All students and postdocs in my group have clearly demarcated projects. This helps maximise the areas of research that we can tackle. When work within an area needs to be accelerated, help is provided by other members from the lab, particularly research assistants.

We collaborate closely with the Gray and Herold laboratories, both of which are led by former postdocs from my lab, as well as with all other laboratories within the Molecular Genetics of Cancer division. My lab also has close collaborations with many laboratories from other divisions at the Institute, and many laboratories elsewhere in Australia and overseas.

Team

Lorraine O’Reilly, Senior Scientist, BSc Glasgow PhD London

Project: Investigating the role of NF-kB1 as a tumour suppressor in gastric cancer

Project: The use of monoclonal antibodies to isolate novel proteins involved in cellular life or death decisions

Project: Testing the potential of the NF-kB family member c-Rel as a therapeutic target in multiple common autoimmune diseases

Key publication: O'Reilly LA, Putoczki TL, Mielke LA, Low JT, Lin A, Preaudet A, Herold MJ, Yaprianto K, Tai L, Kueh A, Pacini G, Ferrero RL, Gugasyan R, Hu Y, Christie M, Wilcox S, Grumont R, Griffin MDW, O'Connor L, Smyth GK, Ernst M, Waring P, Gerondakis S, Strasser A. Loss of NF-kB1 causes gastric cancer with aberrant inflammation and expression of immune checkpoint regulators in a STAT-1-dependent manner. Immunity. 2018 Mar 20;48(3):570-583.e8. PMID: 29562203

Gemma Kelly, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, BSc (Hons) Durham PhD Birmingham

Project: Investigating the role of mutant p53 and MCL-1 in the sustained growth of MYC driven lymphomas and strategies for targeted therapy

Project: Investigating the function of the Epstein-Barr virus-encoded viral BCL-2 homologue, BHRF1

Key publication: Kelly GL, Grabow S, Glaser SP, Fitzsimmons L, Aubrey BJ, Okamoto T, Valente LJ, Robati M, Tai L, Fairlie WD, Lee EF, Lindstrom MS, Wiman KG, Huang DC, Bouillet P, Rowe M, Rickinson AB, Herold MJ, Strasser A. Targeting of MCL-1 kills MYC-driven mouse and human lymphomas even when they bear mutations in p53. Genes Dev. 2014 Jan 1;28(1):58-70. PMID: 24395247

Kerstin Brinkmann, Postdoctoral Fellow, BBiolSc(Hons) Cologne PhD Cologne

Project: The role of MCL-1 in protecting haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from cancer therapeutics

Project: The molecular control of MCL-1 expression

Key publication: Brinkmann K, Grabow S, Hyland CD, Teh CE, Alexander WS, Herold MJ, Strasser A. The combination of reduced MCL-1 and standard chemotherapeutics is tolerable in mice. Cell Death Differ. 2017 Dec;24(12):2032-2043. PMID: 28800129

Sarah Diepstraten, Postdoctoral Fellow, BSc(Hons) LaTrobe PhD LaTrobe

Project: Exploring the role of the pro-survival proteins Bcl-w and BFL1 in human cancers

Project: MCL-1 inhibitors as a targeted therapy for MYC-driven lymphomas.

Ana Janic, Postdoctoral Fellow, BSc Belgrade PhD Barcelona

Project: Identification of the critical p53 tumour suppression mechanisms by using in vivo shRNA library screening

Key publication: Janic A, Valente LJ, Wakefield MJ, Di Stefano L, Milla L, Wilcox S, Yang H, Tai L, Vandenberg CJ, Kueh AJ, Mizutani S, Brennan MS, Schenk RL, Lindqvist LM, Papenfuss AT, O’Connor L, Strasser A, Herold MJ. Sensitised in vivo shRNA screens identify effectors of p53-mediated tumour suppression and reveal a critical role of DNA repair. Nature Medicine. 2018 (in press).

Francine Ke, Postdoctoral Fellow, BSc (Hons) PhD Melbourne

Project: Understanding the role of cell death pathways in embryonic development

Project: Pharmacological inhibition of MCL-1 and BCL-XL to treat human medulloblastoma

Key publication: Ke F, Vanyai H, Cowan A, Whitehead L, Delbridge AR, Grabow S, Czabotar P, Voss AK, Strasser A. Rare instances of embryogenesis and adult life in the absence of the intrinsic apoptosis effectors BAX, BAK and BOK. Cell. 2018  (in press)

Shinsuke Mizutani, Postdoctoral Fellow, MD, PhD Kyoto

Project: Whole genome CRISPR screen to identify novel mechanisms of tumour suppression

Key publication: Mizutani S, Yoshida T, Zhao X, Nimer SD, Taniwaki M and Okuda T: Loss of Runx1/AML1 arginine-methylation impairs peripheral T cell homeostasis. Br J Haematol. 2015 Sep;170(6):859-73. PMID: 26010396

Melanie Heinlein, PhD Student, BSc MSc Albert-Ludwigs Freiburg

Project: Novel regulators of immunological tolerance

Key publication: Weber A, Heinlein M, Dengjel J, Alber C, Singh PK, Häcker G. The deubiquitinase Usp27x stabilizes the BH3-only protein Bim and enhances apoptosis. EMBO Rep. 2016 May;17(5):724-38.PMID: 27013495

Lizzie Lieschke, PhD Student, BSc(Hons) Melbourne

Project: Investigating the contributions of cell death, cell cycle arrest and cell senescence to p53 mediated tumor suppression

Jun Ting Low, PhD Student, BBiomedSc (Hons) Melbourne

Project: Understanding the Role of NF-kB1 in Gastric Cancer

Key publication: Low JT, Hughes P, Lin A, Siebenlist U, Jain R, Yaprianto K, Gray DH, Gerondakis S, Strasser A, O'Reilly LA. Impact of loss of NF-κB1, NF-κB2 or c-REL on SLE-like autoimmune disease and lymphadenopathy in Fas(lpr/lpr) mutant mice. Immunol Cell Biol. 2016 Jan;94(1):66-78. PMID: 26084385

Zilu Wang, PhD Student, MD, MSc, Nanjing Medical University

Project: Identification of the mechanisms of APR-246 induced killing of tumour cells.

Catherine Chang, Research Assistant, BBiomedSc Melbourne