Head, Tumour Immunology Laboratory

Working closely with medical scientists in a translational setting allows us every day to challenge and re-evaluate our laboratory findings against the real world and to progress step-by-step towards improved cancer therapies.

After finishing my PhD in the area of viral-induced head and neck cancers in Germany in 2006, and a short period of postdoctoral training in Heidelberg, Germany, I was recruited in 2008 to the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research in Melbourne. Here, I worked in the group of Professor Jonathan Cebon on melanoma development and progression with a focus on EMT-like events, tumour cell invasion and resistance mechanisms. During this time, we established several academic-industry collaborations that led to the recent filing of a patent for a novel antibody target in melanoma together with CSL Ltd.

I have been the Laboratory Head of the ONJCRI Tumour Immunology Laboratory (TIL) since 2018.  My team (#Irresistible­_Immunologists) and I continue to pursue the biology of this target  as part  of our aim to understand the exact mechanisms of immune cell-cancer cross-talk.