Project: Mining The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to identify novel tumour surveillance pathways and targets for immune checkpoint blockade.
Barrow group
The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a cancer genomics program that has molecularly characterized over 20,000 primary cancers and matched normal samples spanning 33 cancer types. However, immune surveillance pathways associated with a favourable anti-cancer immunity for the many different cancers remains unknown. Moreover, immune pathways that are detrimental to patient survival that could be potentially blocked to promote anti-cancer immunity and exploited for cancer immunotherapy remain to be identified. This project will use in silico methods to identify novel immune surveillance pathways and molecular targets that can be exploited for immune checkpoint blockade in cancer.
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Barrow group
3 vacancies
The Barrow group is interested in innate immune recognition programs, in particular a new immunological recognition strategy termed ‘growth factor surveillance’. Growth factors (GFs) are over-expressed by cancer cells to promote tumour growth. We first showed that the immune system evolved activating receptors to sense aberrant GF expression by cancers. The Barrow group’s goal is to understand how the immune system recognises GF expression by tumours with the ultimate aim of exploiting these pathways for cancer immunotherapy and the development of new cancer immunotherapies.
Barrow group Current Projects
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Immunosurveillance pathways in brain cancer
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Molecular basis for growth factor regulation of natural killer cell function in cancer
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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The role of growth factor immunosurveillance in human cancers
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Mining The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to identify novel tumour surveillance pathways and targets for immune checkpoint blockade.
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
Research degrees at the Doherty Institute are administered by the University of Melbourne.