target biomarkers for predicting drug efficacy. She has already co-authored several papers and presented at several professional conferences. Alexandra has conducted independent research to understand how adaptive stress influences cancer cell death. Her senior thesis was a critical part of a multi-million-dollar National Cancer Institute clinical trial and has a forthcoming publication under review in the journal Cancers. Noting that Ireland has the third highest cancer rate in the world, Alexandra is interested in the possibility that inter-generational physiological stress, prompted by historical events such as the Great Famine, still impacts cancer gene expression in the Irish today. She has also co-founded and is developing a first-in-world mobile app for monitoring breast health changes using interactive breast model and period cycle tracking. She leads the student chapter of the American Medical Women's Association; is the President and Co-Founder of the Student Coalition for Rare Diseases. For Duke’s Honor Council she founded a “Normalizing Failure in Research” weekend where undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty from the Durham area congregate, display negative data, and discuss their experiences with failure to promote integrity and inclusivity in academia. She has served young people in her community, including organizing a bereavement camp for children experiencing a close family death. She is a classically trained clarinetist. She is hoping to complete a project profiling the unique epigenetic signatures of breast cancer among Irish women