Research Projects
Dangerous Networking: Brain cancers and the brain
Discovery Theme: Tumour Microenvironment
Brain Cancer is unique in that it is formed in the brain, an electrically active network. Decoding the electrical activity and networking of brain cancer cells is central to our understanding of this complex and devastating condition.
This project looks at discovering the secrets of the electrical activity of brain cancer cells, and how those cancer cells integrate within neural networks in living human tissue. The aim is to manipulate brain activity to understand what impact this has on the growth and spread of these cancers. In doing so, we hope to unveil a whole new category of therapeutic targets that address the electrical communication between neurons and cancer cells within the brain, which we believe is at the heart of the resistance of brain cancers to typical cancer therapies.
To our knowledge, there are no other groups pursuing this highly specialised area, which requires expertise in the functioning of normal neurons, and thus we are at the forefront of this new and important arm of brain cancer research.
Champions
Theme Leader and Group Head, The Florey, University of Melbourne
Professor Lucy Palmer is head of the Neural Network Laboratory at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Australia. She completed her Master of Science at the University of Minnesota, USA and Ph.D at the Australian National University. She then pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Bern, Switzerland and Charite University, Berlin before returning to Australia to establish her research laboratory. Her research uses advanced functional imaging and electrophysiological techniques to investigate how the brain encodes learning and memory in health and disease. She has published articles in high impact journals such as Science, Nature Neuroscience and Nature Communications.
Related research projects:
Professor Lucy Palmer
The Florey, University of Melbourne
Neurosurgery Registrar, The Royal Melbourne Hospital
PhD Candidate, The Florey, University of Melbourne
Dr. Heidi McAlpine is a training neurosurgeon who completed her BSc(hons), MBBS and DipSurgAnat at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include brain cancer survivorship and understanding the electrical activity of brain cancer cells. Over the last 10 years her survivorship research has gone from an idea of forming an evidence based online resource for brain cancer patients to receiving a $2.6M MRFF grant to build this resource. She has returned to clinical work at the Royal Children’s Hospital after undertaking a PhD at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health looking at the electrical activity of brain cancer which was supported by the Warren Haynes Fellowship from the Neuroscience Foundation, the Melbourne University Research Training Program Scholarship and the Brain Cancer Centre. Heidi hopes to forge a career as a surgeon/scientist specialising in brain cancer surgery and research. For her clinical work Heidi was awarded the inaugural Professor Kaye Best Neurosurgery Registrar at the Royal Melbourne Hospital award in 2019.
In addition to her clinical and research work, Heidi leads the Pangea Medical Student Program, which upskills local medical trainees in low-income countries in the fundamentals of patient care. She is a mother of two pandemic babies, and juggles her time between operating, laboratory work, and spending time with her family.
Related research projects:
Related videos:
Dr Heidi McAlpine
The Royal Melbourne Hospital & The Florey, University of Melbourne
Director of Neurosurgery, The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Professor Kate Drummond, AM, MD, FRACS is Director of Neurosurgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Head of CNS Tumours at the VCCC Parkville Precinct. Her research and clinical interests are in the biology and management of brain tumours, with special interests in advanced surgical techniques such as awake craniotomy, quality of life and blood and imaging biomarkers.
She has published over 190 peer-reviewed papers and many book chapters and has received more than $35 million in research funding. Her h-index is 43. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery. She has served as Chief Examiner in Neurosurgery, Chair of the Women in Surgery Committee and on the Neurosurgery Surgical Education and Training Board for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, being awarded the RACS medal for these services. She is the President of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurosurgeons.
She is a strong advocate for and has written and presented widely on diversity in neurosurgery. She is Chair of Pangea Global Health Education, a for-impact organisation specialising in health education in low resource settings. In 2019 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to medicine, particularly in neuro-oncology and community health.
Related research projects:
- BRAIN POP
- BRAIN Registry
- Dangerous Networking: Brain cancers and the brain
- Deciphering the Molecular Mosaic of NF2
- A novel liquid biopsy for monitoring and chemoresistance detection in brain cancer
Related videos:
Professor Kate Drummond AM
The Royal Melbourne Hospital