Research Projects
Pathways to new brain cancer medicines
Discovery Theme: New Medicines
This program will explore ways to exploit different programmed cell death pathways and alterations in metabolism that drive brain cancer growth to identify new targets for brain cancer therapies. The work also aims to advance the use of BH3-mimetic drugs, a class of novel anti-cancer agents that directly activate the apoptotic programmed cell death machinery leading to brain cancer cell death. These agents are currently being evaluated in combination with standard-of-care therapy and newly discovered anti-cancer agents some of which target metabolic pathways.
By employing novel preclinical paediatric and adult brain cancer models that emulate the human malignant disease state, we aim to identify novel drug combinations that can effectively kill brain tumour cells. Coupled with CRISPR-based screens, we aim to uncover mechanisms underpinning drug resistance versus sensitivity which will better inform therapeutic strategies.
Champions
Division Head, Laboratory Head WEHI
Prof Strasser is NHMRC L3 Investigator, Professor of University of Melbourne, elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Academy of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and Foreign Member of EMBO. He heads WEHI’s Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, a major world centre for research on cell death and cancer. His pioneering research on BCL-2 established that deregulation of cell death is a prime contributor to cancer and autoimmune disease and that defects in apoptosis render cancer cells resistant to many therapeutic agents. Andreas is a world expert on the role of p53, the BCL-2 protein family and other oncogenes as well as tumour suppressor genes in tumour development. He established that there are two distinct signalling pathways leading to cell death, one triggered by ligation of cell surface “death receptors” and the other by cytokine deprivation or other stresses. Andreas was also the first to demonstrate that BH3-only proteins, a pro-apoptotic sub-group of the BCL-2 protein family, are essential for cytotoxic agents to initiate apoptosis signalling. These discoveries have major biological implications and suggest novel therapeutic strategies for autoimmunity, cancer and degenerative diseases. His discovery of the functions of the BH3-only proteins has directly underpinned the development (collaboration between WEHI, Gennetech and AbbVie) of BH3 mimetic drugs for cancer therapy, with the BCL-2 inhibitor Venetoclax having benefited already several tens of thousands of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) or acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
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Professor Andreas Strasser
WEHI
Division Head, WEHI
Prof. Anne K. Voss established her laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia in 2000, after post-doctoral positions at Cornell University, USA and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany. From 2012 to 2018 Anne was Head of the Development and Cancer Division, 2019-2023 she was Joint-Head and from 2023 onward Head of the Epigenetics and Development Division at WEHI. Anne received the Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship (Biomedical Science) in 2015; the ATSE Clunies Ross Award (Knowledge Commercialisation) in 2021 with Tim Thomas and Jonathan Baell, for the commercialisation of MYST histone acetyltransferase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer; the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in 2021 and the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research 2023, both with Tim Thomas, for the characterisation of MYST proteins, discovery of their key functions, validation as novel targets for anti-cancer therapeutics, and the discovery of a new type of anti-cancer compounds; and the Julian Wells Medal from the Lorne Genome Conference in 2024.
Anne investigates the genetic regulation of embryonic development, adult stem cells and cancer with particular emphasis on transcriptional regulation through chromatin modifications in health and disease. She has described the roles of the MYST family of histone acetyltransferases (KAT5, KAT6A, KAT6B, KAT7, KAT8) in embryonic development, identified their histone lysine acetylation targets, investigated their genomic distribution and effects on gene expression and DNA replication, as well as determined the cellular functions affected by loss of MYST family members in healthy cells and in cancer cells.
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Professor Anne Voss
WEHI
Senior Research Officer, WEHI
Dr Diane Moujalled is a neural cell biologist specialising in brain cancer and programmed cell death signalling. Diane completed her PhD in Biochemistry in 2011 at La Trobe University and has undertaken post-doctoral research as a Dementia Australia Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne and The Florey Institute of Mental Health. Diane has demonstrated expertise in investigating neurological disorders including motor neuron disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, Diane is a mid-career senior post-doctoral researcher and co-lead of The Pathways to New Medicines theme of The Brain Cancer Centre. In this role, Diane brings her expertise in neurological disorders, molecular cell biology and programmed cell death signalling to identify new therapeutic strategies to treat brain cancer by advancing the use of BH3 mimetics, a class of novel anti-cancer drugs, in combination with newly discovered agents. Her research also focuses on applying cutting edge genome editing technologies to determine mechanisms of resistance to therapy with the aim to revolutionise the current treatment paradigm for brain cancer patients.
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Dr Diane Moujalled
WEHI