ROCK-INDUCED EARLY-ONSET BOWEL CANCER PROGRESSION
Professor Michael Samuel
Head, Tumour Microenvironment Laboratory
Centre for Cancer Biology
SA Pathology and University of South Australia &
Principal Investigator at the Cancer Mechanotherapies Laboratory,
Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Adelaide, South Australia | January 2025
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.
He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in 2004, working with Prof. Matthias Ernst at the Ludwig Institute. He then joined the laboratory of Prof. Mike Olson at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, with whom he identified the role of the Rho-ROCK signalling pathway in regulating tumour-promoting mechanical properties of the dermal extracellular matrix. He returned to Australia in 2012 to join the Centre for Cancer Biology as a Laboratory Head.
Discoveries from his laboratory include a role for the ER-stress protein CRELD2 in the recruitment and education of cancer-associated fibroblasts and the roles of Rho-ROCK signalling in the tumour immune microenvironment. He has been awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, an Emerging Leader Award by the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology (2020), the Barry Preston Award for leadership in the field, by the Matrix Biology Society of Australia and New Zealand (2021) and the Australian Breast Cancer Fellowship by The Hospital Research Foundation (2023).
In April 2024, Bowel Cancer Australia announced a team led by Professor Michael Samuel as the successful applicant for a three-year AUD$600k early-onset bowel cancer research project through the 2023 round of Cancer Australia’s Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme (PdCCRS).
Professor Samuel of the Centre for Cancer Biology (an alliance between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology) and the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research are investigating ROCK-induced early-onset bowel cancer progression.
His team will also be examining whether proteins that interact with ROCK cause early-onset bowel cancer progression, and if they do, targeting these proteins would be a way of stopping ROCK from accelerating tumour growth.
-
Non-invasive tools for CVD screening and monitoring
Dr Hadi Afsharan is a Research Fellow Cardiovascular Science & Diabetes at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research; is a translational research and innovation fellow in medical technologies at The University of Western Australia, holding dual titles as Translational Fellow and Innovation Fellow within UWA’s Medical School and the FHRI (Future Health Research and Innovation) program.
-
Post stroke brain recovery targeting blood flow and vessel health
Dr Daniel Beard is a Senior Lecturer and Group Leader of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of Newcastle, with a distinguished career in stroke research. Dr Beard completed his PhD in Human Physiology in 2015, uncovering the impact of intracranial pressure on collateral vessel failure. He has held prestigious research and teaching roles at the University of Oxford and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, contributing to international collaborations on neurovascular protection. His research has been supported by competitive grants, including an NHMRC Ideas Grant, and he has received numerous awards for innovation, research excellence and teaching excellence.
-
Muscle Cell Communication and Repair
Dr. William Roman is a Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University. He obtained his PhD from Paris Descartes University and Freie University of Berlin, focusing on nuclear positioning during skeletal muscle development. Dr. Roman’s research journey has taken him across the globe, including postdoctoral work in Barcelona, tissue engineering in Lisbon, and a brief stint at Stanford University.
At ARMI, Dr. Roman leads innovative research on intercellular communication within muscle organs. His work involves growing human muscles on chips to understand how skeletal muscle cells interact with neurons and tendons. This research aims to develop better models for studying muscle diseases, drug screening, and even applications in cellular agriculture and biorobotics.
