As a Trinity College Dublin undergraduate recipient of the Bill Vincent, American Ireland Fund Award, Therese travelled to the University of Pennsylvania to conduct research in a Prof. Bashaw's neurogenetics laboratory for the summer of 2004. This experience inspired her to pursue a career in genetic research. In 2005, upon completion of an Honours Degree in Genetics from Trinity College Dublin, she was awarded a Health Research Board Ph.D. scholarship in Molecular Medicine and joined the Prostate Molecular Oncology group in the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Dr. Antoinette Perry and Prof. Mark Lawlyer. The main focus of Therese's Ph.D. was investigating the role of DNA methylation in prostate cancer development, with a hope to identify potential markers of the disease. In addition to Therese's PhD, she completed and was awarded a postgraduate diploma in statistics from Trinity College Dublin in 2007.
Therese's doctoral training as an epigeneticist in cancer research allowed her to develop a sophisticated epigenetic knowledge and skill set, which could be translated to understanding the potential of epigenetic research in mental health disorders, particularly suicide. In 2010, Therese was awarded a Craig Dobbins Newman fellowship in Mental Health Research by University College Dublin, in collaboration with Professor Kevin Malone, based on her scientific proposal to examine how epigenetic mechanisms may contribute to suicide risk. During Therese's PhD and postdoctoral fellowship she published a number of original research and review articles and has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, including the first European Life technologies "TaqMan" Grant and a Health Research Board and National Cancer Institute (NCI) travel grant award to attend the NCI Molecular Prevention Course in Bethesda, USA.
In May 2013, Therese joined Prof. Mill's Complex Disease Epigenetics Group , University of Exeter, as a postdoctoral fellow investigating epigenetic changes in depression and other complex diseases.