Supervisor: Prof Matthias Ernst 

Co-Supervisor: Dr Moritz Eissmann or Dr Annalisa Carli

Laboratory: Cancer Inflammation Laboratory

Based on our insights of the contribution of excessive HCK activity to chronic pulmonary inflammation in mice harbouring a constitutive active isoform of HCK (referred to as HckCA), we have recently identified that a functionally equivalent somatic mutation confers a similar (and ultimately lethal), steroid treatment-resistant phenotype in patients. Thus, this project will assess the validity of HckCA mice as a clinically relevant model for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and for COPD-associated susceptibility for (cigarette smoke-induced) non-small cell lung cancer, based on our discovery of profound and accelerated lung cancer development in HckCA;KrasG12D mice. These studies will include collaborations with R.Vlahos/S.Botzinovski (RMIT)/K.Sutherland (WEHI).