Accurate staging of very early-stage breast cancer can be challenging because abnormal cells may be morphologically similar to healthy cells. Having recently completed the first proof-of-concept study, the team are now working towards larger scale studies as well as testing their technology with a range of different types of tissues and diseases.
Professor Brian Abbey received a PhD in chemistry from Cambridge University in 2007. After graduation, Professor Abbey worked as a research fellow within the Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science at the University of Melbourne, then took a permanent faculty position at La Trobe University. Over the past 15 years Professor Abbey has been leading the development of new optical technologies for biological imaging employing techniques in coherent optics and nanotechnology. He is currently a Professor of Physics at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science and leads several collaborative commercial projects to help bring his technology to market.
Associate Professor Belinda Parker leads the Microenvironmental Crosstalk and Therapeutics Laboratory in the Cancer Immunology Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is a Victorian Cancer Agency Mid-Career Fellow, and previously an ARC Future Fellow.
Associate Professor Parker’s team focuses on tumour cell crosstalk with the microenvironment, with a particular interest in stromal biomarkers that predict risk of early breast cancer recurrence and tumour markers, and targets for precision immunotherapeutic strategies in breast and prostate cancer. A specific area of interest for her laboratory is the tumour cell inherent immunoregulatory cytokines that dictate metastatic spread and therapeutic response.
