Nicole Alexia

Nicole Alexia is a final-year biomedicine student from Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences (i3L), with a specialisation in tumor biology. She is intrigued by the complexity of cancers and aspires to decipher therapeutic means against cancers. This drove her to visit the Hudson Institute for Medical Research for her undergraduate internship.

Project description

Nicole studies paediatric brain cancers such as the rare atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) with the Next Generation Precision Medicine Program team. Her work mainly involves growing various patient-derived ATRT cell lines and then subjecting them to high-throughput drug screening against a library of 700 anticancer drugs, with an aim of identifying robust drug candidates.

Samitha Amarapathy

Samitha Amarapathy leads the agile driven software development capability at Monash eResearch Centre, delivering productive outcomes for research-led and research infrastructure-led projects. In addition to that he leads national-level IT projects in partnership with ARDC, Australian universities and other research institutes.

From a biology and IT academic background, he was keen to integrate the biology and IT knowledge to deliver outcomes that create a global impact for social good. Samitha was passionately exploring the arena of data science and AI in recent years in the context of its applications on precision medicine, developed a PhD proposal and initiated a PhD project in collaboration with Faculty of IT at Monash University and Hudson Medical Research Institute.

Project description

Samitha’s PhD project aims to build a machine learning/deep learning-based decision support tools that provides recommendations on precision medicine for paediatric brain cancer patients based on clinical, genomic and functional dependency data (CRISPR, drug screens). He closely works with Next Generation Precision Medicine Program to deliver positive outcomes from an AI perspective.

Dr Nicole Chew

Dr Nicole Chew is the Children’s Cancer Foundation senior organoid specialist for the Next Generation Precision Medicine Program, she joined the program in 2021. Dr Chew graduated with first-class Honours in BSc and completed her PhD at Monash University under the supervision of Professor Roger Daly. During this time, she investigated therapeutic targets and drug combinations for particular subtypes of breast cancer and liver cancer, utilising in vitro (including generation of inhibitor-resistant cell lines and organoids) and in vivo (PDX) models. Her research has identified novel targetable fusions and drug combinations as improved treatment strategies.

Project description
Paediatric brain cancer is the most common solid tumour cancer affecting children and young adults. By building cohorts of specific and rare brain cancers, these models would help identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers to improve patient prognosis. Dr Chew’s research work involves generating in vitro and in vivo models such as primary cell lines, xenografts and organoids derived from paediatric brain tumours to identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers as potential treatment options using pharmacological and functional genomic approaches.

Hui Kheng Chua

Hui Kheng Chua is a Senior Research Assistant with the Cancer Genetics and Functional Genomics lab, and the Lab Manager for the Centre for Cancer Research.

Hui Kheng also works with the Next Generation Precision Medicine program, led by Prof Ron Firestein.

Shaye Game

Shaye Game is an Isabella and Marcus Foundation PhD scholar in the Developmental and Cancer Biology lab, Centre for Cancer Research at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Shaye graduated with first-class honours in Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours) from Monash University in 2020.

During honours Shaye investigated the epigenetic dysregulation in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), utilising patient-derived cell line models and CRISPR/CAS9 under Dr Jason Cain and Professor Ron Firestein. Shaye found a passion and desire to further the research and therapeutic opportunity for DIPG patients she continued her project into a PhD.

Project description
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a devastating and fatal paediatric high-grade glioma that develops in the pons of the brain stem. Next generation sequencing has revealed ~80% of DIPG tumours exhibit an exclusive and highly recurrent heterozygous mutation in genes encoding histone variants, H3.3 (H3F3A) and H3.1 (HIST1H3B and HIST1H3C), resulting in lysine to methionine substitution (H3K27M), which is essential for epigenetic control of gene expression during development. Shaye’s project hopes to investigate the precise impact of H3K27M and subsequent epigenetic dysregulation on DIPG tumorigenesis to identify novel therapeutic opportunities.

Bao Le

Bao Le is a Junior Research Assistant with the Next Generation Precision Medicine Program (NGPMP) at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. He graduated with first-class Honours in the Bachelor of Medical Science at Flinders University. Throughout his studies, Bao gained extensive experiences with molecular and cell biology techniques as well as developing a passion for translational research.

Project description
Bao’s work revolves around developing and characterising primary cell lines, organoids, and patient-derived xenograft models from paediatric tumours. These models will contribute to various projects in the NGPMP, the wider Victorian Pediatric Cancer Consortium (VPCC), and external collaborators. Additionally, he will contribute to high-throughput drug screens, helping to identify new therapeutic targets.

Dr Yuqing Liang

Yuqing Liang is a PhD student at Hudson Institute of Medical Research in the Next Generation Precision Medicine Program. Yuqing completed a Bachelor of Medicine Oncology at Sun Yat-sen University in China. She then majored in paediatric oncology at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre, where her research was focused on identifying prognostic markers in children with high-risk neuroblastoma via clinical features and CT radiomics. To pursue her interest in precision medicine, Yuqing began her PhD under the supervision of Professor Ron Firestein and Professor David Eisenstat in 2021, focusing on identifying novel therapeutic targets in diffuse midline glioma (DMG). Her aim is to create a positive impact on therapeutic options for this vulnerable population.

Project description
Yuqing’s research is centred on diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a debilitating form of childhood brain cancer for which the overall prognosis has remained poor for decades. Hence there is an urgent need to discover novel therapies that could be used to treat patients with the disease. As part of Yuqing’s PhD project, she will perform innovative genetic screens on DMG patient models to identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers that predict response.

Melissa Loi

Melissa Loi is the technical sequencing specialist for the Next Generation Precision Medicine Program at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. She completed her Bachelor in Biotechnology and received Honours in Nanotechnology from the University of South Australia in 2009. Prior to joining the Hudson Institute, Melissa had over 10 years’ experience in the field of Infectious diseases, Immunology and therapeutics quality control.

Project description
Her role involves using molecular methods to assist in generating an encyclopaedia of genomic profiles for childhood brain tumours. Using in vitro models of paediatric brain tumour, she uses CRISPR-Cas9 technology to perform knock-out screens and generate DNA libraries for sequencing. Her work also involves preparing samples to decode the epigenetics modifications that regulate gene expression using methylation analysis and chromatin accessibility sequencing.

Amanda Nguyen

Amanda Nguyen is a medical student who is currently doing an honours year at the VPCC. 

Project description
Her work is focused upon identifying novel synergistic drug combinations for childhood brain cancers such as DIPG. Amanda’s work makes use of the VPCCs childhood cancer focused compound library with which she routinely performs high-throughput combinatorial screens using leading drug candidates currently in clinical trials. Amanda hopes to find effective combination therapies which can be rapidly translated across from preclinical studies to clinical trials where they can improve patient outcomes for devastating childhood cancers.

Christie Sun

Christie Sun is a PhD candidate in the Centre of Cancer Research, Developmental and Cancer Biology Research group at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Christie completed a Master of Reproductive Sciences with first class honours from Monash University.

Her interest in cancer research was enhanced by her experiences during her Masters research into female infertility and has formed the basis of her career path. The research title of Christie’s research is improving childhood osteosarcoma risk stratification and outcomes for recurrent disease.

Project description
Osteosarcoma is the most common malignant primary bone tumour, accounting for approximately one in five bone sarcomas worldwide and more than one in three bone cancers in Australia. To date, although all great efforts have been made in the treatment management, clinical outcomes stay stagnant and remain poor for the osteosarcoma patient. In this project, we will assess the primary tissue of sarcoma patients to determine molecular and functional pathways predictive of therapeutic response, metastasis and survival outcomes. Identifying predictive biomarkers of therapeutic response and survival would represent a major development in the field and enable the future risk stratification of patients and appropriate adaptation of therapy to minimise and improve side effects overall.

Dr Xin (Claire) Sun

Dr Claire Sun is a highly skilled computational biologist and provider of bioinformatics support. Dr Sun obtained a Master of Science from Melbourne University (2013) and PhD from Monash University (2018) using next generation sequencing technologies to identify non-coding RNA biomarkers in human urine and blood samples and undertake pioneering work in epigenetic regulation of mitochondrial DNA in tumorigenesis. In 2019, Dr Sun joined the Centre for Cancer Research where she has developed a keen interest in developing and applying state-of-the-art computational approaches to identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers for low-survival paediatric cancers.

In the past five years, Dr Sun has been leading the efforts to develope the computational framework and analytical methods underlying the Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortiums Childhood Cancer Model Atlas. The goal of this atlas is to facilitate ‘big’ data- driven discovery of new therapeutic targets for paediatric cancers of lowest survival. As the lead bioinformatician of the program, Dr Sun works as part of a 25-person multi-disciplinary team, in collaboration with wet lab scientists and paediatric oncologists, and directly supervises Honours (x3) and PhD students (x2). Dr Sun’s leadership in this team-based effort is highlighted by a first-author data-resource paper in Cancer Cell. Dr Sun is the current recipient of a Victorian Cancer Agency Early-Career Fellowship and has authored 17 publications in high impact journals including Cancer Cell, Molecular Cell, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Science Advances.

Project description
In the VPCC Next Generation Precision Medicine Program, Dr Sun is working with cutting-edge bioinformatics tools to translate basic research findings into clinical applications.

Lynda Truong

Lynda Truong is a junior research assistant in the Leukaemia Modelling and Therapeutic Discovery group at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Lynda completed her Bachelor of Science Advanced Research with first class Honours from Monash University in 2022, and is currently working as a research assistant to enhance her laboratory skills prior to beginning her PhD studies in 2024. 

Project description
She is helping to develop novel models of childhood AML using cutting edge gene manipulation technologies in umbilical cord blood stem cells.

Janette Vanessa

Janette Vanessa is a final year Master of Pharmaceutical Science student at Monash University completing her research placement in the Leukaemia Modelling and Therapeutic Discovery group at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. 

Project description
Janette is working with Lynda Truong to develop novel models of childhood AML using cutting edge gene manipulation technologies in umbilical cord blood stem cells.

Dr Yichen Zhou

Dr Yichen Zhou is a postdoctoral researcher focusing on functional genomic approaches to identify new therapeutic targets in childhood brain cancers.

She completed her PhD with Prof Charles Mackay at Monash University in 2022. During her PhD, she investigated the role of gut microbiota and microbial metabolites in Alzheimer’s disease. After her PhD, Dr Zhou joined iCamuno Biotherapeutics and her project focus on cancer cell therapies utilising induced pluripotent stem cell-derived natural killer cells. In 2023, she joined the Next Generation Precision Medicine program, where she is currently involved in combinatorial CRISPR/Cas12 screening in human paediatric brain tumours.

Project description
Diffuse midline gliomas are the second most common type of primary high grade brain tumour in children. They are a type of glioma that grows in the midline between the two halves of the brain. There is an urgent need to discover novel therapies that could be used to treat patients with the disease. Dr Zhou will conduct a project in high throughput functional genomics screens using CRISPR/Cas12 systems to map functional dependencies in diverse cell lines from human paediatric diffuse midline gliomas.

Dr Kasey Chan

Kasey Chan is a research officer in Professor Lee Wong’s lab at Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. She completed her PhD at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute on novel therapies for thalassaemia. Following the completion of her PhD, she worked as a research fellow at the Melbourne Research and Development department of the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, focusing on blood components and transfusion research.

Project description

Recent research has revealed that histone gene mutations are commonly found in paediatric gliomas. Histones are crucial proteins responsible for packaging our genetic material (DNA) and directing the normal differentiation and maturation of cells into various cell types. In my project, I employ advanced genomics and proteomics techniques to investigate how histone mutations alter the packaging of DNA.

We have gathered evidence indicating that the presence of mutated H3.3 alters the composition of proteins in PML nuclear bodies. Our hypothesis suggests that mutant H3.3 may drive the development of cancer by disrupting the protein composition, organization, and function of PML bodies, thereby inhibiting cell differentiation and promoting the formation of brain tumours. This disruption could be attributed to the differing binding affinities of mutant H3.3 with chromatin modifiers within the PML bodies. My study aims to utilize a CRISPR Cas9 screening approach to identify chromatin factors that bind to mutant histones within the PML bodies. I also seek to determine whether these proteins could serve as potential therapeutic targets for treating paediatric brain cancers.

Gabriel Goncalves

Gabriel Goncalves is a PhD candidate in the Translational Antigen Discover Lab (Faridi Lab) at Monash Medical Centre. Gabriel completed his Bachelor of Science with a first class honours degree at Monash University under the supervision of Professor Anthony Purcell and Dr Pouya Faridi. He is currently a third year PhD student focused on non classical HLA peptide presentation in cancer.

Grace Huang

Grace Huang is a PhD candidate in the Translational Antigen Discover Lab (Faridi Lab) at Monash Medical Centre. She completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and a Bachelor of Commerce at Monash University in 2021 and then pursued an Honours degree in the Faridi Lab. Under the supervision of Dr Pouya Faridi and Dr Jason Cain, head of Developmental and Cancer Biology Research group and co-supervisor, she is focussing on identifying HLA-peptides that can be targeted in Ewing’s Sarcoma.

Project description
Grace’s project involves understanding the classes of HLA complexes that are presented on tumour cell surface, specifically on Ewing’s sarcoma, and what peptides are presented on these complexes. She hopes to identify novel immunotherapeutic targets for paediatric patients with Ewing’s Sarcoma.

Dr Dongbin Jin

Dr Jin completed his Bachelor of Science in Biology in China and Master of Science in Immunology in South Korea, before undertaking his PhD and Postdoctoral research on cancer vaccine development at Garvan Institute in Sydney Australia, under the supervision of Prof Jonathan Sprent. His expertise is on animal models of anti-tumour studies, cellular immunology, dendritic cells, cell culture, T cell functional assays, and flow cytometry.

Project description
At Garvan, Dr Jin used preclinical models to develop novel vaccine technologies that can expand cytotoxic T cells in an unprecedented way. These technologies are broadly applicable to different types of cancer and infectious diseases. He plans to extend these exciting findings into more clinically relevant settings in the Translational Antigen Discovery Laboratory at Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

Samia Khan

Samia is a master’s student of Biomedical and Health Science at Monash University. As a part of her final year thesis, she is working on a project at the Faridi Lab and Cain Lab. She commenced her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Military Institute of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. She was awarded the Bangabandhu Science and Technology Fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, to conduct her master’s degree at Monash University. She has prior experience in research work as a part of her undergraduate thesis and worked at a research institute as a research assistant.

Project description

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, accounting for >19% of all cancer-related deaths. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) accounts for approximately 40% of all lung cancers. Mutually exclusive recurrent mutations in the SWI/SNF subunits SMARCA4 and ARID1A are reported in human LUAD with a frequency of 10% and 8%, respectively, and are associated with poor prognosis. Samia’s project primarily aims at identifying differential protein and phospho-protein expression between SMARAC4-deficient and wild-type lung adenocarcinoma isogenic cell lines. Additionally, the project aims at determining the effect of low-dose panobinostat treatment on global protein and phospho-protein expression in those cell lines.

Cody Mutch

Cody Mutch is a PhD student in A/Prof Lee Wong’s lab at the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute.

Project description
For his PhD, Cody is focused on characterising the effect of H3.3 oncohistone mutations and PML nuclear bodies on paediatric glioma cell differentiation.

Lachlan Nott

Lachlan Nott is an Honours student in Dr Pouya Faridi’s Translational Antigen Laboratory team.

Project description
Lachlan’s honours project focuses on using cell surface proteomics to identify potential immunotherapy targets in Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma. His project description provides a clear framework for studying the surface proteins of these aggressive bone cancers, aiming to pinpoint targets crucial for tumour progression and immune evasion. This precise approach supports the development of personalized treatments and the discovery of biomarkers for patient stratification.

Dr Tima Shamekhi

Dr Tima Shamekhi received her PhD in Nanobiotechnology in 2018. In 2021, she joined Translational Antigen Discovery-Faridi Laboratory at Monash Medical Centre, to pursue her interest in identifying HLA-bound peptide targets for the development of paediatric brain tumours precision immunotherapies. She is honoured to have been awarded the Kye Funch scholar, supported by the Australian Communities Foundation through the Isabella and Marcus Foundation, to investigate diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the most aggressive of all childhood cancers.

Project description
Dr Shamekhi’s project is about using multi-omics technologies, particularly genomics, transcriptomics, and immunopeptidomics, to identify novel targets for DIPG and other childhood brain tumour immunotherapy.

Tamara Tongoi

Tamara Tongoi is a PhD student at the Monash Biomedical discovery Institute in the Rosenbluh lab. Tamara completed a Bachelor of Science at Monash University majoring in Biochemistry and Genetics, followed by an honours year at the Rosenbluh lab. Under the supervision of A/Prof Sefi Rosenbluh, she began functional genomics work investigating cancer-related variants affecting hereditary diffuse gastric cancer.

Project description
Tamara’s research is focused on using CRISPR base editors to investigate and classify cancer-related variants that affect development of hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC). The project involves using high-throughput genomic screens on candidate cell lines to identify functional variants.

Dr Hsiao Voon

Dr Hsiao Voon is a postdoc in the Wong lab at the Biomedical Discovery Institute (Monash University), where she studies chromatin biology and genome regulation. Dr Voon completed her PhD at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (University of Melbourne) on gene therapy for thalassaemias. She then completed a postdoc at the Weatherall Institute (Oxford University) where she studied the role of ATRX in gene and chromatin regulation. ATRX/H3.3 were subsequently found to be frequently mutated in paediatric brain tumours. She is currently a postdoc in the Wong lab at Monash University where she is investigating how mutations in ATRX/H3.3 promote the formation of brain tumours. She has published a number of highly cited papers on the biology of ATRX and H3.3, and how mutations in this complex lead to paediatric brain tumours.

Project description
Lab engineers in the Wong lab develop precise genetic mutations to create accurate cell models which we use to understand brain cancers. These mutant cell lines are analysed using high-throughput sequencing to create chromatin and transcription profiles. Hsiao conducts bioinformatics analyses of these profiles to pinpoint how mutations act individually and in combination to promote brain cancers. We have successfully used these techniques to show that H3.3 G34R acts through inhibition of a chromatin modifier (KDM4). We have further shown this mutation acts in concert with ATRX mutations to facilitate telomere maintenance in cancer. We are currently working on how paediatric glioma H3.3 mutations disrupt the formation and localisation of nuclear compartments, with the aim of targeting these compartments for therapy.

Dr Alexander Davenport

Dr Alexander Davenport is a Postdoctoral scientist at WEHI (the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute). After completing his PhD in fundamental CAR-T cell biology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre he moved to the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge UK, focussing on the fundamentals of T-cell biology. He then moved to a start-up where he led a team in the creation of immune cells from iPSCs which is seeking to solve to problem of cellular supply in immuno-oncology. Alex was recruited back to Australia as a post doc at the start of 2022 under the supervision of A/Prof Misty Jenkins to discover novel protein targets and create new immunotherapies for paediatric brain cancers.

Project description

Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG) is a rare but lethal paediatric brain tumour with a median survival of one year. Less than 10% of cases survive past two years. The only current proven treatment is radiotherapy. With the success of CAR-T cell therapy in childhood leukaemia we are looking to expand this into a range of childhood brain cancers, most notably DMG. One of the greatest challenges is finding surface targets that are expressed on the tumour but not on healthy cells. This project seeks to discover a range of potential tumour antigens and re-direct the immune system to eradicate brain tumours.

Krishneel Prasad

Krishneel Prasad is an Honours student at WEHI (the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute). He completed a Bachelor of Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne in 2021 where he undertook short projects in cancer-focused labs that fostered his passion to step into research. Complementing this, Krishneel enjoys communicating cancer science as part of the student run ‘Young Australian’s Cancer Initiative’. Today, with co-supervision by A/Prof Misty Jenkins, Dr Alexander Davenport and Dr Ryan Cross, he will investigate novel immunotherapeutic solutions for paediatric high-grade gliomas.

Project description
Diffuse midline glioma (DMG) is a lethal high-grade glioma that has seen minimal therapeutic advances in children for decades. Complications with its infiltration into brainstem structures has rendered current therapies largely ineffective, accounting for its poor prognosis. The Jenkins lab aims to utilise a new immunotherapeutic approach, termed CAR-T cell therapy, to re-engineer patient T cells to specifically kill brain cancers. Krishneel will utilise proteomic and transcriptomic profiles of DMG to identify novel CAR-T cell targets and validate their function in DMG models.

Dr Michael Assis

Michael Assis is a mathematical physicist, having received his PhD in statistical mechanics and enumerative combinatorics from Stony Brook University in 2014.

Afterwards he moved to the University of Melbourne for a research fellowship in computational statistical mechanics, followed by a research fellowship at the University of Newcastle in computational mathematics.

In 2021 Michael became the program manager of the Fertility Preservation Taskforce at the University of Melbourne and The Royal Children’s Hospital, joining MCRI in 2022 as a research assistant for a pharmacogenomics study on premature ovarian insufficiency. Aside from his interest in fertility research, he continues to be involved in mathematics, teaching at RMIT and La Trobe University in 2022.

Paddy Barry

Originally from Adelaide (SA), Paddy is undertaking Bachelor of Science (Honours) majoring in Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). Paddy has previously interned at the Florey Institute with Anthony Hannan’s Laboratory. Working on a project studying the effects of SAPAP3 gene knockout in mice as a model for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Paddy started with the Neuro-Oncology Lab in February 2023 with primary supervisors Prof David Eisenstat and Dr Maree Faux.

Project description

Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumour of childhood excluding brain tumours. Sometimes, babies with this tumor show that it gets smaller on its own, especially if a certain gene isn’t amplified. There’s a protein called GMFb that might help with the tumor cells to grow out and become more like normal cells. This protein is also changed by adding a special molecule. We want to study this protein in the lab using tools like gene editing and microscopes. Figuring out how this protein works could help us find new treatments for this serious cancer in children.

James Cooper

James Cooper is a recent biomedical graduate from the University of Adelaide with a deep passion for medical research. Throughout his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, James developed strong skills in molecular and cellular biology that he has continued to build upon in his subsequent research positions at the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB) and Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences (AHMS) labs.

James’ interest in research stems from his love of science and his desire for discovery. He is particularly interested in the development of novel cell lines and their use in cutting-edge research in the field of paediatric oncology. James values collaboration and seeks opportunities to work closely with other passionate scientists. He strives to bring enthusiasm and a positive work ethic to the projects in which he is involved. Overall, James’ passion for medical research and his expertise in molecular and cellular biology make him an asset to any research team. He is committed to sharing his knowledge and contributing to the advancement of medical research.

Project description

James works to develop and characterise childhood solid/CNS tumour models, such as primary cell lines, organoids, and patient-derived xenograft models from paediatric tumours. These models will feed into various projects, including those within the MCRI Cancer Flagship, the Hudson-Monash Paediatric Precision Medicine Program (HMPPMP) and the Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortium (VPCC). Additionally, he contributes to high-throughput drug screens, CRISPR-cas9 screens, and molecular biology techniques including DNA and RNA extractions. He will work closely with colleagues at Hudson Institute of Medical Research (HIMR) to further develop skills in cell line development and multi-omics analysis and to strengthen collaborations with HIMR, the Centre for Cancer Research (CCR), and the Next Generation Preciosn Medicine program.

Ben Felmingham

Ben Felmingham has focused his career in paediatric oncology pharmacy with 10 years experience in the Cancer Pharmacy at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

In late 2021 he moved to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) to work with A/Prof Rachel Conyers and A/Prof David Elliott under the Australian Cardio-oncology Registry (ACOR) umbrella of research work. He has since led the development of the first paediatric cardio-oncology guidelines and implemented and coordinates the multidisciplinary cardio-oncology clinic at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.

Ben is now expanding his expertise into pharmacogenomics and will be working on multiple research projects looking at the effects of pharmacogenomic screening for potential gene-drug interactions, and thus providing and investigating therapeutic recommendations for actionable variants in the paediatric population.

Ankita George

Ankita George completed her Bachelor of Science, majoring in Neuroscience from the University of Western Australia, which included an exchange year at the University of New Mexico. After which, she completed a stand-alone Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Melbourne, based at the Peter Doherty Institute for Immunity and Infection under Professor Fabienne Mackay.

Project description
Ankita George has worked as both a Research Assistant at the former Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience within the University of Melbourne as well as a Medical Scientist at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at the Peter Doherty Institute. She then joined the Neuro-oncology Group at MCRI to work with both Professor David Eisenstat and Dr Maree Faux, where she will work across several projects looking at the links between DLX homeobox genes and Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG), as well as other genetic diseases.

Brittany Grantham

Britt’s background is in allied health as a physiotherapist and research assistant. In 2022, she moved into a project officer role and completed a Master of Public Health. This led her to a clinical research coordinator role at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in the neuro-oncology group.

Project description
Britt’s role in the neuroncology group is on the radiogenomics project. There, she seeks to answer the following question: Can we identify those at risk for serious adverse effects following radiation therapy? The radiogenomics project will develop genetic assays to predict those patients at risk for radiation induced neurocognitive impairments and/or second malignant neoplasm (SMN).

Jason Li

Jason graduated with a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne in 2021. Subsequently, he graduated with first-class honours in a standalone Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (Honours) from the University of Melbourne in 2022.
Throughout his honours, he investigated the enteric nervous system development to Hirschsprung Disease in children under the guidance of Prof David Eisenstat and Dr Maree Faux in the Neuro-Oncology laboratory. Currently, he is working as a Research Assistant in the Neuro-Oncology laboratory in the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Project description
Hirschsprung Disease is a congenital birth defect presenting with a pseudo-obstruction of the intestine. Children with Hirschsprung Disease experience postoperative problems after surgery, including enterocolitis, constipation and faecal incontinence. These postoperative problems results in a decreased quality of life for the child. Jason’s project involves assessing the link between Dlx1/Dlx2 and Ret expression during intestinal development of embryonic mice and in human Hirschsprung Disease tissues. He hopes to further understand the link between the enteric nervous system and Hirschsprung Disease in children. He plans finish up his Hirschsprung Disease project from honours, publish his findings and assisting the laboratory’s day to day activities.

Claire Moore

Claire Moore is a PhD candidate at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) under the supervision of A/Prof Rachel Conyers and A/Prof David Elliott. She is a clinical pharmacist who has worked at The Royal Children’s Hospital for over 15 years in a variety of roles including education and leadership. She has sub-specialised as a paediatric oncology pharmacist, obtaining skills in clinical trials and research, project work and quality improvement.
Claire graduated from LaTrobe University in 2006 (Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours) and in 2018 completed a Master of Pharmacy Practice (Monash University). In 2021 she received a scholarship to study Principles of Healthcare Quality Improvement (Monash University).
Claire is the recipient of a strategic Melbourne University RTP scholarship to take part in a PhD as part of the Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortium MRFF-funded grants. This project is additionally funded by The Kids’ Cancer Project.

Project description
Claire’s PhD project – ‘Priority-P – Pharmacogenomics’ is a randomised control trial implementing pre-emptive pharmacogenomic screening in paediatric oncology patients receiving polypharmacy. The primary endpoint of the study is to determine if pre-emptive knowledge of patients’ pharmacogenomic metaboliser states enables clinicians to make informed medication choices, and ultimately reduces adverse drug reactions. Priority-P will include a full health economics analysis using inpatient, outpatient and PBS data paired with quality of life studies to determine, in real terms, the benefits of a pre-emptive pharmacogenomic approach. In addition, Claire will co-design a paediatric pharmacogenomics education package for the stakeholders involved in delivering precision medicine within the Royal Children’s Hospital Children’s Cancer Centre. The project will enrol 440 patients across 3 years and be the first study of its kind internationally in paediatric oncology to prove the utility of pharmacogenomic intervention both at an ADR and health economic level.

Dr Deborah Meyran

Dr Deborah Meyran is a paediatric oncologist who specialised in leukaemia and cellular therapies at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), and a post-doctoral researcher in the Cancer Immunology Program at PeterMac Callum Cancer Centre (PMCC). Dr Deborah Meyran leads the collaboration between PMCC, RCH and CCI for the development of T cell-based immunotherapy with an emphasis on the generation of memory chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cells (CAR T cells) to treat paediatric cancers. Her career as a paediatric oncologist and her expertise in cancer immunotherapy have ranked her as a leader in the field of immunotherapy dedicated to children with cancer. As evidence of her international recognition and expertise, she received invitations to presentations at more than 20 international and national conferences. She has authored or co-authored 17 articles, with 90% of them published in high-rank journals. She has also received several awards including the best early researcher presentation at PMCC scientific retreat in 2022, and the Picchi Award for Excellence in Cancer Research that acknowledge the most talented PhD candidate in the VCCC (2020).

Project description

The outcome for patients with high-risk extracranial solid paediatric cancer such as MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma and sarcoma remains dismal. There is an urgent need to identify better treatments that do not suffer from detrimental long-term health effects such as those caused by currently used chemotherapies. There is considerable interest in advancing immunotherapies such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells towards the clinic for solid paediatric cancers. However, the remarkable success of CAR-T cells in childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia has so far not been recapitulated in solid child cancers. Important barriers for CAR-T cells in solid child cancers are: 1) the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME) present in many solid child cancers; 2) suboptimal CAR-T cell functioning.

For CAR-T cells to be effective in extracranial solid child cancers, novel strategies to enhance their proliferative capacity and long-term persistence must be combined with approaches to overcome TME immunosuppression. Our strategy is to first study the TME of solid tumours to target and reverse the immunosuppressive TME of solid tumours. Then we will combine a new generation of early-lineage CAR-T cells with TSTEM properties developed at PMCC with novel anti-cancer drugs currently tested at CCI, that inhibit tumour growth in preclinical models of paediatric cancers as well as rewire the immunosuppressive TME.  This project has the potential to shift the treatment paradigm for extracranial solid paediatric cancers towards implementation of combination CAR-T cell immunotherapy in standard of care.

Lachlan McAloney

Lachlan McAloney is a PhD student at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre within the Cancer Immunology Program under the supervision of A/Prof Paul Ekert and Dr Teresa Sadras as well as Professor David Eisenstat from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Biomedicine (Honours) from the University of Melbourne, completed 2017-2021. His honours project focused on using multiplex immunohistochemistry to define the tumour microenvironment of nestin-derived brain and germ cell tumours. He realised his passion for cancer immunology during his undergraduate studies and wanted the opportunity to complete his PhD candidature at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Project description
Lachlan’s project aims to shed light on the molecular basis of the oncogenic function of a new class of fusion oncogenes which deregulate the expression of homeobox (Hox) genes normally expressed in early embryogenesis. This class of fusions have been seen in cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in paediatrics. He will focus on a group of previously uncharacterized Hox-fusions which were identified by his lab group (RUNX1-EVX1, ETV6-MNX1 and ETV6-CRX) with the end goal of discovering if this class of fusions can be therapeutically targeted.

Dr Carolyn Shembrey

Dr Carolyn Shembrey is a postdoctoral researcher working within the Cancer Immunology Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Carolyn completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research. By combining traditional wet lab approaches with computational biology, she aimed to interrogate the extent of natural killer cell involvement in metastatic colorectal cancer liver metastases and determine whether particular patient characteristics could be harnessed for innate immunotherapy. Carolyn complements her research skills with several years of experience in tutoring undergraduate pathology in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Melbourne.

Project description
Neuroblastoma is the most common solid extracranial malignancy in children. Patients who present with amplification of the MYCN gene, encoding the transcription factor n-Myc, have particularly poor prognosis. Using novel CRISPR-based RNA engineering tools, Carolyn’s research focusses on developing personalised RNA-directed therapeutics to help target tumour drivers such as MYCN in this high-risk childhood cancer.

Dr Lorna McLeman

Dr Lorna McLeman is a PhD student with the University of Melbourne at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in the genome stability unit and a clinician paediatric oncologist trained at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Evelina Children’s Hospital in London. She is researching novel gene editing techniques to treat patients with Fanconi Anaemia. She has a special interest in bone marrow transplant and gene therapies, and a passion to continue her work as a clinician scientist in the field of gene editing and therapy.

Project description
Fanconi anaemia is the most common inherited bone marrow failure syndrome with a 700-fold increased risk of developing cancer. The phenotypes of Fanconi anaemia are caused by a genetic deficiency in one of 23 known FANC genes that normally suppress cancer-causing mutations. Accumulation of DNA damage in blood stem cells cause bone marrow failure in children, which can be salvaged by bone marrow transplant. However, transplant has a high risk of death for patients with Fanconi anaemia due to toxic side effects of chemotherapy used in transplant preparation and acceleration of cancer onset. Lorna’s PhD project is based across St Vincent’s Institute Genome Stability Unit, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Blood Development Unit and The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne under expert supervision of A/Prof Andrew Deans, Prof Andrew Elefanty and A/Prof Rachel Conyers. She will be investigating novel gene editing techniques with the aim of correcting Fanconi anaemia-causing mutations. Gene editing is a therapeutic approach to cure the bone marrow failure of Fanconi anaemia without the damaging effects of bone marrow transplant. The goal of this work is to provide the basis for a gene editing clinical trial for patients with Fanconi anaemia in Australia.

Dr Hannah Walker

Dr Hannah Walker is a PhD candidate at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital and Melbourne University, funded by a My Room Clinician fellowship. Hannah is also a paediatric oncologist at The Royal Children’s Hospital, with a special interest in bone marrow transplant and cellular therapies. She is also currently completing a fellowship year in apheresis at The Royal Children’s Hospital. She completed her postgraduate medical training at The University of Wollongong in 2013 and received The University of Wollongong Medal for the highest academic achievement.

Project description
Survival for children undergoing allogenic HSCT has improved dramatically over several decades through optimising supportive care and managing complications. Pulmonary complications post-HSCT continue to be devastating for children and their families and have very poor long-term outcomes. Better treatments are urgently required. To achieve this goal, we must understand the biological drivers and identify the patients at highest risk.

Hannah’s research project is entitled ‘BREATH; Breathe Easier After Allogeneic Transplantation; Haematopoietic. The project involves a prospective longitudinal study of children undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) as a cure for a range of malignant and non-malignant conditions. Patients undergoing general anaesthetic for part of their clinical care will have additional airway sampling and peripheral blood samples taken at multiple timepoints pre and post HSCT. This study involves immune and microbiological profiling of children pre and post BMT to understand what is occurring within the lungs and peripheral blood. The results of this study will allow analysis of inflammation in affected individuals prior to clinical detection, allowing identification of the very earliest changes associated with pulmonary complications. These results will identify early, potentially novel, biomarkers which could have several translational impacts. These include use as diagnostic biomarkers and as novel therapeutic targets. In particular, it is possible that existing treatments for inflammatory lung conditions, that have already proven to be safe in children, could be repurposed for use in pulmonary complications of allo-HSCT

Dr Caroline Lamont

Caroline Lamont is a Clinical Research Associate involved in precision medicine trials at the Monash Children’s Cancer Centre. She holds a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours) and Master of Public Health, with a speciality in Health Economic Evaluation.

Caroline brings with her over 10-years of industry experience in adult and paediatric oncology research support, having worked previously in both management and senior laboratory roles with the state-wide Victorian Cancer Biobank, the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and the Monash Children’s Cancer Biobank.

She has co-authored papers published in Cancer Cell and Neuro-Oncology, and has presented at multiple events including the Australasian Biobanking Network Association and the Childhood Cancer Research Symposium.

Andrea Zhao

Andrea is a current PhD candidate undertaking paediatric cancer research under A/Prof Paul Ekert’s supervision in the Translational Tumour Biology (TTB) group at Children’s Cancer Institute (CCIA). She graduated from a Bachelor of Medical Science with first-class honours at the University of Sydney in 2019. Her honours research project involved screening compounds in vitro in order to characterise drug-binding affinity and anti-cancer function against glioblastoma multiforme. After honours she became interested in pursuing a PhD in paediatric cancer research, based on her curiosity about paediatric cancer as well as the small number of studies available in comparison to adult cancers. Her interest in translational research led to joining TTB and acquiring a skill set in functional genomics.

Project description
The project will utilise CRISPR-Cas13b as a novel functional genomic tool to characterise aberrant fusion gene drivers in paediatric cancer. CRISPR-Cas13 is a new programmable RNA editing system with a higher target specificity than CRISPR-Cas9 and RNA interference systems. Unlike CRISPR-Cas9, the system is reversible with fewer off-target effects which ideally enables a more robust readout. The project will involve silencing oncogenic fusions with target-specific CRISPR-Cas13 guides. RNA sequencing and phosphoproteomics will be applied for a non-biased approach to driver characterisation and identification of novel molecular targets. Hit genes and proteins identified will be silenced with CRISPR-Cas13 in order to validate the gene dependency between the target and fusion driver. This system will serve as a widely applicable functional genomic tool to any oncogenic driver for characterisation and therapeutic development.