Project title
Defining clinical markers of chemoresistance as a diagnostic for metastasis
Supervisory Team
Principal Supervisor: Dr Adrian Wiegmans
Associate Supervisor: Dr Arutha Kulasinghe
Project description
Kate wants to understand how DNA damage repair is regulated in circulating tumour cells and whether it enhances innate chemoresistance of cancer cells while in blood circulation. She aims to formulate distinct transcriptome and proteome profiles of model cell lines which represent key stages of disease progression leading up to metastasis – development of chemoresistance and survival in blood circulation. Using these findings, Kate wants to identify several molecular biomarker candidates which could be used in liquid biopsy for early detection of emerging chemoresistance and metastasis.
Short biography
Kate completed her degrees in Biomedical Science at the Philipp University of Marburg – one of the oldest universities in Europe. She then moved back to Australia and joined the Cancer & Ageing Research Program. In 2021, she was awarded a QUT Postgraduate Research Award (QUTPRA) and started her PhD focusing on chemoresistance in triple negative breast cancer.
Education
2020 Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Biomedical Science, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
2018 Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Biomedical Science, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany