The annual Lorne Cancer conference took place last weekend just down the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne, and our researchers and students were in attendance. The conference was a great opportunity for the cancer research community to network, gain new knowledge and spend some quality time together outside of the lab.
PhD students Fenna Feenstra and Kiruthiga Ragunathan
It was PhD student Kiruthiga Raghunathan’s first-ever conference. Kiruthiga is undertaking her PhD focusing on tuft cells in Dr Michael Buchert’s lab. These cells in the lining of the intestines detect harmful bodies, relay information to other cells and are linked to a variety of bodily functions. We asked Kiruthiga a few questions about her experience at the conference.
This was your first big conference. What was a highlight for you?
Attending this three-day intensive conference was an incredible experience. The event featured renowned speakers from around the world specialising in cancer heterogeneity, metabolism, tumour microenvironment, immunotherapy, genomics and hormone regulated cancers.
The icing on the cake was the Ashley Dunn Oration with Dr Luke Gilbert as the speaker and also the workshop on myeloid therapeutics.
The conference also gave me the opportunity to engage with my peers, fellow PhD students from across Australia working on various aspects of cancer research. It was inspiring to learn about their work and exchange ideas.
What was the topic of your presentation?
I presented a poster on my research exploring the crosstalk between tuft cells and ILC2 cells in driving metastasis of gastric cancer (gastric cancer spread).
Did the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI) team get up to anything fun down in Lorne after the conference sessions were up?
Some of the ONJCRI members went hiking, while others including myself visited the lookout to take in the breathtaking views. Since the conference venue was right across from Lorne Beach, we also took walks along the shore during lunch breaks.
PhD students Kristen Needham and Alea Radcke
Other ONJCRI students also presented their research at the conference. Fenna Feenstra, an exchange PhD student from Bonn University, Germany, shared her experience:
My highlight was the talk by Dr Luke Gilbert. Very inspiring professor. He showed that science doesn’t always work the way you would expect it to work, and he even shared more emotional things as a close collaborator of his recently passed away. It was nice that he shared those things to make science more accessible and relatable.
In addition, Lorne is such a beautiful location, and it was so relaxing to take a walk or a surf during the breaks of the conference. Furthermore, I met other PhD students and connected with them.
Alea Racke, also on exchange from Bonn University said: I really enjoyed the talks getting an insight into other cancers, especially the talks about epigenetics, and the networking during the poster sessions.
Kristen Needham, our fourth year PhD student working in Professor John Mariadason’s lab, said: For me, a highlight of attending the Lorne Cancer conference was having the opportunity to discuss my research with a range of experts in the field and receive their valuable feedback.
Well done to all our PhD students and researchers who presented at Lorne Cancer 2025!
PhD students Sreeja Gadipally and Bec Brown