RESEARCHER PROFILE
Dr Mark Adams, Senior Research Fellow
School of Biomedical Sciences & Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Dr. Mark Adams is a researcher at Queensland University of Technology, working within the School of Biomedical Sciences and Faculty of Health, as well as the Centre of Genomics and Personalised Health. He has been with the university for the past decade, and his main research focus is on lung cancers. Dr. Adams completed his undergraduate studies at the Queensland University of Technology and then went on to earn his PhD based at the Mater Research Institute at the Mater hospital. His PhD focused on prostate cancer and specifically looked at developing drugs that would stop the metastasis of prostate cancer towards the bone.
After completing his PhD, Dr. Adams returned to Queensland University of Technology to commence a postdoctoral fellowship. During his fellowship, he looked at lung cancer and how our genomes are maintained through a process called DNA repair. Dr. Adams has been successful in attracting funding to support his salary through fellowship support from foundations such as Cure Cancer, National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Queensland government.
Dr. Adams’ research focus is on lung cancer, which is the deadliest of all cancers worldwide. He is working towards developing personalised approaches to pinpoint a therapy that is going to be most effective for the person with that disease. Dr. Adams’ research is focusing on chemotherapy and targeted therapy, and he is trying to identify upfront which of those tumours are likely to be resistant to the therapy. He then identifies strategies that will resensitize or increase the sensitivity of the tumour to the standard of care that is targeted therapy or chemotherapy.
Dr. Adams’ research is driven by his fascination with trying to understand how something works and, in particular, understanding cells and the molecular mechanisms underpinning how those cells work. He has always been interested in biology and was drawn to the problem of cancer and what’s going on in those tumour cells that promote tumorigenesis.
Dr. Adams has a young family with three kids, all in primary school. He enjoys downhill mountain biking in the forest and playing futsal on Monday nights.
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CASE STUDY High blood pressure and shorter sleep may worsen brain decline
People with high blood pressure who also lack sleep may be at increased risk of reduced cognitive performance and greater brain injury, Monash University research has found.
Published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers assessed whether the combined effect of hypertension and short sleep duration had a negative impact on brain health.
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Leukaemia microenvironment & high risk childhood leukaemia
Associate Professor Laurence Cheung is now an Associate Professor at the Curtin Medical School as well as Curtin Medical Research Institute, and a Co-head of the Leukaemia Translational Research Laboratory at The Kids.
He has attracted over $8.7 million in research funding, including 16 awards as CIA (over $6.1 million). Assoc Prof Cheung was named the 2019 Cancer Council of WA Early Career Cancer Researcher of the Year and received the STEM Early Career Research Award at Curtin University in 2019.
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Patient reported outcomes in the diagnosis and treatment of lymphoma
Dr. Elizabeth Goodall (BMedSci Hons, MBBS Hons, FRACP, FRCPA) is a PhD student and early career researcher with La Trobe University and the Olivia Newton John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI), and Haematologist at Austin Health and Monash Health, Melbourne.
Her specific interest in how patients experience their illness and treatment forms the basis for her research in improving patient outcomes. This research comes at a pivotal time in modern lymphoma management with an ever-increasing number of treatment options available and renewed focus on each patient’s journey.
