Gemma (left) with Preventative Health Flagship Director Dr Richard Head.

PhD student with the Preventative Health Flagship and Adelaide University, Gemma Brierley, is on her second collaborative visit to Oxford University, England, as part of her research work on colorectal (bowel) cancer.

Gemma's research is part of a Flagship focus to create new diagnostic tools in the fight against colorectal cancer, Australia's second biggest internal cancer killer.

In Oxford, Gemma is working in the laboratory of Dr Val Macaulay, a Senior Clinical Research Fellow based at the Wetherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.

Dr Macaulay is at the forefront of utilising small interfering RNAs (siRNA), 20-25 nucleotide-long RNA molecules that if designed right can specifically knock out expression of the target gene against which they are designed, to target the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) as a potential cancer therapeutic.

In late 2005, Gemma spent five weeks in Dr  Macaulay's laboratory learning how best to design and validate (siRNA), that might selectively inhibit production of the A isoform of the Insulin receptor (IR-A) in cultured colorectal cancer cells and allow her to unravel the role of this protein in cancer cell function.

In Gemma's follow up visit to England, which began on April 30, she hopes to complete the reagent design and validation phase of her work, bringing the technology back to Adelaide with her where she will complete the mechanistic aspects of her studies.

Gemma is jointly supervised by Dr Leah Cosgrove, from CSIRO's Molecular and Health Technologies (CHMT) in Adelaide, Dr Lance Macaulay of CMHT, Parkville, Victoria, and Prof John Wallace from the University of Adelaide.

Dr Cosgrove says Gemma's results are extremely encouraging  and appear to challenge current dogma on how these receptors and growth factors regulate cell growth, survival and migration in colorectal cancer cells.

Gemma has presented her preliminary results on a poster at the "The Role of the IGF System in Cancer" conference in Sicily, Italy, in November 2005, to the Cancer Research UK groups at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, and to the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.

Gemma's study tours have been made possible with support from the Preventative Health Flagship and CMHT.

UPDATE home

Message from the Director

Microscope System Keeps Count for Colorectal Cancer Studies

New protection for health-promoting probiotics

Preventative health focus at Australian Innovation Festival

Oxford lab experience for Flagship PhD student

Preventative Health Presentations/Publications for February 2006 to June 2006

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