Cancer Council NSW has presented a $447,000 project grant to Dr Jessamy Tiffen, Head of the Centenary Institute’s ‘Melanoma Epigenetics Laboratory’.
The grant will be used by Dr Tiffen to investigate new treatment approaches for patients with advanced stage melanoma.
“Sadly, the majority of advanced melanoma patients will suffer relapse and die from the disease,” Dr Tiffen says.
“There is an urgent need to identify new drugs for those individuals with no treatment options and to develop new drugs that can prevent recurrence of tumours.”
Dr Tiffen’s project focuses on the investigation of the histone methylation process which she believes plays an important role in driving treatment resistance in melanoma.
“Histone methylation involves protein activity around your DNA that can change the way your genes are expressed and can lead to changes in cell behaviours.
“We believe that abnormal levels of histone methylation in both melanoma cells and dysfunctional immune cells could be causing resistance to treatment.”
More on the investigation
Dr Tiffen will be testing different approaches to control histone methylation in melanoma. She hopes the research will lead to new drug treatments.
Professor Mathew Vadas AO, the Centenary Institute’s Executive Director says, “The Centenary operates at the very forefront of this exciting aspect of melanoma research in Australia and I congratulate Dr Tiffen who has been awarded this important funding.
“I look forward to seeing the outcomes of this research which has the potential to help reduce the tragic loss of life associated with melanoma in this country.”
