Parkville Precinct Brain Tumour Research Group Special Seminar hosted by Dr Sarah Best

Professor Joost Lesterhuis
Head, Sarcoma Translational Research, The Kids Research Institute

 

Immuno-oncology drug (target) discovery in paediatric cancer

RMH 4S Resource Room

Join via ZOOM

Including Q&A session

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, offering long-term cures for diseases like melanoma. But for many cancers, such as sarcoma and brain cancer in both children and adults, these breakthroughs haven’t yet arrived.

My talk will focus on two approaches we are undertaking at the WA Kids Cancer Centre to develop better treatments for these difficult-to-treat cancers.

Firstly, we developed a fully ‘paediatric mouse oncology clinic’. Comparing identical tumours in paediatric and adult mice, validated in patient samples, we identified vast age-dependent differences in the tumour immune microenvironment underling non-responsiveness to immunotherapy, which could be therapeutically altered.

Secondly, we identified the surgical moment of tumour resection as a window of opportunity to locally deliver immunotherapy at the tumour site. We mapped the surgical immune response over time in sarcoma and the brain, using single cell and spatial approaches, and then leveraged this data using an innate immune agonist gel, demonstrating proof of concept in animal models and in a veterinary clinical trial.

Dr Joost Lesterhuis Heads the WA Kids Cancer Centre and leads the Sarcoma Translational Research team at The Kids Research Institute Australia. Joost has a background as a dual-trained medical oncologist and cancer immunologist. His research combines several fields of science including cancer immunology, drug discovery & delivery and translational oncology.

All welcome!