Browse Research Staff by Research Area Dr Ned Abraham     Rural Clinical School - Mid North Coast Division - Coffs Harbour Statement of Interests: My main areas of interest include Sphincter Preserving Surgery for rectal cancer, Fast Track Surgery for colorectal cancer, ultrasound staging of rectal cancer, anal manometery, Biofeedback & capsule endoscopy. Current research projects include psychological profiling of surgeons and the choice of chemotherapy in neoadjuvant therapy for rectal cancer. I also have links with colorectal researchers at the Surgical Outcomes Research Centre at the University of Sydney. [Background Information I am a practicing colorectal cancer surgeon and an officer in the Australian Army Reserve. I graduated with Honours in 1986. My Master’s degree (Sydney 1998) was on the role of smoking in the aetiology of ulcerative colitis. My PhD in Surgery (Sydney 2008) was in one of my main areas of research the role of meta-analysis of non-randomised comparative studies in evidence based surgery. I obtained the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2002 and was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England through a nomination by its President in 2004. I was the Surgical Superintendent of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for three years attached to its Colorectal Unit before moving to the UNSW I have worked in the UK & the Middle East and served in Bougainville with the Peace Keeping Force. <a href=/resinterests.nsf/sw/3164658?OpenDocument>More... </a><br><br></font>] Dr Meera Agar     South Western Sydney Clinical School Statement of Interests: Delirium in Advanced cancer Clinical Palliative care research More... Dr Tobias Arkenau     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: In the field of cancer medicine the development of new anti-cancer agents is of special interest, with a special focus on the treatment of gastro-intestinal cancers. Additionally, clinical trial design and biomarker development. More... Professor Michael Barton     South Western Sydney Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Cancer outcomes are affected by a wide range of factors beyond the efficacy of screening or treatment interventions. The application of current best practice is estimated to improve overall survival from cancer by about 10%. Interventions in the delivery of cancer care that can improve outcomes range from the micro patient care) to the macro health service reform) and stretch across the continuum from formative educational experiences to daily clinical practice. More... Dr Alison Butt     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Human cancers are characterised by a disruption of normal cellular growth due to defects in the control of both cell proliferation and cell death (apoptosis). Apoptosis is a physiological form of cell death with distinct morphological and biochemical characteristics. Current therapies for the treatment of human cancers, including ionising radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs, kill tumour cells by inducing apoptosis, so understanding how the process of cell death is regulated in normal and cancerous cells is an important goal for effective treatment. Current projects include defining the molecular mechanisms of estrogen- and antiestrogen-mediated survival/apoptosis in breast cancer models and characterising the apoptotic effects of novel therapeutics for breast cancer. More... Dr David Chang     South Western Sydney Clinical School Statement of Interests: More... Dr Raymond A Clarke     St George Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Cancer biomarkers can reflect the causal pathway linking disease to outcome. Prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) is a highly specific biomarker upregulated in prostate cancer (PCa). In order to understand the role of PCA3 we investigated the organization and evolution of the PCA3 gene locus. We identified 4 new transcription start sites in an extended form of PCA3, 2 new exons, exons 2a and 2b, and evidence for 4 new polyadenylation sites. PCR amplification based on the new exon sequences provided excellent discrimination between PCA3 expression in PCa, PCa metastases and BPH. At the genomic level PCA3 is embedded in the opposite (anti-sense) orientation in a second gene, BMCC1 / PRUNE2, that contains a BNIP2 and Cdc42GAP homology (BCH) domain capable of interacting with RhoA and RhoC, determinants of cellular transformation and metastasis, respectively. Comparative genomic analysis demonstrates that PCA3 emerged in mammals and recently evolved in primates and the upstream region of the BMCC1 isoform 1 (BMCC1-1) that flanks the PCA3 gene has only recently evolved. We also demonstrated that BMCC1-1 – like PCA3 – is upregulated in PCa tissue and metastases and in PCa cell lines. We are now investigating the relationship between BMCC1 upregulation and prostate cancer progression. More... Professor Philip Crowe     Prince of Wales Clinical School - Department of Surgery Statement of Interests: Broad interest in treatment of soft tissue sarcoma, particularly trialing new treatment regimens. Lab based research is focused on identifying markers of prognosis and potential targets for new therapies. Clinical research in endocrine and cancer surgery. More... Professor Roger Daly     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: My research focuses on mechanisms of tyrosine kinase signalling and how these are deregulated in disease states, particularly cancer. Three projects concern proteins involved in either the transmission of signals within the cell or the regulation of these signalling events. These proteins are Gab2, cortactin and Grb14. Overexpression of Gab2, which is found in a subset of breast cancers, increases not only the proliferation of cancer cells but also their invasive properties. The latter effect suggests that Gab2 may promote cancer cell spread throughout the body. High levels of cortactin are found in some breast and head and neck cancers, and we have identified that this protein increases resistance to a new drug currently in clinical development. Together with researchers in the Garvan Institute Diabetes Program, we are studying how Grb14, and related proteins, regulate the metabolic and growth-promoting effects of insulin and insulin-like growth factors. In addition, we are applying the latest mass spectrometry-based approaches to the definition of phosphoprotein profiles associated with particular cancer subtypes, with the aim of identifying novel therapeutic targets and prognostic markers. More... Dr Paul De Souza     St George Clinical School Statement of Interests: Five broad areas of research interests: 1) Translational drug development in cancer (preclinical to early Phase clinical trials of novel treatments), and 2) Urological cancers, including renal, bladder and prostate cancer, and their mechanisms of drug resistance 3) Neurological cancer, especially glioblastoma multiforme 4) Angiogenesis and biomarkers in cancer 5) Quality of Life in cancer patients More... Professor Geoffrey Delaney     South Western Sydney Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Radiation Oncology health services research focuses on studying the differences between current practice and what is proposed as optimal therapy using evidence-based medicine and understnding the reasons for the differences between the two. Our research group use the evidence-based treatment guidelines published in Cancer and calculates the ideal population of patients who should receive treatment and then examine reasons for shortfall. More... Dr Pierre Dilda     UNSW Cancer Research Centre Statement of Interests: - Tumour angiogenesis: Tumour expansion and metastasis is dependent on tumour blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis. We have made a synthetic tripeptide trivalent arsenical, GSAO (4-(N-(S-glutathionylacetyl)amino) phenylarsenoxide) that inhibits proliferating, but not growth-quiescent, endothelial cells in vitro and angiogenesis in vivo. We have proposed that GSAO inactivates the mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT). GSAO is a selective inhibitor of endothelial cells compared to tumour cells, with IC50 values for proliferation arrest up to 30-fold higher in tumour cells. The selectivity of GSAO for endothelial versus tumour cells is mostly accounted for by differences in MRP1/2 activity and cellular glutathione levels. GSAO inhibits tumour growth in mice and is currently tested in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial in cancer patients with solid tumours. This research has been published in Cancer Cell (IF=23.9), the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (IF=15.7), Cancer Research (IF=7.7) and Journal of Biological Chemistry (IF=5.6) and was the subject of commentaries in Nature Reviews Cancer, Lancet Oncology and Science-Business eXchange(SciBX). - Drug discovery: GSAO acts as a pro-drug (Dilda et al., J. Biol. Chem. 2008). The γ-glutamyl residue of GSAO is cleaved at the endothelial cell surface by γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT). The product of this reaction, GCAO, is transported across the plasma membrane by an organic ion transporter where it may be further processed by dipeptidases to CAO. GCAO or CAO then enters the mitochondrial matrix where it reacts with the inner-membrane transporter, adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT). We have made a chemically stable analogue of CAO, called PENAO. PENAO does not require processing by γ-GT at the cell surface. PENAO accumulates in cells much more rapidly than GSAO, which translates to more potent effects on endothelial and tumor cells in culture and better anti-tumor efficacy in mice. PENAO targets both tumor endothelium and tumor cells in vivo(Dilda et al., J. Med. Chem., 2009). PENAO is currently undergoing toxicity and PK tests. It will be tested in clinical trial phase I/IIa early 2010. More... Dr Timothy Dobbins     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Enjoys applying statistical methods to guide research in health and medicine. The design and analysis of cluster randomsied trials is a particular research interest. More... Dr Anthony Don     UNSW Cancer Research Centre Statement of Interests: Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) is a potent and essential signaling metabolite that promotes cell proliferation, migration, and survival, amongst other higher physiological roles. We use biochemistry and molecular biology techniques to investigate the molecular basis for cell proliferation and survival mediated by S1P, and to study the known contribution that this molecule makes to the dysregulated survival of cancer cells. We are also investigating how the immediate biosynthetic precursors to S1P, ceramide and sphingosine, promote cell death (in direct contrast to S1P). In this regard we are interested in the design and synthesis of sphingosine analogues as a new class of anti-cancer agents. Our hypothesis is that when these molecules reach a threshhold intracellular concentration, they flick a molecular "switch", causing a change in the cell state from proliferation/survival to apoptosis. More... Dr Mark Dziegielewski     School of Medical Sciences - Department of Pathology Statement of Interests: My main area of interest is medical education, specifically the evaluation of gains derived from computer assisted learning. An additional interest is cancer biology, in particular, the cell biology of the metastatic process and the role of cell adhesion molecules in signal transduction and cell-matrix interactions. More... Associate Professor John Eden     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: Associate Professor Eden is actively involved in the following areas of Research: 1) The polycystic ovary syndrome: It's Aetiology, Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, Prevalence, Inheritance, Infertility & recurrent abortion, and Treatment; 2) Anovulation, including Weight-loss, Exercise-induced, Health risks, Ovulation induction, and Diet & reproduction; 3) Regulation of the ovary including Paracrine control, Insulin-like growth factors and Other peptide growth factors; 4)Menopause issues of Hormone replacement, Osteoporosis, Progestogens, Education, Breast cancer, Cancer and HRT, Diet and menopausal symptoms, and Phytoestrogens; 5) Nutrition topics such as Functional foods, Over-the-counter products, Cancer treatment and prevention, Lipid lowering, Cardiovascular disease treatment and prevention, Menopause syndrome, Isoflavones, and Lignans 6) Microbiological Biofilms in health and sickness More... Dr Margaret Faedo     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: One of the biggest challenges facing health care systems today is providing patients with access to new and emerging drug treatments, and at the same time ensuring the sustainability of funding. Local health care delivery systems, such as area health services, hospitals and private health insurers are under considerable pressure to fund medicines rejected, restricted or pending approval by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. There is a need to develop freely available economic models that can adapt easily to local circumstances. This requires new policies and health care practices developed on the basis of sound clinical and economic evidence. Our NHMRC funded program aims to build and disseminate readily accessible evidence about the cost effectiveness of cancer medicines in clinical practice. These models will be available on the Cancer Institute NSW Standard Treatment (CI-SCaT) program, an online resource of more than 500 peer-reviewed cancer treatment guidelines. This is a world first program which will have implications beyond cancer management, addressing one of the most enduring problems in health care: the translation of economic evidence into policy and clinical practice. More... Dr Caroline Ford     UNSW Cancer Research Centre Statement of Interests: Our research aims to establish a novel therapy for triple-negative (TNB) and Tamoxifen resistant breast cancer patients, who currently have limited therapeutic options. By reconstituting Wnt-5a signalling, via a Wnt-5a derived hexapeptide, tumours are rendered sensitive to presently available endocrine therapy. This hexapeptide also functions as an effective anti-metastatic therapy which is important as over 90% of deaths from breast cancer are related to spread of the tumour to distal organs. Research is now focused on elucidating the signaling pathway and epigenetic changes leading to these effects. Research is performed in collaboration with groups in Sweden and Finland. More... Dr Peter Galettis     St George Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Research focuses on determining the mechanisms of action of anticancer drugs. In particular the analysis and metabolism of antimetabolites, platinum drugs, anthracyclines and novel agents. We are also looking at the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) on drug action. More... Professor Andrew Grulich     National Centre in HIV Epidemiology & Clinical Research Statement of Interests: Epidemiology and prevention of HIV infection, including behavioural and biomedical prevention. More... Associate Professor John Grygiel     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Molecular mechanisms in cancer More... Professor Michelle Haber AM     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: Research, in collaboration with a number of leading national and international colleagues, focuses on molecular mechanisms responsible for treatment failure in childhood malignancies. A range of unique in vitro and in vivo models of paediatric cancers, together with an extensive bank of paediatric tumours are investigated to elucidate critical genes, pathways and molecular targets for novel therapies. More... Professor Neville Hacker     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: 1. The genetic basis of ovarian cancer - this is a collaborative research program with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. The hope is to find a marker for population screening of ovarian cancer. 2. Individulization of management for vulvar cancer. The research is intended to prove that morbidity is decreased without compromising survival. 3. Primary surgery for Stage IBII cervical cancer, with small field pelvic radiation for node negative patients. The hope is to show that this is less morbid than primary chemoradiation, with comparable survival. More... Dr Michelle Henderson     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: The major focus is on research projects directed at understanding the aggressive nature of childhood cancers such as neuroblastoma and leukaemia. These involve cellular and molecular biological experiments aimed at investigating the role of members of the multidrug transporter gene family in determining clinical outcome of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma and other malignancies. Other aspects include studies into the mechanism of relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and identification of novel therapeutics for infant leukaemia. More... Dr Luke Hesson     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Research within the Molecular and Cellular Oncology Laboratory aims to investigate the genetic and epigenetic basis of colon cancer. More... Dr Sian Hicks     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Colorectal cancer is currently the most common cancer diagnosed in Australia and has the second highest incidence of cancer-related deaths. Our research group, the Colorectal Cancer Research Consortium, was established to develop and test better systems for the identification, integration and dissemination of clinically relevant information about colorectal cancers and to use this information as a basis to develop research that could be translated into clinical practice. Current project include: - Development of synoptic pathology reporting for colorectal cancer - Identification of data that is essential for the reporting of colorectal cancer by the Clincial Cancer Registry - Integration of mismatch repair deficiency testing (MMRD)into pathology reporting of colorectal cancer - Microsatellite instability in colorectal cancer as a prognostic indicator for metachronous cancers More... Dr Megan Hitchins     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Research focus is the role of genetic and epigenetic changes in disease development including both congenital disorders and cancer, and the inheritance patterns associated with these molecular abnormalities. This has included research into the aetiological role of genomic imprinting during fetal development, and more recently, germline epimutations in hereditary cancers. The patterns of somatic epigenetic changes in the development of sporadic cancer, and the underlying mechanisms are also of interest. More... Dr Tzong-Tyng Hung     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Secondary bone lesions (bone metastasis) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in prostate cancer. The mechanisms of bone metastasis is still unclear. In order to study bone metastasis, we have developed murine models that are bone metastatic. Using various imaging and detection systems (microCT scans for small animals, Bioluminescence imaging, Fluorescent imaging and ultrasound) we are able to monitor development of bone metastatic lesions and pinpoint the site of bone tumours. Importantly, our models involve immune competent mice, which allows us to investigate the role of immune cells on the development of secondary bone tumours in prostate cancer and also evaluate potential therapies which include immunotherapies. More... Dr Susannah Jacob     South Western Sydney Clinical School Statement of Interests: Construction of evidence-based models of optimal utilisation of cancer treatments (chemotherapy and radiotherapy)for various cancer sites. Comparison of the optimal models with actual rates of utilisation to measure any shortfalls and assist in planning of health services. More... Professor John Kaldor     National Centre in HIV Epidemiology & Clinical Research Statement of Interests: Epidemiology and prevention of HIV infection, hepatitis C infection and other sexually transmissible diseases and blood-borne viruses; Epidemiology and prevention of cancer; Epidemiological methods. More... Associate Professor Maria Kavallaris     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: All living cells rely on cellular architecture, made up of the cytoskeleton to work. The microtubule cytoskeleton plays a critical role in cell division and our research focuses on the fundamental aspects of the tubulin/microtubule system, centring around the mitotic spindle axis and its role in cell division. To gain a fundamental understanding of the cytoskeleton in cell division, we have developed molecular, cellular and proteomic tools and coupled this with drug probes to identify microtubule protein function. This fundamental research is informing the field on how to design and target antimitotic agents used in cancer therapy. More... Professor Levon Khachigian     Centre for Vascular Research Statement of Interests: Cardiovascular disease and cancer remain the most prevalent causes of morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of these and a myriad of related diseases is underpinned by molecular and cellular changes in our blood vessels. Professor Levon Khachigian’s research is uncovering key networks of transcriptional control and inducible gene-regulatory circuits that lead to vascular disease. The group is also developing new experimental drugs that have the potential to treat a diverse range of health problems, from cancer and inflammation through to eye and heart disease. Professor Khachigian’s research program has two major objectives: 1. To better understand how harmful genes are controlled in vascular cells. This arm investigates signaling and transcriptional mechanisms of pro-inflammatory cytokine-dependent gene expression, post-translational mechanisms that modify protein behavior, proteinase control, the isolation and characterization of new genes induced or repressed by vascular cell injury, and the molecular control of vascular cell migration and proliferation. The group has considerable expertise in animal models of neointima formation, angiogenesis, tumor growth, myocardial ischemia, and inflammation. 2. To develop new vascular therapeutic agents. The lab is harnessing the outcomes of its fundamental research by pioneering the development of novel “anti-gene-” and “gene-therapeutic” strategies targeting key regulatory genes in a myriad of vascular disorders. This involves strategic collaborations with a range of clinical specialists, academics and drug development consultants. -------> PhD and Hons projects are available in both these research streams in Khachigian Lab in 2010. If you’re interested, please email l.khachigian@unsw.edu.au asap, sending your CV. More... Dr Aparajita Khatri     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Cancer imaging and therapeutics; Specifically, targeted combination therapies involving novel combinations e.g gene therapy and traditional therapy (Collaborations with Prof david T curiel (Alabama,USA) & Dr. Leif Lindholm(Sweden). Biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles for cancer imaging and therapy (Collaboration with Dr Benjamin Thierry, South Australia) More... Associate Professor Murray Killingsworth     South Western Sydney Clinical School Statement of Interests: Chronic inflammatory processes in cancer and retinal degeneration. Cell debris clearing by macrophages, stimulation of pathologic angiogenesis and development of fibrosis are studied using transmission electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry and histochemistry. More... Dr Maija Kohonen-Corish     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Our area of expertise is colorectal and lung cancer genetics/epigenetics and we currently have both translational and experimental research projects. We examine the gene profiles of resected tumour tissues and correlate them with patient clinical outcomes. The challenge is to work out which key gene alterations and biomarkers are the most useful for determining prognosis and treatment outcomes, in order to improve the clinical management of patients. We have also identified new genes that are inactivated through epigenetic mechanisms in cancer, and want to understand the biological significance of these gene defects using cell line and mouse models. More... Emeritus Professor James Lawson     School of Public Health and Community Medicine Statement of Interests: Investigating the viral origins of cancer. More... Dr Craig Lewis     Prince of Wales Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Major areas of clinical trial research in breast, lung and genitourinary cancer. Other areas of interest include cancer pain management and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting More... Dr Yong Li     St George Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: My current interest research areas include: a) To investigate novel biomarkers or tumour-associated antigens for cancer diagnosis, monitoring and therapy; b). To use targeted cancer therapy and combination therapy to control micrometastatic prostate cancer and bresat cancer; c): To investigate the mechanism of cancer metastasis. During my current appointment, I have developed expertise for treatment of prostate cancer micrometastases using the multiple targeted alpha therapy (MTAT) modality. More... Associate Professor Richard Lock     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: In the field of cancer the major focus is in defining molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in relapsed childhood leukaemia. New experimental models of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia have been developed that will be used to delineate mechanisms of programmed cell death (apoptosis) and investigate novel biological characteristics of the disease. In addition, these experimental models will be used test novel therapeutic agents/strategies for management of the high-risk or relapsed patient. More... Dr Reginald Lord     St Vincent's Clinical School Statement of Interests: The major focus of our work is on oesophageal diseases, especially oesophageal adenocarcinoma and its precursor Barrett’s oesophagus. Barrett’s oesophagus is the disease in which the normal squamous lining of the distal oesophagus is replaced by a metaplastic columnar lining containing goblet cells (intestinal metaplasia) in response to chronic severe gastro-oesophageal reflux. Worldwide, oesophageal cancer is the fifth commonest cause of cancer death in males and seventh in females. The risk of oesophageal cancer in males in Australia is 1 in 87 by age 85 years and the projected annual increase in new cases is 32%. Oesophageal cancer has a high case-fatality rate with population-based 5 year survival rates typically between 10% and 17%. In Australia there were 1,165 new cases and 1,176 deaths in 2005 and oesophageal cancer is the 10th most common cause of cancer death overall and 8th most common cause in males (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) & Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (AACR). Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008. Cancer series no. 46. Cat. no. CAN 42. 2008. Canberra, AIHW). The incidence of EAC is increasing faster than any other cancer, with a more than 6-fold increase in the US in the past several decades. EAC incidence is increasing rapidly in Australia. We investigate the genetic basis of this disease, especially changes in expression and DNA methylation in the Barrett’s multistage carcinogenesis model, prognostic factors for oesophageal cancer, and predictors of response to flouropyrimidine (eg 5-fluorouracil, 5-FU) and platinum drug (eg cisplatin) chemotherapy for patients with oesophageal cancer. Other interests are the immune response, especially involving dendritic cells, in Barrett’s oesophagus, adipokines and other factors involved in obesity, the relationship between obesity and cancer, and clinical studies of surgical outcomes and endoscopic Barrett’s ablation. The laboratory is located in the St. Vincent’s Centre for Applied Medical Research on level 8 of the Lowy Packer Building, Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst 2010. Enquiries can be directed to Associate Professor Lord at rvlord@stvincents.com.au or (02) 8382-6671. More... Dr Lionel Lourenco-Dias     Centre for Vascular Research Statement of Interests: Dr Lionel Lourenço-Dias is a molecular biologist with specific interests in vascular biology. More... Dr Mark Lutherborrow     St Vincent's Clinical School - Blood Stem Cells and Cancer Research Statement of Interests: My research interests are projects centred on transcription networks operating in haematopoietic malignancies and stem cells, in particular the interplay of mRNAs and microRNAs in the acute leukaemia setting. More specifically these interests include: - Identification of diagnostic and prognostic gene expression profiles in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. - The role of microRNAs in myeloid differentiation. - Characterisation of the response of multiple myeloma cells to chemotherapeutic agents. - Predictive techniques to identify mRNA targets of microRNAs More... Dr Karen MacKenzie     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: Molecular mechanisms that control cell proliferation, and promote immortalisation and tumorigenic conversion of human cells, including haematopoietic stem and mesenchymal cells. Current research is focussed on the role of telomeres, telomerase, oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes and antiapoptotic pathways in carcinogenesis and haematopoiesis. More... Dr Limin Mao     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Cancer epidemiology, HIV/AIDS and its risky behaviors, and primary health care are of particular interest. More... Associate Professor Bettina Meiser     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: An ongoing research program that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies focuses on the psychological impact of genetic testing and counselling for adult-onset disorders, in particular cancer susceptibility; psychological adjustment of those at risk for adult-onset disorders; the design and evaluation of interventions in the genetic counselling setting, in particular decision aids as an innovative means of patient education; and the impact of prophylactic surgery in individuals at high risk for cancer. Another area of research is cultural aspects of cancer genetics. More... Dr Ewan Millar     School of Medical Sciences - Department of Pathology Statement of Interests: The development of new predictive and prognostic biomarkers for clinical breast cancer. More... Professor Elizabeth Musgrove     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: Major research interest is understanding the control of cell cycle progression in breast cancer cells, in particular the molecular mechanisms by which steroid hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) regulate this process. More... Dr Matthew Naylor     St Vincent's Clinical School Statement of Interests: The signalling pathways that control normal development are often disrupted during cancer. Current research aims to understanding the mechanisms behind the regulation of cell fate decisions during these processes and the progression to metastatic disease. In this context understanding the interaction between a cell and its microenvironment is also a focus of the lab. Integrins provide cells with both a positional identity and coordinate the melee of growth factor and hormone signals to the cell. The initiation and progression of cancer is dependent on the ability of a cell to acquire the means to circumvent this regulation and as such modulation of integrin function has the potential to alter tumour phenotype. More... Professor Murray Norris     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: A major research focus involves the use of molecular biology to improve the diagnosis and treatment of children with cancer. The early detection of leukaemia relapse (minimal residual disease) and elucidating the mechanisms responsible for conferring resistance to anticancer drugs in childhood malignancies are of particular interest. In addition, high throughput screening of small molecule libraries and the development of molecular targeted therapies is also a major goal. More... Dr Philippa O'Brien     St Vincent's Clinical School Statement of Interests: The molecular basis of epithelial ovarian cancer is poorly understood. Our laboratory is using contemporary microarray-based genomic tools in to identify genes involved in the development and progression of ovarian cancer, with the aim of identifying new clinical biomarkers. Our current primary focus is to identify epigenetically regulated genes in ovarian cancer, including epigenetically silenced tumour suppressor genes, and epigenetic changes that occur in the very early stages of ovarian cancer. We are also investigating the potential of epigenetic alterations as the basis of new detection tests for early stage curable disease, and as novel therapeutic targets. More... Dr Peter Osborne     UNSW Cancer Research Centre Statement of Interests: We are interested in understanding gene regulation and gene regulatory networks in various cell lineages. More... Dr Sallie-Anne Pearson     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Sallie is a health service researcher specialising in clinician behaviour change, pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaceutical policy evaluation. She has conducted this research in Australia, the United States and the developing world. Sallie completed her doctoral training in 1998 at the University of Newcastle, Australia and was the inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow in Pharmaceutical Policy at Harvard Medical School from 2000-2001. She returned to Australia in 2002 where she worked as a consultant to the WHO Collaborating Centre in Pharmaceutical Policy Boston and Medicare Australia for two years. She returned to academia in 2004 and in March 2006 joined the Integrated Cancer Research Group as the Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmaceutical Policy Team Leader. She is currently a Cancer Institute NSW Health Services Research Fellow (2006-2009). Sallie's current research interests focus on three core areas: 1. Using secondary data sources to investigate the use and impact of medicines in real world clinical prcatice 2. Clinician behaviour change, specifically the use and uptake of electronic decision support to guide prescribing practice 3. Investigating the direct and indirect costs of cancer care from the perspective of health care payers and patients More... Dr John Pimanda     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: Haematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) represent the best characterized adult multipotent stem cell population. Transcriptional regulation is a key mechanism controlling the formation and subsequent behaviour of HSCs. To investigate gene regulatory networks that operate during HSC specification, we use computational tools to predict regulatory elements of key haematopoietic transcription factor genes. We then filter these predictions using array based chromatin accessibility and transcription factor binding profiles. Transgenic mice are generated to test whether these predicted elements show tissue specific activity in the developing embryo. We also investigate mesenchymal stem/progenitor cell (MSCs)development to compare and contrast gene transcription between HSCs and MSCs. Knowledge of the normal transcriptional hierarchies of these cell types can be applied to better understand the dysregulation of these networks in the pathogenesis of cancer. To this end, we also study the biology of blood stem cell dyscrasias with a particular focus on the myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative syndromes. More... Dr Mohammed Pourgholami     St George Clinical School - Department of Surgery Statement of Interests: Research focuses on developing effective and safe drugs for the treatment of cancer. The research group which Dr Pourgholami and Professor Morris jointly lead have interests on a number of compounds that have produced promising laboratory results. Three of these potential agents have been patented and are currently undergoing clinical trials for safety and maximum tolerated dose. The group looks at various aspects of drug development from basic cell culture screening to pharmacology and preclinical testing leading to clinical trials. The main area of interest is the effect of drugs on pro-survival (anti-apoptotic) mediators. More... Dr Carl A Power     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: In the area of cancer biology in general and specifically prostate cancer biology. Research is focused on use of animal models to identify mechanisms of prostate cancer metastasis to bone, immune responses to prostate cancer and its bone metastases and preclinical assessment of treatments to prevent bone mets. More... Professor Pam Russell     Prince of Wales Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: The Oncology Research Centre has been working since 1992 on preclinical studies of cancer, mostly prostate and bladder cancer, but also other cancers, including ovarian, colon and sarcoma. There are four main research areas: molecular studies of how cancers progress; gene therapy (suicide and immunological genes) for advanced prostate cancer, studies of the biology of and treatment for tumours that spread to the bone, and studies using targeted nanoparticles to improve cancer imaging. Approaches include the use of conditionally replicative adenoviruses with both transcriptional control and surface modulation of the virus to target cancer cells and deliver genes into tumours, animal models, including the growth of human tumours in the tibia of immunosuppressed mice or after intracardiac injection, that allows spontaneous spread to other organs, and microarray to identify genes of importance in the invasive/metastatic process. In addition, we are involved in the development of an animal imaging facility that is closely aligned to a specific pathogen free facility for rodents, so that preclinical studies can be appropriately performed in a longitudinal fashion, following through individual mice over time. More... Dr Jesmin Shafiq     South Western Sydney Clinical School Statement of Interests: Research interests include quality of life of cancer patients, evidence based review of cancer treatment utilisation, linking research to clinical practice, use of epidemiological data for program evaluation More... Associate Professor Tom Shakespeare     Rural Clinical School - Mid North Coast Division - Coffs Harbour Statement of Interests: Treatment of prostate cancer using hormone therapy and radiotherapy, including new techniques such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Includes measures of efficacy (PSA response, survival), side-effects and QOL. Also research including patient involvement in decision-making, and decision-regret. Treatment of breast cancer including outcomes following intensity modulated radiotherapy. Also research of patient involvement in decision-making, and decision-regret. Education of oncologists including evaluation of performance using peer-review audit and adherence to State protocols. Various research projects of radiotherapy techniques including intensity-modulated radiotherapy, image guidance, volumatric arc therapy etc. More... Dr Heather Shepherd     School of Public Health and Community Medicine Statement of Interests: Heather Shepherd was awarded her PhD in July 2008, thesis entitled "Involving patients in treatment decision-making: the views and attitudes of Australian cancer doctors to shared decision-making" Heather is a health communication researcher with qualifications in health and language studies, a clinical background in nursing and a doctorate in Psychological Medicine. Her undergraduate studies gave her an understanding of communication and her move into nursing enabled her to carry that knowledge to a field of social value and importance. Experience as a critical care nurse showed the importance of communication skills in highly emotive situations for patients and in high pressure situations for staff. These experiences underpin her commitment to developing and promoting good communication in healthcare. Commencing her research career in 2003 working with Professors Martin Tattersall and Phyllis Butow at University of Sydney and recently awarded an NHMRC Public Health Fellowship through School of Public Health & Community Medicine, UNSW, focussing of faciltating evidence-based partnerships between health professionals and health consumers. More... Dr Robert Smee     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: The practice of Medicine requires an evidence based approach with clinical audit to determine comparable results to peers. Thus clinical research both retrospective and prospective, is practised in the field of Neuro-Oncology and Head & Neck Cancers. Developing new methods of treatment via Stereotactic Radiotherapy is important. Psychological distress amongst brain tumour patients is also evaluated. More... Dr Arun Sondur Jayappa     South Western Sydney Clinical School Statement of Interests: More... Professor Allan Spigelman     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Surgery Statement of Interests: Hereditary cancer; Patient Safety and Clinical Quality; Cancer Genetics More... Ms Preeyaporn Srasuebkul     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: -- More... Professor Bernard W Stewart     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: The distribution of cancer in the community is largely due to the impact of environmental factors. Research is directed toward assessing the impact of lifestyle factors (including tobacco smoking), occupational exposures and the impact of pollution as means of preventing cancer. Immediate research concerns include risk communication and medico-legal approaches to limiting the impact of environmental carcinogens. Addressing community concern in relation to cancer clusters, and the provision of usable information about presumed hazards are the focus of current research. More... Professor Robert Sutherland     St Vincent's Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: ~ More... Mr Alexander Swarbrick     St Vincent's Clinical School Statement of Interests: The large majority of breast cancers arise through sporadic genetic and epigenetic alterations during a woman's life. By identifying these alterations, we will greatly improve our ability to predict the behaviour of breast cancer and treat patients. By integrating cutting edge in vitro and in vivo models with studies of clinical specimens, Dr Swarbrick's laboratory is taking two approaches to identifying cancer-causing alterations. More... Mr Guy Tsafnat     Australian Institute of Health Innovation - Centre for Health Informatics Statement of Interests: I am primarily interested in larger-than-gene structures in DNA, they recognition, annotation and discovery. We use machine learning, computational grammars and inference methods to computationally discover structures and genes. I am also interested in multi-scale and multi-method models (aka multi-models) to support clinical and bioscience decision making. More... Associate Professor Shalini Vinod     South Western Sydney Clinical School - Department of Medicine Statement of Interests: My main research interest is in lung cancer and the impact of multidisciplinary care on lung cancer outcomes. Currently there is prospective data collection on patients discussed at our multidisciplinary meetings and future research would include analysis of these data and comparison to cancer registry data. My current research includes: 1. Lung Cancer Patterns of Care in NSW. 2. Impact of PET CT fusion on Radiotherapy Planning. 3. Audit of Lung Cancer Multidisciplinary Meetings at Liverpool and Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centres. More... Dr Claire Wakefield     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: Research interests include health psychology; the psychosocial issues faced by men and women with a strong family history of cancer; patient education; assisting patients to make difficult medical decisions such as decisions about genetic testing and deceased organ donation; and issues faced by children with medical illness. More... Professor Robyn Ward     Prince of Wales Clinical School Statement of Interests: In the field of hereditary cancer, the impact of germline epimutations as a cause of cancer is a main field of study. This work represents a substantive change in our understanding of colorectal cancer predisposition, and is of clinical relevance. In the clinical field research studies involve interventional and observational studies of targeted therapies for cancer. In health policy, the research activities revolve around developing cost effective models for the use of cancer medicines in our community. More... Dr Yan Yu     Prince of Wales Clinical School - Department of Surgery Statement of Interests: Dr Yan Yu is currently a Principal Hospital Scientist of Prince of Wales Hospital and the Section Head of Orthopaedic Pathology & Molecular Biology of the Surgical & Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. She is also a conjoint senior lecturer of the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. She obtained a PhD degree for her work on allergy and immunology from the University of Bern in Switzerland in 1992. She is one of the pioneers in the establishment of the Surgical & Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. Her research specialties range from animal surgery to tissue pathology, cell biology, protein analysis and molecular biology. Her research interests includes skeletal responses to injuries and/or implantations; osteoporosis and osteoporotic bone defect healing; osteogenesis and tumourigenesis of human osteosarcoma cell lines; mechanisms of osteosarcoma local growth and distance metastasis and targeted therapies; tendon healing; amongst others. More... Dr David Ziegler     School of Women's and Children's Health Statement of Interests: David Ziegler's research interest is in the translation of novel targeted therapeutics from the laboratory to the bedside. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where he discovered novel combination therapies that target the apoptotic pathway in malignant gliomas. He is currently pursuing these research findings in collaboration with Prof Michelle Haber at the Children's Cancer Institute, Australia. He has established an early phase clinical trials unit at Sydney Children's Hospital to facilitate the translation of laboratory findings to the clinic. More... Need to update your profile? Click here to login with your Staff ID, prefixed by a lower case "s" (eg s1234567), and UniPass to update your profile. If you have any problems please send an email to .

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