Project Leaders

• Professor Brendan Jenkins
• Dr Ruby Dawson

Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) are key molecules of the innate immune system that recognise microbial- and host-derived products to trigger the inflammatory response. Recently however, we have identified that specific PRRs can be involved in non-immune responses, such as driving gastric and pancreatic tumour cell survival and proliferation. In this regard, the project aims to understand the molecular basis by which specific members of the PRR family promote gastric and pancreatic cancers, and involves a combination of genetically-engineered and tumour xenograft mouse cancer models, genome-wide expression profiling, and translational studies on human biopsies. Such research will ultimately assist in identifying genes that could be used as biomarkers for screening/early detection of gastric and pancreatic cancers, and also targets for the design of therapeutic treatment strategies.

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