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 it 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 cancers. Our lab is one of only a few groups in Australia capable of conducting investigator-driven clinical trials using gene-modified immune cells generated in-house.