THE DAWSON LAB - Key Persons
Ali completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Molecular Bioengineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan. During his last year as an undergraduate and additional eight months as a researcher, he focused his research on neural and pancreatic differentiation of mouse pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) under supervision of Professor Akaike. He then moved to Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He joined Dr Draper's Lab where he started his research on breast cancer chemotherapy and early fate decision of human PSCs. In September 2013 Ali joined Professor Ed Stanley's lab at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne to undertake his PhD studies. Ali's PhD project was focused on B- and T-lymphocyte differentiation from human PSCs. After receiving his PhD, Ali continued his research in Professor Ed Stanley's lab as a postdoctoral scientist for an additional three years. In August 2020 Ali joined Professor Mark Dawson's lab to continue his postdoctoral research. Ali's research is focused on kinetics of hematopoietic stem cell expansion and differentiation.
Andrew completed a combined medical and graduate research degree in 2017 at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Since then, he has worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Professors Margreet Vissers and Mark Hampton at the Centre for Free Radical Research, investigating potential intersections between epigenetics and redox biology in cancer. Andrew joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2021, and his main research focus is combining single-molecule imaging techniques with multi-omic data in order to uncover the mechanisms by which leukaemia evolves in response to therapy.
Show bio + Hide bio - Andrew is a clinician-scientist (haematologist) with an interest in myelodysplastic and bone marrow failure syndromes. He completed his haematology training and PhD at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and proceeded to undertake postdoctoral work in the lab of Professor Benjamin Ebert at the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 2015-2019. There he worked on protein degradation, dissecting the roles of oncogenes in AML maintenance and on RNA splicing. Andrew joined the Dawson Laboratory in October 2019 where he has developed a particular interest in RNA biology and epigenetics. Other work is focused on understanding how the tumour microenvironment contributes to myeloid disease development and propagation. Andrew.Guirguis@petermac.org
Show bio + Hide bio - Ann is a Joint-PhD student who joined the Dawson Lab in 2022. Her program is split between Sarah-Jane Dawson's lab and Caroline Dive's lab in Manchester. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2020 with a degree in Biomedical Sciences. Afterwards, she moved to the UK to complete an MSc in Precision Medicine at the University of Leeds (UoL). During her MSc, Ann completed an internship at GSK studying cancer transcriptomics. Before moving to Melbourne, she was training as a data scientist at UoL. Her current research focusses on epigenomic monitoring of residual disease in melanoma using liquid biopsies. Ann.Onuselogu@petermac.org
Brian joined the Dawson Lab in January 2019 as a CJ Martin Postdoctoral fellow, investigating regulatory mechanisms that control DNMT1 function and DNA methylation in acute myeloid leukaemia. He completed his undergraduate degree, majoring in microbiology and immunology, at the University of Melbourne. He then obtained his honours working on CD8 T cell biology in the lab of Laureate Professor Peter Doherty. He then worked as a research assistant with A/Professor Carl Walkley at St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research. There he developed an interest in RNA editing and successfully obtained a scholarship from the Leukaemia Foundation to undertake his PhD; exploring the role of ADAR1 in haematopoiesis and leukaemia. He completed his PhD in 2016 and then joined the lab of Professor Benjamin Ebert as a postdoc at the Broad Institute in Boston, United States. There he gained extensive experience with CRISPR-Cas9 and high-throughput sequencing technologies and developed an interested in chromatin biology and epigenetics.
Show bio + Hide bio - Christina is a PhD student at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. In 2013, she was jointly awarded her Bachelor of Medical Science from the Australian National University and University of South Australia, and achieved First Class Honours (ANU) in 2014. Christina joined the Dawson Laboratory as a Research Assistant in 2016 working with A/Professor Marian Burr on investigating molecular mechanisms of immune evasion. In 2018 she began her PhD under the supervision of Professor Mark Dawson and A/Professor Marian Burr. Her PhD research focuses on elucidating the role of epigenetic regulators in immune evasion and overcoming immunotherapy resistance in MHC-I deficient cancers. Christina.Sparbier@petermac.org
Show bio + Hide bio - Clare is a Laboratory Haematologist and a Postdoctoral Scientist in the Molecular Biomarkers and Translational Genomics Laboratory and the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Clare obtained her MBBS from the University of Queensland and obtained her PhD at the Translational Research Institute, University of Queensland. She undertook two years of sub-specialty training as a Molecular Haematology Fellow in the diagnostic haematology laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. Clare's research interests are in applying genomic technologies to identify molecular biomarkers in haematological malignancies and to examine interactions between the immune tumour microenvironment and tumour cells, to improve understanding of disease and inform more effective cancer treatments. Clare.Gould@petermac.org
Dane's research is focussed on the epigenetic regulation of transcription in mammalian cells and how this process is dysregulated in cancer. He completed his PhD at The University of Melbourne studying the transcriptional regulatory networks underlying carbon metabolism in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and how this process has evolved in strains that are used in industrial scale bioethanol production. Dane joined the Dawson Lab in December 2017 to study non-genetic mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in acute leukaemia. He is developing novel methodologies that couple the lineage tracing of leukaemic cells to cutting-edge single-cell techniques to understand the transcriptional changes that result in therapeutic resistance in the absence of new changes to DNA. Ultimately this work will lead to an understanding of the key drivers of this phenomenon and will enable the targeting of these factors to severely limit the ability of leukaemic cells to develop resistance via these mutation-independent mechanisms.
Show bio + Hide bio - Dineika obtained her PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute in 2015 and carried out a three-year post-doc at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. She then joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2019 as a senior postdoctoral fellow who develops statistical and informatics techniques to address questions in molecular and medical biology. Dineika's current research focuses on using circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) as a minimally invasive blood-based biomarker in projects within Australia and through ongoing international collaborations in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. She leads a small bioinformatics team by supervising a PhD student and a research assistant to develop innovative methods that can analyse multi-omic data from ctDNA to both detect and monitor cancer. Dineika's ongoing passion is to translate these methodologies to the clinic under the mantra of ‘bench to bedside'. Dineika.Chandrananda@petermac.org
Elanor completed her PhD in Genetics at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, studying mammalian urogenital differentiation. She then joined the Francis Crick Institute, London, as a postdoctoral researcher studying epigenetic mechanisms in cancer. In 2021 Elanor joined the laboratory of Professor Mark Dawson at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Her main research interest is in clonal evolution, in particular trying to dissect epigenetic mechanisms that lead to cellular heterogeneity and clone selection in cancer.
Show bio + Hide bio - Enid obtained her PhD from the University of Auckland studying the development of haematopoietic stem cells in the zebrafish model. She then got into bioinformatics during a short postdoc at the University of Auckland. She moved to the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute in 2010 for a postdoc developing a method for the genome-wide mapping of the G-quadruplex in DNA. She joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2014 as a bioinformatician shortly after they moved to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Enid.Lam@petermac.org
Show bio + Hide bio - Jamie is a clinical haematologist currently undertaking his PhD in the Dawson Laboratory. After completing his MBBS from the University of Western Australia in 2011, he underwent physician training at Royal Perth & Fiona Stanley Hospitals and advanced training in clinical and laboratory haematology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Royal Melbourne & Austin Hospital. He was awarded dual fellowships from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 2021. Jamie's current research is involved in understanding the biology of poor-risk B-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, with a focus on resistance mechanisms to CAR T-cell therapy. Jamie.Kuzich@petermac.org
Jerick has worked at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre since 2016. His previous role was as a medical scientist in the Pathology department where he performed molecular diagnostic testing on leukaemia patients. In 2019 Jerick moved to the Research department as part of a collaboration between A/Professor Paul Ekert and Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson's teams to work on molecular assays for paediatric sarcomas. In his role as a research assistant he will be working primarily with circulating tumour DNA and developing both digital PCR and next-generation sequencing assays.
Job Titles:
- Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow
Jesse is a clinician-scientist whose research focus lies with developing novel proteomic tools to dissect the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in cancer. He completed his PhD in 2017 under the supervision of Professor Brendan Jenkins at The Hudson Institute of Medical Research, focusing on the role of STAT3 serine phosphorylation in gastric cancer. He received his medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 2020 and is currently working as a junior doctor. Jesse joined the Dawson Laboratory as an Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow where he is exploring the role of oncogene regulation in cancer using novel genetic and biochemical approaches.
Joshua grew up in New Zealand, where he completed his PhD at the University of Otago. His PhD research combined bioinformatic analysis with molecular biology techniques to better understand the clinical significance and biological function of a protein commonly upregulated in metastatic breast cancer. After completing his PhD in 2021, Joshua joined the Dawson Lab in 2022 to begin his post-doctoral fellowship. Currently, Joshua is leading a research project which utilises next-generation sequencing to analyse circulating tumour DNA from the blood. His research is part of a larger clinical trial called PATINA, which comprises almost 500 HR+/HER2+ breast cancer patients, and aims to identify biomarkers that predict response to targeted therapy.
Kathy obtained her undergraduate degree in 1999 at Deakin University. Having previously worked at the WEHI, Cambridge University and the University of New South Wales, Kathy joined the Dawson Laboratory in February 2018 as a Research Assistant supporting ongoing projects.
Laura completed her undergraduate studies at Western University, Canada in 2006. She completed her MSc in 2008 and PhD in 2013 both in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Toronto. After relocating to Melbourne, she joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2015 where she performed genetic screens in leukaemic stem cells to identify unique dependencies for their survival. This work has led her to being part of a research collaboration with Cancer Therapeutics CRC where she is investigating the mechanism of action of small molecule inhibitors against chromatin modifying enzymes.
Lauren is a Gastroenterologist and PhD student in the Molecular Biomarkers and Translational Genomics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre under Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson. Lauren obtained her MBBS from Flinders University in South Australia and completed her basic physician training in Darwin including outreach to rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory. She completed her Gastroenterology specialist training in Western Australia and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Prior to commencing medicine, Lauren completed a Biomedical Science degree with honours, founding her passion for basic science research particularly in the areas of molecular oncogenesis leading to her subsequent return to laboratory science for her PhD. Lauren's research will focus on exploring the role of circulating tumour DNA in hepatocellular carcinoma to improve the early diagnosis and monitoring of this disease and ultimately, survival outcomes. She is passionate about the translation of scientific discovery into meaningful clinical change and looks forward to developing her research skills in the forthcoming years.
Oliver graduated from University College London (UCL) with a degree in Biochemical Engineering in 2019. Upon graduating he joined AstraZeneca where he worked on developing biophysical assays for early hit discovery. During the coronavirus pandemic he was involved in the setup and running of a diagnostic laboratory. His PhD commenced in 2021 and is split between the lab of Tim Somervaille in Manchester and the Dawson Laboratory. His current research involves the application of functional genomics to primary samples to identify better potential therapy targets and uncover the mechanisms behind variable prognosis in the clinic.
Job Titles:
- Lab Manager
- Laboratory Manager
Sarah Ftouni joined Peter Mac as a Masters of Science student in 2012 investigating acquired resistance in ovarian cancer under the supervision of Professor David Bowtell. Sarah joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2014 as a Research Assistant to both Professors Sarah-Jane and Mark Dawson, and is now the central point for all laboratory administration as Senior Laboratory Manager and Principal Research Assistant. Sarah specialises in genomic techniques, including Digital PCR and Tam-Seq, and has an interest in cell free DNA and liquid biopsy.
Show bio + Hide bio - Sebastian completed his Bioinformatics Bachelor's and Master's degree in Munich, Germany. He subsequently worked as a Bioinformatician at the Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital with a focus on rare hereditary immune defects. In October 2018 he started his PhD with Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson, specializing in the analysis of longitudinal and spatial heterogeneity in cancer. Sebastian.Hollizeck@petermac.org
Shellaina graduated from Northeastern University (Boston, USA) with a degree in Biochemistry in 2021. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she gained experiences in both academic and industry settings exploring redox biology in development and DNA secondary structures in disease before working as an RA at Coral Genomics. Shellaina joined the Dawson Lab in 2022 as a Fulbright Future Scholar with interests in how epigenomics contribute to tumorheterogeneity. Her current research seeks to understand how different tissue microenvironments influence cell fate in leukemia transformation.
Sunniyat is a Postdoc in The Dawson Lab and holds an Honorary Senior Research Fellowship at UCL Cancer Institute, London. He has a strong interest in the role of noncoding variation in cancer, transcriptional regulation, and epigenetic mechanisms. Currently his research involves using single cell transcriptomics and lineage tracing to identify chemoresistance mechanisms in a collaborative project with the pharma industry. Prior to this, he was a John Goldman Fellow in Professor Mark Mansour's Lab, where he discovered and functionally validated mutations in the noncoding genome that activate oncogenes in T cell leukaemia. Sunniyat completed his PhD in Clinical Medicine Research from Imperial College London and read Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at The Queen's College, Oxford.
Vicky completed a Bachelor of Biomedicine with Honours in cancer immunology at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2016. She joined the Dawson Laborarty in 2017 as a Research Assistant and has recently begun her PhD under the joint supervision of Professor Mark Dawson and Dr. Andrew Cox. Using zebrafish, Vicky's PhD aims to elucidate the adaptive transcriptional changes during liver regeneration and cancer in the context of transcription factor Nrf2. She is also interested in developing new zebrafish models that can help us understand such changes with greater temporal resolution.
William is a University of Melbourne graduate, developing an interest in cancer research when completing his Bachelor of Science majoring in pathology in 2019, and Honours degree in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. William joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2022 to enrich his understanding of cancer epigenetics and expand his skillset as a research scientist. Will currently works with Dane Vassiliadis in the investigation of transcriptional changes in leukaemia.
Show bio + Hide bio - Chih completed a PhD in 2010 at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He then conducted postdoctoral work investigating the role of IgE antibody in non-allergic asthma with Professor Hannah Gould at King's College London, United Kingdom (2010-2014). He joined the Dawson Laboratory in 2015 combining bioinformatics and laboratory research in the areas of normal and abnormal haematopoiesis. Yih-Chih.Chan@petermac.org