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Monday 8 September 2014

Internationally-recognised haematologist leads world-first clinical trial to fight blood cancers

A world-first clinical trial and research into a new drug class to fight blood cancers has earned Dr Jake Shortt a competitive Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) Fellowship worth $750,468 over four years.

The Eva & Les Erdi Snowdome / VCA Fellowship will enable Jake to investigate awakening dormant genes to help the immune system fight blood cancers.

A Monash Health consultant haematologist and School of Clinical Sciences’ adjunct senior lecturer, Jake is an internationally recognised translational clinician scientist in malignant haematology.

“Blood cancers switch off normal genes that normally cause them to die and also produce signals that camouflage them from the immune system,” said Jake. “We are investigating a new drug class that switches normal genes back on in cancer cells.”

Switching on the normal genes results in cancer cell suicide and removes the immune-camouflage, activating the immune system to fight the cancer.

“In a world-first clinical trial, we will perform laboratory experiments and follow blood cancer patients receiving this new treatment to monitor its effects on the immune system and help predict who will benefit most,” added Jake.

Led by Jake, the collaborative research project between Monash Haematology and Peter Mac Research will investigate how a new class of epigenetic drug called 'bromodomain inhibitors' interact with the immune system to engage anti-tumour responses. 


“Importantly, I would like to acknowledge the significant contribution of the Co-Investigators on this grant, including School of Clinical Sciences’ Dr George Grigoriadis, Professor Eric Morand and Dr Ashish Banerjee,” said Jake.

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