Co-Head, Cancer Biology and Therapy Program
Head, Metastasis Research Laboratory

One in eight Australian women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime and more than 3000 die per year due to the spread of the cancer to other parts of the body. Our research at the ONJCRI is focused on our goal of reducing deaths from breast cancer.

After initial training in agricultural science, I completed my PhD and first postdoctoral fellowship in plant biochemistry before switching to oncology for my second postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Prior to joining the ONJCRI in 2016, I spent eight years at Stanford in the Department of Radiation Oncology before returning home to join the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

My research is focused on understanding the genetic regulation of metastasis, primarily in breast cancer, and identifying new targets for molecular based therapy for patients with progressive disease.

My group has developed pre-clinical models of metastatic disease that we use to identify genes, both in the tumour cells and in the tumour microenvironment, that regulate the process of metastasis to specific organs, such as the bone, liver, lung and brain. The preclinical models are also used for trialling novel anti-metastatic agents that target genes found to drive metastasis.