WEHI Wednesday Seminar hosted by Professor Andreas Strasser

Professor Gemma Kelly

Laboratory Head – Blood Cells and Blood Cancer division, WEHI

Informing therapeutic approaches for p53 mutant cancers

 

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIWednesday

Including Q&A session
 

Mutations in the tumour suppressor p53 are common in most cancers, and often confer poor responses to therapy. Despite decades of research, it is still not fully understood how mutant p53 contributes to sustained tumour growth and therapy resistance. It is possible that mutant p53 proteins can have gain-of-function effects, loss-of tumour suppressor functions and/or dominant-negative effects on wild-type p53. Understanding the relative importance of these effects will inform on the design of new therapies for patients with mutant p53 cancers. To address this, we have generated novel mouse models in which the endogenous p53 locus can be switched between different p53 states (mutant, wild-type and knock-out) at will. We have crossed these mice to cancer-prone mouse models to allow a systematic assessment of the role of mutant p53 in cancer growth and responses to therapy. Additionally, we have identified novel therapeutic regimens that bypass p53 to boost the killing of p53 mutant cancers.

Professor Gemma Kelly is a Laboratory Head in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division at WEHI and is an NHMRC Leadership 2 Fellow. She carried out her undergraduate and PhD studies in the UK at the Cancer Research UK Institute for Cancer Studies in Birmingham. Gemma relocated to Australia following the award of a Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund Fellowship. In 2019 she started her lab in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division. Her team is focused on the use of novel preclinical cancer models and sophisticated genetic screening to improve outcomes for cancer patients.

All welcome!