Cross-talk between cytokine signalling pathways and inflammasomes in cancer

Cross-talk between cytokine signalling pathways and inflammasomes in cancer is a Research Project for the Cancer and Immune Signalling Research Group, under the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases.

Project Leader

ciiid-image2Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes of the immune system which are vital in the processing of mature forms of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1beta and IL-18, whose deregulated production has been linked to many inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Using mouse models for gastric, pancreatic and lung cancers – which are associated with inflammation – our aim is to identify and understand how novel immune regulators such as inflammasomes are deregulated by cytokine signalling pathways in the stomach, pancreas and lung, which ultimately trigger chronic inflammatory responses that lead to these lethal cancers. This project encompasses a wide range of molecular and cell biological and genetic approaches, together with validation studies in human biopsies.

Collaborators
Patrick Tan (DUKE-NUS, Singapore)
Yana Zavros (University of Arizona, USA)
Dan Croagh (Monash Health)
Beena Kumar (Monash Health)