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About

I am an Clinical Haematologist practising clinical medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital / Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and leading translational research at WEHI and the University of Melbourne.

As well as leading a research laboratory, I jointly lead WEHI’s Cancer Research and Treatments theme. I am also a clinical haematologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

After training in haematology in Brisbane, I did my PhD with Professor Donald Metcalf at WEHI, then a post-doc with Dr David Williams in the USA before returning to WEHI and The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

I have been an academic leader in the clinical development of the novel targeted anti-cancer drug, venetoclax, from concept through preclinical development and clinical trials to registration. I am the incoming Editor-in-Chief of Blood, the most cited journal in haematology, having served as Deputy Editor for the last 5 years.

My long-term research interests are the development of new treatments for haematological malignancies, focussing especially on those blood cancers that are currently incurable. My lab collaborates closely with the clinical and laboratory researchers across the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, and with translational research colleagues at WEHI, especially my long term collaborator Professor David Huang.

Major focuses of our research include:
– Molecular basis of leukemogenesis and lymphomagenesis
– Molecular basis of resistance to chemotherapy and targeted therapies
– BCL-2 inhibitors and BH3 mimetics
– Clinical trials of novel therapies

Publications

Selected publications from Prof Andrew Roberts AM

Roberts AW, Wei AH, Huang DCS. BCL2 and MCL1 inhibitors for hematologic malignancies. Blood. 2021;138(13):10.1182/blood.2020006785

Chua CC, Roberts AW, Reynolds J, Fong CY, Ting SB, Salmon JM, MacRaild S, Ivey A, Tiong IS, Fleming S, Brown FC, Loo S, Majewski IJ, Bohlander SK, Wei AH. Chemotherapy and Venetoclax in Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia Trial (CAVEAT): A Phase Ib Dose-Escalation Study of Venetoclax Combined With Modified Intensive Chemotherapy.Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2020;38(30):10.1200/jco.20.00572

Tam CS, Trotman J, Opat S, Burger JA, Cull G, Gottlieb D, Harrup R, Johnston PB, Marlton P, Munoz J, Seymour JF, Simpson D, Tedeschi A, Elstrom R, Yu Y, Tang Z, Han L, Huang J, Novotny W, Wang L, Roberts AW. Phase 1 study of the selective BTK inhibitor zanubrutinib in B-cell malignancies and safety and efficacy evaluation in CLL. Blood. 2019;134(11):10.1182/blood.2019001160

Roberts AW, Ma S, Kipps TJ, Coutre SE, Davids MS, Eichhorst B, Hallek M, Byrd JC, Humphrey K, Zhou L, Chyla B, Nielsen J, Potluri J, Kim SY, Verdugo M, Stilgenbauer S, Wierda WG, Seymour JF. Efficacy of venetoclax in relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia is influenced by disease and response variables. Blood. 2019;134(2):10.1182/blood.2018882555

Blombery P, Anderson MA, Gong J-N, Thijssen R, Birkinshaw RW, Thompson ER, Teh CE, Nguyen T, Xu Z, Flensburg C, Lew TE, Majewski IJ, Gray DHD, Westerman DA, Tam CS, Seymour JF, Czabotar PE, Huang DCS, Roberts AW. Acquisition of the recurrent Gly101Val mutation in BCL2 confers resistance to venetoclax in patients with progressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Cancer Discovery. 2019;9(3):10.1158/2159-8290.cd-18-1119

Merino D, Kelly GL, Lessene G, Wei AH, Roberts AW, Strasser A. BH3-Mimetic Drugs: Blazing the Trail for New Cancer Medicines. Cancer Cell. 2018;34(6):10.1016/j.ccell.2018.11.004

Tam CS, Anderson MA, Pott C, Agarwal R, Handunnetti S, Hicks RJ, Burbury K, Turner G, Di Iulio J, Bressel M, Westerman D, Lade S, Dreyling M, Dawson S-J, Dawson MA, Seymour JF, Roberts AW. Ibrutinib plus Venetoclax for the Treatment of Mantle-Cell Lymphoma. New England Journal of Medicine. 2018;378(13):10.1056/nejmoa1715519

Anderson MA, Tam C, Lew TE, Juneja S, Juneja M, Westerman D, Wall M, Lade S, Gorelik A, Huang DCS, Seymour JF, Roberts AW. Clinicopathological features and outcomes of progression of CLL on the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax. Blood. 2017;129(25):10.1182/blood-2017-01-763003

Seymour JF, Ma S, Brander DM, Choi MY, Barrientos J, Davids MS, Anderson MA, Beaven AW, Rosen ST, Tam CS, Prine B, Agarwal SK, Munasinghe W, Zhu M, Lash LL, Desai M, Cerri E, Verdugo M, Kim SY, Humerickhouse RA, Gordon GB, Kipps TJ, Roberts AW. Venetoclax plus rituximab in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: a phase 1b study. The Lancet Oncology. 2017;18(2):10.1016/s1470-2045(17)30012-8

Anderson MA, Deng J, Seymour JF, Tam C, Kim SY, Fein J, Yu L, Brown JR, Westerman D, Si EG, Majewski IJ, Segal D, Heitner Enschede SL, Huang DCS, Davids MS, Letai A, Roberts AW. The BCL2 selective inhibitor venetoclax induces rapid onset apoptosis of CLL cells in patients via a TP53-independent mechanism. Blood. 2016;127(25):10.1182/blood-2016-01-688796

Lab research projects

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