Conor is a Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) fellow and Head of the Molecular Immunology Laboratory at ONJCRI. He holds honorary appointments at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. After obtaining his PhD in Molecular Biology at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland, he took up postdoctoral studies at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, where he studied genetic, transcriptional and epigenetic determinants of anti-tumor immune responses. During his postdoctoral appointments he made several important discoveries relating to mechanisms of tumour immune evasion, tumour cell death and T cell differentiation trajectories in cancer (e.g Kearney et al 2021, Science Advances; Kearney et al 2018, Science Immunology; Lelliott et al 2021, Cancer Discovery; Freeman et al 2019, Cell Reports; Kearney et al 2017, Cell Death & Differentiation).

His newly established laboratory (2022) uses a range of cutting-edge, molecular immunology, cell biology and genome-wide drug and genetic screening approaches to identify tumour cell vulnerabilities to cytotoxic lymphocytes for the identification of new cancer immunotherapies.