I am the senior scientist at the Cancer Translational Research Group of the Melanoma Institute Australia and Associate Professor based at the University of Sydney.  I collaborate with clinical and patient groups to identify areas of need, discover solutions, and implement research to improve patient outcomes. I am passionate for the integration of clinicopathology, genomics, gene expression, and high-dimensional spatial pathology to develop tools that improve treatment selection and aid in the understanding of drug resistance.

Scientific Expertise

·         Genomic drivers of cancer development- Nature 2017

·         Genomic and immune associations with patient outcomes – Cancer Cell 2019 and 2022

·         Immunotherapy response and resistance mechanisms

·         Implementation of biomarker driven personalised medicine – Nature Med 2025

·         Molecular and quanitiative spatial pathology – Cell Reports 2024

·         Multi-omic integration – Nature Comms 2024

Research Focus:

·         Biomarker discovery and clinical implementation

·         Percision use of standard and alternate therapeutic strategies

·         Pioneering spatial pathology techniques

·         Implementation of personalised biomarker testing, reporting into clinics and percision medicine.

Key Achievements

·         Leadership:

Australian Melanom Genome Project: The world's largest international whole-genome sequencing program, with international sites which has yieldover 570 whole genomes, with publications in Nature, Nature Communications, Cancer Discovery, and Cancer Cell.

Personalised Immunotherapy Program (PIP): Development of a world first implemented percision immunotherpy program.

·         Biomarker Discovery: Generated the world-first comprehensive multi-omic datasets to predict response to immunotherapy and identify resistance mechanisms, resulting in a prestigious NSW Premier's Award for outstanding research (Cancer Cell 2019 and Cancer Cell 2022).

·         Immunotherapy Advancements: Broadened the understanding of immune responses to immunotherapies beyond cytotoxic T cells, sparking new therapeutic development targeting NK-cell function (Clinical Cancer Research 2023 and Oncoimmunology 2019)

·         Spatial Pathology Techniques: Pioneered state-of-the-art methods for analysing spatial relationships between immune and tumor cells, leading to high-impact publications and platform development for various cancers (Cancer Cell 2019, Cell Reports and Nature Com).

·         Translational Exploratory studies within clinical trials: Led analysis of large international oncology trials, published in Lancet Oncology, Nature, Cancer Cell, and Clinical Cancer Research. Built a strong international network to drive future collaborations (COMBI-MD and COMBI-BRV, OPACIN-NEO and ABC trials).

Major research Programs

Personalised Immunotherapy Program (PIP): As Principal Investigator of the Personalised Immunotherapy Program I lead a team which is bridging molecular discovery and clinical implementation. The program is actively recruiting patients and delivering biomarker reports back to the oncology teams to aid in treatment selection.  The program is used as a biomarker assays program to select patient unlikely to respond to standard of care immunotherapies for novel clinical trials run at the Melanoma Institute Australia.

By identifying patients unlikely to benefit from standard therapies, PIP optimises allocation of patients to trials, reduces toxicity and cost, and promotes equitable access to precision medicine. The Personalised Immunotherapy Program is funded by the Cancer Institute of New South Wales (CINSW) for $3.7 million over four years (2022-2026).

Effective Therapies for Patients with High-Risk Disease: This program focuses on developing effective therapies for patients with in-transit melanoma. This work is funded by the Melanoma Research Alliance Team Science Award ($1.4 million, 2020-2023). This study integrates bulk whole genome and transcriptome sequencing with single cell RNAseq and high dimensional tissue imaging of melanoma biopsies from immunotherapy treated patients.

Genomic Etiology of Rare Melanomas: This program conducts research into the genomic etiology of rare melanomas from acral, mucosal, and uveal sites. This work now encompasses a nature paper, four Nature Communication papers outlining the whole genomes, transcriptomes and methylomes of 570 melanomas and is the most comprehensive overview of melanoma genomics to date.