Professor Michael Samuel is a cell biologist whose research interest is in understanding how cancer mechanobiology influences the tumour microenvironment, thereby promoting tumour progression. He is Professor of Matrix Biology at the University of South Australia, Adelaide and heads the Tumour Microenvironment Laboratory at the Centre for Cancer Biology and the Cancer Mechanotherapies Laboratory at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research.

Dr Beck is an international leader in the effects of mechanical loading on bone health. Dr Beck graduated from The University of Queensland (BHMS[Ed]) and the University of Oregon (MSc and PhD) and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Stanford University School of Medicine (California, USA.) She is a Professor of Exercise Science at Griffith University Gold Coast campus, where she has led the Bone Densitometry Research Laboratory since 2004.

A landmark study led by WEHI and La Trobe University has found a potential new diagnostic marker that could be used to better detect the level of tissue damage in our bodies.

This study revealed, for the first time, a link between levels of EVs in the blood and tissue damage caused by diseases such as leukaemia.

Researchers hope to leverage the critical new insight to develop a blood test to monitor cancer patients with tissue damage, which could, in future, enhance treatment strategies for blood cancers and other diseases.