Our students are apprentice scientists, and our future scientific leaders
Izac Findlay
Phd student, University of Newcastle
Izac’s PhD aims to characterise the mutant genes and aberrant proteins within paediatric high-grade brain tumours, specifically DMG (diffuse midline glioma) and DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) – both highly aggressive with a 100% fatality rate for those children diagnosed.
Despite being rare, these cancers are responsible for 40% of paediatric cancer deaths in Australia. There has been decades of scientific and clinical research in the area, but unfortunately, experimental treatment options are yet to improve survival ... less than 50% of DMG children live 1 year following diagnosis. Izac’s work aims to better understand the functional effects of gene mutations found within tumour cells, so effective precision therapies can be developed and prescribed.
Hannah Hughes-Parry
Phd student, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI)
CAR-T cell immunotherapy may be improved by the targeting of multiple tumour-associated antigens through dual-specific CAR-T cells, in which T cells are engineered to express CARs against multiple antigens.
Hannah’s PhD aims to generate dual-specific CAR-T cells and assess their efficacy in a number of brain cancer models. These dual-specific CAR-T cells target the tumour antigens HER2 and EGFRvIII – both of which have been associated with various solid cancers, including many brain cancers such as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and paediatric diffuse midline glioma (DMG).
Lizamarie Goonetilleke
Honours student, University of Adelaide
Lizamarie is undertaking her honours degree within the Reproductive Cancer Research Group. Her project is looking at a protein (glypican-1 or GPC-1) – the levels of which are significantly increased in ovarian cancers with low immune cell infiltration.
The study is investigating whether GPC-1 expression is associated with ovarian cancer progression, and also whether CAR-T cells targeting GPC-1 will recognise and specifically kill ovarian cancer cells.