Cancer Vaccine Laboratory - LICR Melbourne-Austin Branch

LICR MELBOURNE-AUSTIN BRANCH

Research > Cancer Immunobiology Lab

Cancer Immunobiology Laboratory

The Cancer Immunobiology Program integrates clinical and laboratory teams in order to better understand immune responses against cancer and to develop new cancer therapies based on this knowledge.

Three research streams have been developed in order to achieve this:

(i) Investigate immunity in cancer patients with focus on cancer antigens and identify potential new targets for melanoma therapy;
(ii) Explore the regulators of dendritic cell function, including antigen uptake, migration, cytokine secretion, antigen cross-presentation, and T-cell stimulation;
(iii) Identify and characterise heterogeneity in metastatic melanoma, with focus on subpopulations of cells and plasticity.

The program has been particularly centred on malignant melanoma as a disease for a) the development of cancer vaccines, and b) the study of disease biology and immunity. NY-ESO-1 has been a model antigen in our laboratory and clinical research. We have collected clinical data from our Phase I and Phase I/II studies, and characterised tumour antigen expression and also patient immunological profiles.

Using gene arrays, we have identified molecules that are associated with different clinical outcomes in melanoma patients, and we are evaluating the key molecular pathways in these human tumours. We are also assessing spontaneous and vaccine-induced immune responses against melanoma and have a particular interest in developing methods for understanding functional subpopulations within melanoma and the optimal ways of targeting them therapeutically.

Publications

1. Anaka M, Freyer C, Gedye C, Caballero O, Davis ID, Behren A, Cebon J. Stem cell media culture of melanoma results in the induction of a non-representative neural expression profile. Stem Cells 30(2):336-43. 2012.

2. Klein O, Schmidt C, Knights A, Davis ID, Chen W, Cebon J. Melanoma vaccines: developments over the past 10 years. Expert Rev Vaccines 10(6):853-73. 2011.

3. Nicholaou T , Chen W, Davis ID, Jackson HM, Dimopoulos N, Barrow C, Browning J, Macgregor D, Williams D, Hopkins W, Maraskovsky E, Venhaus R, Pan L, Hoffman EW, Old LJ, Cebon J. Immunoediting and persistence of antigen-specific immunity in patients who have previously been vaccinated with NY-ESO-1 protein formulated in ISCOMATRIX. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 60(11):1625-37. 2011.

4. Svobodova S, Browning J, Macgregor D, Pollara G, Scolyer RA, Murali R, Thompson JF, Deb S, Azad A, Davis ID, Cebon JS. Cancer-testis antigen expression in primary cutaneous melanoma has independent prognostic value comparable to that of Breslow thickness, ulceration and mitotic rate. Eur J Cancer 47(3):460-9. 2011.

5. Cebon J, Knights A, Ebert L, Jackson H, Chen W. Evaluation of cellular immune responses in cancer vaccine recipients: lessons from NY-ESO-1. Expert Rev Vaccines 9(6):617-29. 2010.

6. Robson NC, McAlpine T, Knights AJ, Schnurr M, Shin A, Chen W, Maraskovsky E, Cebon J. Processing and cross presentation of individual HLA-A, -B or -C epitopes from NY-ESO-1 or a HLA-A epitope for Melan-A differ according to the mode of antigen delivery. Blood 116(2):218-25. 2010.

7. Klein O, Ebert LM, Nicholaou T, Browning J, Russell SE, Zuber M, Jackson HM, Dimopoulos N, Tan BS, Hoos A, Luescher IF, Davis ID, Chen W, Cebon J. Melan-A-specific cytotoxic T cells are associated with tumor regression and autoimmunity following treatment with anti-CTLA-4. Clin Cancer Res 15(7):2507-13. 2009.

8. Nicholaou T, Ebert LM, Davis ID, McArthur GA, Jackson H, Dimopoulos N, Tan B, Maraskovsky E, Miloradovic L, Hopkins W, Pan L, Venhaus R, Hoffman EW, Chen W, Cebon J. Regulatory T-cell-mediated attenuation of T-cell responses to the NY-ESO-1 ISCOMATRIX vaccine in patients with advanced malignant melanoma. Clin Cancer Res 15(6):2166-73. 2009.

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Research Links

	Overview
	Tumour Targeting Laboratory
	Cancer Immunobiology Laboratory
	T Cell Laboratory
	Uro-Oncology Laboratory
	Oncogenic Transcription Laboratory
	Joint Austin Ludwig Oncology Unit
	Centre for PET
	Key Technologies

Cancer Immunobiology Lab Staff

Laboratory Head

Prof Jonathan Cebon
Email

Staff Directory

Jonathan Cebon - Laboratory Head
Rodica Stan - Research Associate
Eugene Maraskovsky - Honorary Fellow
Andreas Behren - Postdoctoral Fellow
Ashley Knights - Honorary Fellow
Aparna Jayachandran - Postdoctoral Fellow
Laura Vella - Postdoctoral Fellow
Katherine Woods - Postdoctoral Fellow
Tom John - Senior Clinical Research Fellow
Claudia Freyer- Research Scientist
Florina Lo - Research Assistant
Christopher Hudson - Research Assistant
Anupama Pasam - Research Assistant
Marzena Walkiewicz - Research Assistant
Matthew Anaka - Research Assistant
Prashanth Prithviraj - DMedSc Student

Of Note

Grants

Jonathan Cebon
Cancer Council of Victoria Project Grant: 2010-2012
Melanoma Research Alliance Team Award 2008-2012
NH&MRC Practitioner Fellowship 2008-2012
NH&MRC Project Grant 2011-2013

Tom John
Victorian Cancer Agency Research Fellowship 2011-2012

Andreas Behren
Cure Cancer Australia Foundation Research Fellowship 2012-2013