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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

Peng H, Jabbari JS, Tian L, Wang C, You Y, Chua CC, Anstee NS, Amin N, Wei AH, Davidson N, Roberts AW, Huang D, Ritchie ME, Thijssen R. Single-cell Rapid Capture Hybridization sequencing to reliably detect isoform usage and coding mutations in targeted genes. Genome Research. 2025;:10.1101/gr.279322.124

Luo M-X, Tan T, Trussart M, Poch A, Nguyen TMH, Speed TP, Hicks DG, Bandala-Sanchez E, Peng H, Chappaz S, Slade C, Utzschneider DT, Koldej RM, Ritchie D, Strasser A, Thijssen R, Ritchie ME, Tam CS, Lindeman GJ, Huang DCS, Lew TE, Anderson MA, Roberts AW, Teh CE, Gray DHD. Venetoclax dose escalation rapidly activates a BAFF/BCL-2 survival axis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood. 2024;144(26):10.1182/blood.2024024341

Thiagarajah N, Dowling MR, Dunne K, Aarons D, Collins J, Tran S, Fleming S, Sutrave G, Hiwase D, Fong CY, Hsu B, Purtill D, Watson A-M, Kennedy GA, Stevenson WS, Larsen SR, Moore J, Perera T, Ritchie DS, Wei A, Roberts AW, Hamad N, Bajel A. Real-World Patterns of Care and Outcomes for Non-Favourable Risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated with Intensive Chemotherapy across Australia and New Zealand- Data Linkage between the ALLG National Blood Cancer Registry (NBCR) and the Australia and New Zealand Transplant and Cellular Therapy (ANZTCT) Registry. Blood. 2024;144(Supplement 1):10.1182/blood-2024-209389

Loo S, Iland H, Tiong IS, Westerman D, Othman J, Marlton P, Chua CC, Purtill D, Rose H, Fleming S, Singhal D, Enjeti AK, Stevenson WS, Ng TF, Derek M, Vaughan L, Gasiorowski R, Ivey A, Souza A, Pattani R, Anstee NS, Koldej R, Ritchie DS, Loghavi S, Daver N, DiNardo CD, Roberts AW, Grove CS, Reynolds J, Wei AH. Revumenib As Pre-Emptive Therapy for Measurable Residual Disease in NPM1 mutated or KMT2A- rearranged Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Domain of the Multi-Arm ALLG AMLM26 Intercept Platform Trial. Blood. 2024;144(Supplement 1):10.1182/blood-2024-202895

D’Sa S, Dimopoulos MA, Jurczak W, Marlton P, Mulligan SP, Wahlin BE, Sobieraj-Teague M, Roberts AW, Tam CS, Castillo JJ, Allewelt H, Prathikanti R, Chan WY, Tian T, Schneider J, Vezan R, Opat SS. Long-term Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Waldenström Macroglobulinemia (WM) Who Received Zanubrutinib in the Phase 3 ASPEN Study: A Report from the Zanubrutinib Extension Study. Blood. 2024;144(Supplement 1):10.1182/blood-2024-199276

Gao M, Georgiou A, Lin VS, Jahja M, White CA, Anderson MA, McCormack MP, Roberts AW, Huang DCS, Thijssen R. Potential impact of NOTCH1 activation on venetoclax sensitivity in chronic lymphocytic Leukaemia: In vitro insights and clinical implications. British Journal of Haematology. 2024;205(4):10.1111/bjh.19604

Handunnetti SM, Anderson MA, Burbury K, Thompson PA, Burke G, Bressel M, Di Iulio J, Hicks RJ, Westerman D, Lade S, Pott C, Agarwal R, Koldej R, Ritchie D, Dreyling M, Dawson MA, Dawson S-J, Seymour JF, Roberts AW, Tam CS. Seven-year outcomes of venetoclax-ibrutinib therapy in mantle cell lymphoma: durable responses and treatment-free remissions. Blood. 2024;144(8):10.1182/blood.2023023388

Diepstraten ST, Yuan Y, La Marca JE, Young S, Chang C, Whelan L, Ross AM, Fischer KC, Pomilio G, Morris R, Georgiou A, Litalien V, Brown FC, Roberts AW, Strasser A, Wei AH, Kelly GL. Putting the STING back into BH3-mimetic drugs for TP53-mutant blood cancers. Cancer Cell. 2024;42(5):10.1016/j.ccell.2024.04.004

Stilgenbauer S, Tausch E, Roberts AW, Davids MS, Eichhorst B, Hallek M, Hillmen P, Schneider C, Schetelig J, Böttcher S, Kater AP, Jiang Y, Boyer M, Popovic R, Ghanim MT, Moran M, Sinai WJ, Wang X, Mukherjee N, Chyla B, Wierda WG, Seymour JF. Six-year follow-up and subgroup analyses of a phase 2 trial of venetoclax for del(17p) chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood Advances. 2024;8(8):10.1182/bloodadvances.2023011741

Lew TE, Bennett R, Lin VS, Whitechurch A, Handunnetti SM, Marlton P, Shen Y, Mulligan SP, Casan J, Blombery P, Tam CS, Roberts AW, Seymour JF, Thompson PA, Anderson MA. Venetoclax-rituximab is active in patients with BTKi-exposed CLL, but durable treatment-free remissions are uncommon. Blood Advances. 2024;8(6):10.1182/bloodadvances.2023011327

Lab research projects

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