Alex is an Immunotherapy researcher specialising in mounting an immune response against paediatric brain cancer.
He received a CASS Foundation grant to develop new models of paediatric brain cancer and an early career fellowship from Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.
Where did you study?
I completed my PhD at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre focussing on the biology of CAR T cells and was employed as a post doc at the University of Cambridge in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. Next I was recruited into a biotech start up focussing on stem cells and creating new immune cells from pluripotent stem cells. In 2022 I was recruited back to Australia to lead the paediatric brain cancer program within the Jenkins Lab at WEHI.
What drew you to work on brain cancer?
In 2022 a close friend passed away from an Anaplastic Astrocytoma. He was previously diagnosed 12 years prior and had a good response to the treatment. When the cancer eventually returned it did not respond to anything, and I realised that maybe immunotherapy could help these patients.
Having known Prof Misty Jenkins for a long time, she realised our goals aligned and offered me the chance to make a difference to future patients lives by researching novel immunotherapies for Paediatric Brain Cancer.
What’s your biggest achievement so far?
I am very proud of the team and how we have started to push out important work discovering new targets for brain cancer. With the generous donation of tumour tissue from patients and their families we have started to build up a map of exactly what the tumour looks like to the immune system and we have already started to exploit this.
Can you describe your research?
We harness the immune system to fight brain cancer. We take the patient’s own immune cells and retrain them to detect and destroy the cancer. My research focuses on not only what to target, but also on what happens to those cells when they enter the brain and try to kill the cancer. Does the environment the immune cells find themselves in help or hinder the over all immune response?
What’ s your hope for your research?
I hope that the information we discover can be translated quickly into patients and help to save lives.
What are your hobbies?
I am a keen analogue photographer and have even built myself my own darkroom. I also enjoy skiing
Best piece of advice you’ve received?
“Never say no to an opportunity you haven’t been offered yet.”
