International speakers
Confirmed National speakers
Ellis headshot.jpg Matthew J. C. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD Laura Esserman Photo.jpg Laura Jean Esserman, MD, MBA Robin Anderson.jpg Organisation: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Associate Professor Robin Anderson is a Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Metastasis Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. She is a Principal Fellow in the Department of Pathology at The University of Melbourne and a Career Fellow of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Clinical & Experimental Metastasis. Her research is focussed on the genetic regulation of metastasis, primarily in breast cancer and is aimed at identifying new targets for molecular based therapy for patients with progressive disease. Kristy Brown.jpg Organisation: Prince Henry's Institute Dr Brown is an NHMRC (Australia) Career Development Fellow and Co-Head of the Metabolism & Cancer laboratory at Prince Henry’s Institute, and an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Physiology at Monash University. Dr Brown has over 10 years experience in sex hormone biology, specialising in the study of the regulation of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of sex hormones. Her research interests are aimed at elucidating the mechanisms whereby dysregulated metabolism leads to the increased risk of breast cancer. Her recent work identified the LKB1/AMPK pathway, central regulator of energy homeostasis, as a modulator of oestrogen production within the breast, thereby providing a molecular link between obesity and breast cancer. Dr. Brown’s current research interests include understanding metabolic signalling pathways which regulate oestrogen production in the breast adipose in the context of obesity and cancer, and to investigate potential therapeutics that target these pathways in the clinical setting. DFC recent photo.JPG Organisation: The University of Adelaide Prof Callen is Director of the Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine at the University of Adelaide and Head of the Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory, which includes the Breast Cancer Genetics Group. He has a continuing interest in breast cancer research originating from his role in the Human Genome Project as chromosome editor of chromosome 16. These studies centred on the long-arm of chromosome 16, the location of frequent loss-of-heterozygosity in breast cancer. Ian photo.jpg Organisation: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre A/Prof Campbell is an National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Principal Research Fellow and the focus of his research over the past 20 years has been the molecular genetics of ovarian and breast cancer. He completed his PhD in Microbiology at the University of Western Australia in 1986. From 1988-1993 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Research UK at Lincoln’s Inn Field, London. From 1993-1999, A/Prof Campbell headed the cancer genetics laboratory in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Southampton, UK. During this period he developed an international reputation in somatic genetics of ovarian cancer. In 1999 A/Prof Campbell returned to Australia to head the Cancer Genetics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, where the broad but inter-related themes of his work continued to be the identification of genes involved in the predisposition, initiation and progression of breast and ovarian cancer. Much of A/Prof Campbell's work now involves the use of technology enabling research such as next generation sequencing. GCT 2010.jpg Organisation: Queensland Institute of Medical Research Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, PhD Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, PhD is the head of the Cancer Genetics Laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. She is the author of more than 290 peer reviewed papers, and has been instrumental in the collection of public resources such as kConFab, the Australian consortium for research into familial breast cancer. She is a founding member of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Association Consortia, and the leader of the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2. These three consortia recently collaborated in ‘iCOGS’, a large scale genotyping project. Georgia led the functional analysis of SNPs in the TERT gene that are associated with risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and telomere length, and in particularly interested in post-GWAS studies to understand the mechanism by which these risk associated SNPs act, as well as discovering more high and moderate risk variants through exome and candidate gene sequencing. Forbes.high resolution.jpg Organisation: University of Newcastle Professor John Forbes, AM, MS, FRACS, FRCS, has been involved in breast cancer research throughout his professional career, in particular, with national and international clinical trials to develop new treatments for all types of breast cancer and ultimately for prevention of breast cancer. DSC_0238_crop_comp.jpg Organisation: The University of Queensland After completing his PhD at the University of Adelaide, Prof Gonda carried out postdoctoral at the University of California, San Francisco with Nobel Laureate Prof J Michael Bishop, where he started his career-long research on the MYB oncogene. He returned to Australia in 1982 to the Ludwig Institute, Melbourne, where he also began working with retroviral vectors. Prof Gonda returned to Adelaide in 1990 as an NHMRC Research Fellow at the Hanson Institute, and expanded his research to include retroviral expression cloning and cytokine receptors. Between 2001 and 2003 he gained experience in the biotechnology industry as Chief Scientist of Bionomics Ltd, Adelaide. Prof Gonda then returned to academia at the University of Queensland, first at the Diamantina Institute and now the School of Pharmacy. 2013 DinnyGraham.jpeg Organisation: The Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research Dinny Graham completed her PhD at the University of Sydney, studying the transcriptional targets of progesterone in breast cancer. She then travelled to Denver, Colorado, to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Kathryn Horwitz, where she investigated the role of nuclear receptor coregulators in endocrine resistance. While there she identified a novel mixed agonist-specific progesterone receptor coregulator. She now works with Professor Christine Clarke, where her research focus is on the molecular mechanisms of progesterone receptor transcriptional action in the normal breast and breast cancer. Photo_PJ.jpg Dr Paul James is a Clinical Geneticist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre's Familial Cancer Centre and the Department of Genetic Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He is a past recipient of the Nuffield Scholarship and completed a doctorate at St John's College in Oxford, working at the newly formed Oxford Centre for Gene Function. He returned to Melbourne in 2007 and as well as his clinical role, has developed a program of clinical research including discovery and translational projects involving familial disorders, supported by the Victoria Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia, Cancer Council NSW, National Heart Foundation and the NHMRC. In 2008 he initiated and continues to lead a large-scale translational program to investigate the combined effects of variants in breast cancer genes in Victorian Breast and Ovarian cancer families - The Variants in Practice (ViP) Study. This program has generated novel insights into familial breast cancer, and the role of both common variants and rare mutations. RJ photo.jpg Organisation: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Ricky Johnstone completed his BSc (Hons.) degree from the University of Melbourne in 1988 with a double major in Pathology and Immunology. In 1990 he accepted an Australian Postgraduate Award and started work on his PhD at the Austin Research Institute that was completed in 1993. In 1994, he was awarded a C.J. Martin Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) to perform postdoctoral studies in the Department of Pathology at Harvard University Medical School in Boston, USA. He returned to Australia 1996 to take up a position as a Senior Research Officer at The Austin Research Institute and was made an associate of the University of Melbourne. In 1999, he was awarded an R.D. Wright Research Fellowship from the NHMRC and in 2000, won a Welcome Trust Senior International Research Fellowship. He moved to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute (PMCI) in February 2000 and established the Gene Regulation Laboratory within the Cancer Immunology Program. KumKum Khanna.jpg Organisation: Queensland Institute of Medical Research Prof Kum Kum Khanna, Heads the Signal Transduction Laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. She is NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. She graduated with a PhD (1989) from Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India. Before starting her own laboratory in QIMR, she underwent PostDoc training in QIMR (1991-1996). Geoffrey Lindeman.jpg Organisation: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Geoff Lindeman is a clinician-scientist focusing on breast stem cell biology and translational breast cancer research. He is Joint Head of the Stem Cells and Cancer Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Director of the Familial Cancer Centre at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. He also leads the Centre for Translational Breast Cancer Research (TransBCR), enabled by a NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence award. TJM.JPG Organisation: St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research T.J. Martin is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne and John Holt Fellow, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research. He was Professor of Chemical Pathology at the University of Sheffield (UK) from 1974 until 1977, then Professor and Chairman of the University of Melbourne Department of Medicine until 1999. He was Director of St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research from 1988 – 2002. His research has been in bone cell biology, the mechanisms of action of hormones that influence bone and calcium metabolism, intercellular communication in bone and the differentiation of bone cells, and the effects of cancers upon the skeleton. A Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Australian Academy of Science, he has been President of the International Bone and Mineral Society and Vice President of the International Cancer and Bone Society. Among awards were the Dale Medal in 1992 (UK), the Chemofux Research Prize in 1988 (Vienna), the William F Neuman Award in 1994 (USA), The Pieter Gaillard Award in 2003, the Ramaciotti Award in 2004, and the Gideon Rodan Award for Excellence in Mentorship, 2007. He has published more than 600 scientific articles and reviews, and 6 books. Chris Ormandy.png Organisation: The Garvan Institute of Medical Research Christopher Ormandy is Head of the Development Group of the Cancer Research Program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He is a Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and an Associate Professor in the St Vincent’s Hospital Clinical School, University of New South Wales. The Development Group works to discover the genetic program that underlies the normal developmental processes that build a mammary gland and control its function. These genes are targets for mutation or dysregulation during carcinogenesis, perturbing the normal process they control to influence the phenotype of the resulting cancer. These genes provide excellent candidates for development as new therapeutic targets or prognostic markers. The Development Group has recently discovered that the transcription factor Elf5 controls progenitor cell fate decisions during mammary development, and that Elf5 greatly influences aspects of breast cancer phenotype such as sensitivity to estrogens, molecular subtype, epithelial to mesenchymal transition and metastatic activity. Belinda Parker-2.jpg Organisation: La Trobe University Dr Parker recently joined the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS), as Head of the Cancer Microenvironment laboratory. After completing her PhD studies in 2002, she undertook postdoctoral studies in the Breast Cancer Program at Johns Hopkins University and then in the Metastasis Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, where she became Team leader in 2012. Her research focuses on dissecting the interactions between tumour cells and surrounding “normal cells” that promote cancer invasion and metastasis. The Cancer Microenvironment laboratory utilizes models of breast cancer combined with assessment of human cancers to identify key molecular mechanisms of spread to distant tissues that can be targeted as novel therapeutics to prevent metastasis. A current focus of the laboratory is investigating tumour-induced immune responses that are important in controlling metastatic spread. Based on her work in breast cancer, she has received numerous awards and grants as chief investigator and currently holds a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (CDA1). Roger_Reddel.jpg Organisation: Children's Medical Research Institute Professor Roger Reddel is the Director of the Children's Medical Research Institute and the Lorimer Dods Professor at the Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. He trained as a medical oncologist at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, obtained a PhD in the cellular biology of breast cancer at the University of Sydney, and undertook post-doctoral training in molecular carcinogenesis at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. His research focusses on the molecular genetics of cellular immortalization, especially the role of telomere length maintenance. He and his team discovered the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) mechanism, and have made major discoveries regarding the enzyme, telomerase. He was awarded the Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research, has received the NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Christobel Saunders.jpg Organisation: The University of Western Australia Christobel is (since 2002) Professor of Surgical Oncology, academic surgeon, cancer researcher and teacher of surgery at the School of Surgery, University of Western Australia. She has been closely involved in strategic planning and management of health cancer services in Australia for the last decade as Board member and Advisory Council member of Cancer Australia, President of the Cancer Council WA, and locally as author of the WA Health Cancer Services Framework and first A/Director State-wide Cancer and Palliative Care Network. She has substantially contributed to many clinical aspects of breast cancer research including clinical trials of new treatments, psychosocial, translational and health services research. Prof Melissa Southey.jpg Organisation: University of Melbourne Professor Southey, PhD, Grad Dip Law, FHGSA, FFSc (RCPA), has a track record in both molecular diagnostic pathology and molecular genetic research. Her research programs are focused on characterising the genetic and epigenetic factors responsible for cancer predisposition and progression, including familial aggregation of cancers. She leads a large active team of researchers, and in parallel, has numerous national and international productive collaborations. Significant focus is placed on the common cancers (breast, colorectal and prostate cancer) utilising PEDIGREE's mature population-based studies and the application of new genetic technology (in-house). She leads well advanced studies using highly selected multiple-case families that are applying massively parallel sequencing to identify new “high risk” breast and prostate cancer susceptibility genes, has recently led the formation of an international consortium COMPLEXO that aims to pool data to expedite discoveries in this area and has worked to define modes of translation of new genetic information into clinical practice. Her team has substantial activities based on Epigenome-Wide Association Studies (EWASs) utilizing the resources of the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study that are working to identify epigenetic risk factors for cancer. These initiatives are working towards improving the healthcare outcomes for individuals at high risk of cancer and providing the foundation for the emerging "Precision Public Health" era. Alex Swarbrick (cropped).jpg Organisation: The Garvan Institute of Medical Research Dr Swarbrick is a senior research fellow in the Cancer Research Division and Kinghorn Cancer Centre, Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Alex undertook postdoctoral training with Nobel Laureate J. Michael Bishop at UC San Francisco, supported by a CJ Martin Travelling Fellowship. In 2007 he returned to the Garvan Institute , where his research has focused on the role of developmental and lineage-commitment pathways in cancer, primarily of the breast. He uses functional and molecular genomics and animal models to dissect the role of microRNAs and transcription factors in driving clinical and cellular heterogeneity in cancer. Professor WD Tilley 2011.jpg Professor Tilley is Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories and the Adelaide Prostate Cancer Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. His research program is broadly focussed on hormonal carcinogenesis in breast and prostate cancer, with an emphasis on mechanisms of sex hormone signalling and the emergence of resistance to hormonal therapies used in the treatment of these diseases. His laboratory has highlighted the critical role of the amino-terminal domain of the androgen receptor (AR) in driving receptor function, including evidence for oncogenic potential of the AR in prostate cancer, and pioneered research into understanding the pivotal role of the AR in counteracting the proliferative effects of estrogens in the breast. A large majority of breast cancers display AR immunopositivity and it has become clear that this receptor can exert a tumour suppressive or oncogenic influence depending on context. A major objective of our research is to elucidate the mechanisms that underpin the tumour suppressive or oncogenic activity of AR within breast cancer cells. Another research focus is the development of novel single or combinatorial treatments that better target the AR in prostate cancer that may also be useful in the treatment of certain subtypes of breast cancer. Jane portrait photo.jpg Organisation: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Jane Visvader is Joint Head of the Division of Stem Cells and Cancer and the Breast Cancer Laboratory at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. She carried out PhD studies in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide, and held subsequent positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute, San Diego, and Research Associate and Instructor at the Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston. She was awarded a NHMRC Australia Fellowship in 2011 and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2012. Visvader serves on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cancer Council Victoria and the Scientific Advisory Council of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She is a member of the Editorial Boards of Cell Stem Cell, Cancer Cell, Breast Cancer Research and Molecular Oncology. Her laboratory focuses on understanding the epithelial hierarchy in normal and cancerous breast tissue, as well as identifying genes important for regulating mammary development. Alpha Yap3.jpg Organisation: The University of Queensland Alpha Yap is a Professor and Head of the Division of Molecular Cell Biology at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland. After training in Internal Medicine and Cell Physiology, he undertook post-doctoral research with Barry Gumbiner at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center before returning to Australia to establish his independent research group. His laboratory studies the cellular mechanisms responsible for cadherin-dependent morphogenesis, notably the mechanisms and principles that coordinate cadherin adhesion with the cytoskeleton. He was Chair of the 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Cell Contact & Adhesion and will chair the 2016 GRC on Signaling by Adhesion Receptors. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several journals, amongst them Molecular Biology of the Cell, Developmental Cell and Current Biology. |