WEHI Wednesday Seminar hosted by Professor Geoff Lindeman

Professor Kate Sutherland

Laboratory Head – ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells division, WEHI

Discovery of novel immunotherapy targets in lung cancer

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIWednesday

Including Q&A session

Immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of lung cancer patients, however, durable response rates are low. Lung cancers that harbour concurrent mutations in KRAS, STK11(LKB1) and KEAP1 fail to derive benefit from PD(L)-1 inhibition alone. A greater understanding of the cell-intrinsic processes that allow these tumours to evade immune detection is required to enhance therapeutic outcomes. In this seminar, Kate will share the progress her laboratory has made in understanding the biology of KRAS-driven lung cancer using immune-competent preclinical mouse models that recapitulate the human disease. Specifically, she will discuss how she has combined these models with unbiased whole genome CRISPR-Cas9 co-culture screens to identify gene targets that sensitise Kras/Stk11/Keap1-altered lung cancer cells to T cell-mediated killing. Deciphering the molecular mechanisms that underpin immune-sensitisation by these novel immunotherapeutic targets holds the key to achieving more effective therapy responses for patients.

Following her PhD studies, Kate joined the laboratory of Prof Anton Berns at The Netherlands Cancer Institute as an NHMRC CJ Martin and Marie Curie Incoming Postdoctoral Fellow. While there, she generated unique tools that led to the identification of the cells-of-origin of three main subtypes of lung cancer. Kate returned to WEHI as a Laboratory Head in the ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells Division in 2013, where her research program has made major contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underpin heterogeneity in lung cancer.

All welcome!