A/Prof David Williams
Clinician Scientist
Anatomical Pathologist
Pathology is essential for enabling the delivery of personalised cancer treatment as it allows us to identify molecular changes that influence cancer behaviour and predict response to therapies. I enjoy working with researchers at ONJCRI towards furthering our understanding in this area so that we can identify new therapies to improve patient care.
My main clinical practice focus areas are in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal, breast, urological and renal pathology, with an interest in molecular diagnostics for targeted therapies. I regularly present pathology to the colorectal, hepatobiliary and breast cancer unit multidisciplinary meetings at Austin Health, and I collaborate with researchers at ONJCRI to help validate findings in human cancer samples.
My research primarily focuses on identifying biomarkers associated with patient outcomes and treatment response in gastrointestinal cancers, studying cohort and clinical trial samples. In 2012, I completed my PhD at the University of Melbourne, where I identified immunological targets in colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability. I have ongoing interests in the evaluation and characterisation of immune infiltrates in colorectal cancer, and in the identification of biomarkers associated with response to cancer therapies.