The Translational Cancer Immunotherapy Laboratory studies the interaction between the immune response and tumour control, with a particular emphasis on translating our ever-expanding basic science knowledge into clinically applicable therapeutic platforms.
Our lab has a long-standing interest in bone marrow transplantation (BMT), which is the most established form of cancer immunotherapy but is associated with life-threatening complications, primarily graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and infections. A new and increasing focus of our lab is the related field of cellular immunotherapy, especially Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, which are gene-modified immune cells that have shown to be very effective in eradicating certain blood cancers. Our laboratory research new ways to “engineer” CAR T cells to make them more effective and safer, and also able to target other types of cancer, including solid cancers and childhood cancers.
CURRENT RESEARCH
- Understanding the biology of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and leukaemia relapse after bone marrow transplantation. My group uses experimental transplantation and clinical sample analysis to understand the biology of bone marrow transplantation. We are especially interested in how viral infection can alter the immune landscape and influence clinical outcomes.
- Understanding the biology of CAR T cell therapy. CAR T cell therapy can cure certain blood cancers but is associated with significant toxicity. We seek to understand how the broader immune contexture drives CAR T cell treatment response and toxicity.
- CAR T cell innovations. CARs are synthetic genes that include an “external” part that can recognise surface markers on cancer cells, and an “internal” part that signals T cell-mediated killing. We study ways to make CAR T cells see other types of cancers, focusing on myeloma and neuroblastoma, and make them more effective. We achieve this by re-engineering the “external” and “internal” parts of the CAR gene.
- Clinical trial of in-house manufactured CAR T cells. We are one of only a few research groups nationally capable of taking our CAR T cell research from the lab to clinical trials. We will continue to build on this pipeline through our own laboratory research and collaboration with clinicians at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and other centres nationally and internationally.
- Cancer
- Blood Cancers
- Bone Marrow Transplantation
- Graft-versus-Host Disease
- Viral infection
Staff
- Dr Andrea Henden, Research Officer and Clinician Scientist
- Annabel Waugh, Research Assistant
- Benedict Loweke, Research Assistant
- Daniel Schuster, Student
- Fatima Garcia Bernal, Visiting Student
- Michael Reynolds, Research Assistant
- Stephen Boyle, PhD Student
- Subraja Rajendran, Masters Student
Internal Collaborators
- Professor Rajiv Khanna
- Associate Professor Corey Smith
- Professor Christian Engwerda
- Professor Steven Lane
- Dr Nic Waddell
- Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench
- Associate Professor Antiopi Varelias
- Associate Professor Kate Gartlan
External Collaborators
- Professor Geoffrey Hill, Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center
- Associate Professor Glen Kennedy, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
- Professor David Gottlieb, Westmead Hospital and University of Sydney
- Professor Mariapia Degli Esposti and Dr Christopher Andoniou, Monash University
- Associate Professor Joseph Powell, Garvan Institute of Medical Research
- Professor Stephen Rose and Dr Simon Puttick, CSIRO
- Associate Professor John Miles, James Cook University
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Leukaemia Foundation
- Cancer Council Queensland
- Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Foundation
- Children’s Hospital Foundation
- Chimera Legacy Foundation