Project: Molecular basis for growth factor regulation of natural killer cell function in cancer
Barrow group
Many cancers secrete platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-D to promote tumour growth. Natural killer (NK) cells express the activating ‘ITAM’ receptor NKp44 to sense expression of PDGF-D and halt tumour growth. An alternatively spliced NKp44 isoform encodes an ‘ITIM’ that is predicted to be inhibitory and is associated with poor cancer patient survival. Tumours may induce this inhibitory NKp44 form to dampen NK cell function as a form of immune evasion. We are determining how the different NKp44 isoforms regulate the cytotoxic and cytokine secreting functions of NK cells and how they impact NK cell surveillance of cancer cells expressing PDGF-D.
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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.