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Feilman Fellow; Head, Precision Health Research and Head, Translational Intelligence

Surgical resection of cancer remains the frontline therapy for millions of patients annually, but post-operative recurrence is common, with a relapse rate of around 45% for non-small cell lung cancer. The tumour draining lymph nodes (dLN) are resected at the time of surgery for staging purposes, and this cannot be a null event for patient survival and future response to immune checkpoint blockade treatment. This project investigates cancer surgery, lymphadenectomy, onset of metastatic disease, and response to immunotherapy in a novel model that closely reflects the clinical setting. In a murine metastatic lung cancer model, primary subcutaneous tumours were resected with associated dLNs remaining intact, completely resected or partially resected.

Epigenetics links perinatal influences with later obesity. We identifed differentially methylated CpG (dmCpG) loci measured at 17 years associated with concurrent adiposity measures and examined whether these were associated with hsCRP, adipokines, and early life environmental factors. Genome-wide DNA methylation from 1192 Raine Study participants at 17 years, identified 29 dmCpGs associated with body mass index, 10 with waist circumference and 9 with subcutaneous fat thickness.

We have started a project utilising whole genome sequencing of undiagnosed children living in WA to provide a definitive diagnosis. A major challenge here is that the role and functions of the inter-genic regions of our genome (the remaining 98%) are relatively poorly understood.

We are made up of hundreds of different cell types carrying out a diverse range of functions essential for organism survival. All the information required to specify the morphology, function and response to stimuli of these cells is encoded in identical copies of the genome. The process of gene regu

Current technologies to understand which genes are turned on or off only work on large amounts of biological samples. As a consequence all measurements we receive represent averages across multiple cell types present in the sample. The situation is comparable to studying the contents of a bowl of fr

The Kids Research Institute Australia congratulates Prof Gareth Baynam and Dr Timo Lassmann on their grant over three years from the McCusker Charitable Foundation.

Patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) are identified in 1% of live births. Improved surgical intervention means many patients now survive to adulthood, the corollary of which is increased mortality in the over-65-year-old congenital heart disease population. In the clinic, genetic sequencing increasingly identifies novel genetic variants in genes related to CHD.

Seven female individuals with multiple congenital anomalies, developmental delay and/or intellectual disability have been found to have a genetic variant of uncertain significance in the mediator complex subunit 12 gene. The functional consequence of this genetic variant in disease is undetermined, and insight into disease mechanism is required.

Whole genome sequencing offers significant potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases by enabling the identification of thousands of rare, potentially pathogenic variants. Existing variant prioritisation tools can be complemented by approaches that incorporate phenotype specificity and provide contextual biological information, such as tissue or cell-type specificity.