We are dedicated to understanding and improving health and disease outcomes for New Zealanders
Our work aims to provide important tools for health professionals and diagnostic services to inform diagnoses and treatment of significant disease.
We harness precision medicine and molecular pathology to:
- Characterise colorectal cancer, progression and metastatic drivers
- Understand the interaction between immune cell activation, inflammation and epigenetic change as a driver of disease development
- Investigate perinatal depression, diet and the microbiome
- Understand epigenetic and genetic drivers in the development of uterine leiomyoma
- Explore nanopore DNA sequencing diagnostic and prognostic-based solutions for cancer
We work alongside the expertise of colleagues in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, and with clinical specialists at the frontline of health services.
Our people
Researchers
Postgraduate students
Research strengths
Molecular Pathology
We focus on understanding the molecular basis of cancer development and metastasis. We use cell lines to model cancer pathogenesis and understand how environmental factors such as inflammation can act to drive cancer development.
We also consider the influence of lifestyle, wellness and comorbidities on disease progression, specifically cancer, neurological disorders (ADHD and perinatal depression) and microbiome dysfunction. Alongside this we explore the impact of environmental stressors (toxins, immune derived oxidants, diet and stress) on gene expression and function.
Precision Medicine
We are harnessing NGS technology to characterise and understand cancer subtypes to aid in prognosis and treatment choice in kidney cancer and in B cell malignancies. This project is designed to better meet the needs of the end users, this includes the clinical specialists who will input into the panel design so it is informed by, and of relevance to, their daily practice.
This work is also vital to the diagnostic laboratories who are currently overwhelmed and do not have sufficient resources or capacity to carry out necessary research to employ new diagnostic solutions.
Our funders
- Health Research Council
- Research for Life (Wellington)
- Helen Alexander Bequest
Lab alumni
- Katie Cory-Wright
- Alix Grooby
- Zichen He
- Caitlin MacArthur