{"id":2519,"date":"2015-02-04T15:15:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T05:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=wimr_news&p=2519"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:26:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:26:45","slug":"wmi-researchers-make-advances-in-cancer-research","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/wmi-researchers-make-advances-in-cancer-research\/","title":{"rendered":"WMI researchers make advances in cancer research"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research hosts the largest team of cancer researchers in New South Wales. This multi-disciplinary team investigates a wide range of cancers and in the last 12 months has published several significant findings.<\/p>\n

Ovarian Cancer<\/p>\n

\"OvarianUnderstanding why ovarian cancer becomes resistant to chemotherapy was the focus of research published in the journal Oncogene by a team led by WMI\u2019s Dr Ying Lei and\u00a0Professor Anna DeFazio<\/a>\u00a0and including\u00a0Associate Professor Henderson<\/a>, Dr Catherine Emmanuel and Professor Paul Harnett.<\/p>\n

The team searched for genes that could potentially be targeted to sensitise or re-sensitise ovarian cancer cells to chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimary and acquired chemotherapy resistance remains a major challenge in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer and there are currently few targeted treatments that can improve patient survival,\u201d said Dr Lei.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered a new gene \u2013 ANKRD1 \u2013 not previously described in ovarian cancer and found that higher expression levels of this gene are associated with poor patient survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leukaemia<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An important discovery in the battle against leukaemia was the result of research by\u00a0Associate Professor Linda Bendall<\/a>, published in the journal Cancer Research.<\/p>\n

Her research looks at how using drugs to inhibit the enzyme sphingosine kinase 2 (SK2) induces death in acute lyphoblastic leukaemia cells and reduces progression of the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that enzyme SK2 is required for the optimal development of leukaemia and if we delete or inhibit the enzyme the leukaemia cells die,\u201d said Associate Professor Bendall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf particular interest is that this approach works in synergy with some agents that are used to treat leukaemia \u2013 in particular some of the targeted therapies that have just entered use, such as the TKI Gleevec \u2013 and others currently in development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cancer Cell Biology<\/h2>\n

WMI\u00a0Associate Professor Beric Henderson<\/a>\u00a0has been researching the role of actin polymerisation in a cell.<\/p>\n

His paper, published in the journal BBA Molecular Cell Research, described the results of a four-year study using innovative techniques to view live cells and the movement of actin into the nucleus of those cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered that in response to DNA damage or cell cycle arrest the actin quickly shifted into the nucleus, along with two co-factors, to form actin filaments,\u201d said Associate Professor Henderson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis response might one day lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms by which chemotherapeutics block the replication of DNA in cancer cells.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research hosts the largest team of cancer researchers in New South Wales. This multi-disciplinary team investigates a wide range of cancers and in the last 12 months has published several significant findings. Ovarian Cancer Understanding why ovarian cancer becomes resistant to chemotherapy was the focus of research published in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2520,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2519","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}