“Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) is a blood cancer that develops rapidly with low survival rates and limited treatment options. My research aims to identify leukaemia-specific weaknesses that can be therapeutically targetable, with the ultimate goal of improving survival rates for patients diagnosed with AML.” Dr Catherine Carmichael

Dr Catherine Carmichael is a molecular cancer biologist whose research is focused on identifying the key mechanisms driving Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) progression and developing novel therapeutic approaches to treat this devastating blood cancer.

Dr Carmichael’s specialist areas are the molecular and biological processes underpinning both normal and malignant blood cell development, and using sophisticated cellular and animal modelling approaches to identify therapeutically targetable molecular and biological dependencies of leukaemia cells.

She has made significant contributions to the understanding of the underlying molecular alterations that drive both inherited and acquired forms of myeloid and erythroid leukaemia.

Dr Carmichael has received more than $3 million in grant and fellowship funding from both National and State government agencies (NHMRC and Victorian Cancer Agency), as well as from philanthropic funding bodies such as the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia.

Education

2004-2008	PhD	University of Melbourne/WEHI	Melbourne
2002	Bachelor of Science (Hons)	University of Melbourne/WEHI	Melbourne
1999-2001	Bachelor of Biomedical Science	University of Melbourne	Melbourne

Awards and Fellowships

2023-2026	Mid-Career Fellowship	Victorian Cancer Agency
2020-2024	Ideas Grant	NHMRC
2018-2020	Project Grant	NHMRC
2018	Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship	Monash University
2013	Grant-In-Aid	Leukaemia Foundation of Australia
2008-2010	Postdoctoral Fellowship	Leukaemia Foundation of Australia
2004-2007	Dora Lush PhD Scholarship	NHMRC

Affiliations

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow

Monash University

Links

Google scholar ORCID Scopus Twitter LinkedIn

Selected publications

• Carmichael CL, Wang J, Nguyen T, Kolawole O, Benyoucef A, De Mazière C, Milne AR, Samuel S, Gillinder K, Hediyeh-Zadeh S, Vo ANQ, Huang Y, Knezevic K, McInnes WRL, Shields BJ, Mitchell H, Ritchie ME, Lammens T, Lintermans B, Van Vlierberghe P, Wong NC, Haigh K, Thoms JAI, Toulmin E, Curtis DJ, Oxley EP, Dickins RA, Beck D, Perkins A, McCormack MP, Davis MJ, Berx G, Zuber J, Pimanda JE, Kile BT, Goossens S, Haigh JJ (2020) The EMT modulator SNAI1 contributes to AML pathogenesis via its interaction with LSD1. Blood 136:957-973.

• Fagnan A, Bagger FO, Piqué-Borràs MR, Ignacimouttou C, Caulier A, Lopez CK, Robert E, Uzan B, Gelsi-Boyer V, Aid Z, Thirant C, Moll U, Tauchmann S, Kurtovic-Kozaric A, Maciejewski J, Dierks C, Spinelli O, Salmoiraghi S, Pabst T, Shimoda K, Deleuze V, Lapillonne H, Sweeney C, De Mas V, Leite B, Kadri Z, Malinge S, de Botton S, Micol JB, Kile B, Carmichael CL, Iacobucci I, Mullighan CG, Carroll M, Valent P, Bernard OA, Delabesse E, Vyas P, Birnbaum D, Anguita E, Garçon L, Soler E, Schwaller J, Mercher T (2020) Human erythroleukemia genetics and transcriptomes identify master transcription factors as functional disease drivers. Blood 136:698-714.

• Iacobucci I, Wen J, Meggendorfer M, Choi JK, Shi L, Pounds SB, Carmichael CL, Masih KE, Morris SM, Lindsley RC, Janke LJ, Alexander TB, Song G, Qu C, Li Y, Payne-Turner D, Tomizawa D, Kiyokawa N, Valentine M, Valentine V, Basso G, Locatelli F, Enemark EJ, Kham SKY, Yeoh AEJ, Ma X, Zhou X, Sioson E, Rusch M, Ries RE, Stieglitz E, Hunger SP, Wei AH, To LB, Lewis ID, D’Andrea RJ, Kile BT, Brown AL, Scott HS, Hahn CN, Marlton P, Pei D, Cheng C, Loh ML, Ebert BL, Meshinchi S, Haferlach T, Mullighan CG (2019) Genomic subtyping and therapeutic targeting of acute erythroleukemia. Nat Genet 51:694-704.

• Thirant C, Ignacimouttou C, Lopez CK, Diop M, Le Mouël L, Thiollier C, Siret A, Dessen P, Aid Z, Rivière J, Rameau P, Lefebvre C, Khaled M, Leverger G, Ballerini P, Petit A, Raslova H, Carmichael CL, Kile BT, Soler E, Crispino JD, Wichmann C, Pflumio F, Schwaller J, Vainchenker W, Lobry C, Droin N, Bernard OA, Malinge S, Mercher T (2017) ETO2-GLIS2 Hijacks Transcriptional Complexes to Drive Cellular Identity and Self-Renewal in Pediatric Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukemia. Cancer Cell 31:452-465.

• Tang JZ, Carmichael CL, Shi W, Metcalf D, Ng AP, Hyland CD, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG, Howell VM, Zhao ZJ, Smyth GK, Kile BT, Alexander WS (2013) Transposon mutagenesis reveals cooperation of ETS family transcription factors with signaling pathways in erythro-megakaryocytic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:6091-6096.

• Carmichael CL, Metcalf D, Henley KJ, Kruse EA, Di Rago L, Mifsud S, Alexander WS, Kile BT (2012) Hematopoietic overexpression of the transcription factor Erg induces lymphoid and erythro-megakaryocytic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109:15437-15442.

• Hahn CN, Chong CE*, Carmichael CL*, Wilkins EJ, Brautigan PJ, Li XC, Babic M, Lin M, Carmagnac A, Lee YK, Kok CH, Gagliardi L, Friend KL, Ekert PG, Butcher CM, Brown AL, Lewis ID, To LB, Timms AE, Storek J, Moore S, Altree M, Escher R, Bardy PG, Suthers GK, D’Andrea RJ, Horwitz MS, Scott HS (2011) Heritable GATA2 mutations associated with familial myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia. Nat Genet 43:1012-1017. *Equal contribution.

• Ng AP, Hyland CD, Metcalf D, Carmichael CL, Loughran SJ, Di Rago L, Kile BT, Alexander WS (2010) Trisomy of Erg is required for myeloproliferation in a mouse model of Down syndrome. Blood 115:3966-3969.

• Carmichael CL, Majewski IJ, Alexander WS, Metcalf D, Hilton DJ, Hewitt CA, Scott HS (2009) Hematopoietic defects in the Ts1Cje mouse model of Down syndrome. Blood 113:1929-1937.