Dr Watkins is a physician-scientist involved in full-time basic and translational research for the last 15 years.  His basic research interests focus on the fields of cancer, epigenetics, developmental and molecular biology.  In translational research, he is recognised for his work on lung cancer and medulloblastoma, which formed part of the early studies identifying Hedgehog inhibitors as potential cancer therapeutics.  Presently, his clinical practice is as a general physician at the Monash Medical Centre, where he is actively involved in medical student teaching and postgraduate training.  He currently holds the positions of Professor of Cancer Biology and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the Monash Institute of Medical Research, and is Research Director of the Monash Comprehensive Cancer Consortium.

Dr. Mei Krishnasamy
Thursday 3rd May 8.30am - NZNO Programme

Mei is a chief investigator on several competitively won research grants and supports nurses to undertake practice-focused research activity across PeterMac. She enjoys a national and international profile as an invited speaker at cancer nursing and supportive care conferences. She is currently President of the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia and co-editor of the Australian Journal of Cancer Nursing.

Jo completed her PhD at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and was subsequently awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Peter Doherty Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne. Following her return to Auckland in 2005 she established a small independent research group at the Liggins Institute. Her research focus is on the role of autocrine human growth hormone in the development and progression of cancer. Specific interest lies in the mechanistic interactions of this hormone with conventional therapeutics used clinically. She is currently co-group leader of the Breast Cancer Research Group at the Liggins Institute

Phil's work has focused on developing novel T cell based immunotherapy approaches for cancer in preclinical mouse models and translating this into patients. In particular, he has shown that adoptive transfer of gene-engineered mouse and human T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors could specifically eradicate cancer in mice. This approach in now being tested in cancer patients at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Paul moved to Wellington 2007 with his young family. He has a passion for extending nursing capabilities within cancer services and supports and encourages innovative nursing practice and quality improvement that benefit cancer patients.

Barry holds an interest in collaborative models of practice, particularly those that work across tertiary/ secondary and primary care settings to meet patient and family and whanau need, be that in the area of palliative or cancer care. He is enjoying his return to the discipline of cancer nursing and sees his experiences in specialist palliative care as very applicable to the current challenges we face in developing nursing in cancer care.

Chris Jackson is a Consultant Medical Oncologist with the Southern Blood and Cancer Service (Southern DHB) and Senior Lecturer in Medicine with the University of Otago. After graduating he commenced early post-graduate training in Wellington, Hutt and Kenepuru Hospitals before returning to Dunedin to specialise in Medical Oncology. He was awarded the Graham Aitken Nuffield travelling Scholarship to complete his Fellowship in the United Kingdom. He initially took up a position as Clinical Research Fellow in the Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and was later appointed to Locum Consultant at the Trust. Over this time, he oversaw the development and opening of a satellite Royal Marsden treatment service imbedded in a local hospital environment. Returning to New Zealand for family and lifestyle reasons, he commenced his present post in 2008. He is currently lead for Cancer Trials at the Southern Blood and Cancer Centre, an active investigator in several collaborative clinical studies, Principal Investigator in the Cancer Immunology Therapeutics Research Group at the University of Otago, and Scientific Advisor  to Cancer Trials NZ and the Centre for Translational Cancer Research. Chris is currently Chair of the South Island Bowel Cancer Working Group and a member of the National Bowel Cancer Work Group. Current projects include Genetics of Chemotherapy Toxicity, Immunotherapies in Colorectal Cancer, and he is the Clinical Lead for the PIPER colorectal cancer outcomes project. 

Dr Jacqui Keenan
Thursday 3rd May 4.10pm - NZSO Programme

Dr Keenan completed her PhD at the University of Otago Christchurch in 1997. Since then she has been employed as a researcher in the Academic Department of Surgery in Christchurch, where she established the Helicobacter Research Group. The main focus of the group's research is Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that infects approximately 50% of people worldwide. Dr Keenan's particular research interest relates to the composition of the small outer membrane vesicles (OMV) constitutively shed from the surface of these non-invasive bacteria. The group has demonstrated vesicle shedding in vivo, and identified that one potential function of vesicles is the delivery of bacterial virulence factors to host cells. Furthermore, when the OMV are from a toxigenic strain of H. pylori, cellular DNA damage is observed. Building on these findings, Dr Keenan's research has broadened to include other strains of Gram-negative bacteria that colonise the human colon, to better understand if the presence of toxin-producing strains of bacteria might constitute a previously unrecognised risk factor for the development of colorectal cancers.

Associate Professor Robin Anderson heads the Metastasis Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and has, for the past 14 years, been investigating the genetic regulation of the metastatic process, with a focus on breast cancer. Her interests are in the development of clinically valid mouse models of metastatic disease to allow identification of the genes that regulate metastasis and to develop molecular targeted therapies for advanced cancer.  Her academic career began by training in Agricultural Science at The University of Melbourne before embarking a PhD in biochemistry at La Trobe University.  The next 15 years were spent overseas, first at Stanford University, then at the MRC Cyclotron Unit in London followed by a second stint at Stanford University.  It was during the first postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford that she switched from plant biochemistry to oncology.  She is currently a Principal Research Fellow at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, a Senior Research Fellow of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, honorary Associate Professor at The University of Melbourne and Editor of the journal Clinical & Experimental Metastasis.

Dr Jodi Saunus is a Molecular Cancer Biologist based at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research in Brisbane, Australia. Her research is focused on identifying mechanisms underlying cancer metastasis to the brain, with special interests in breast cancer and identifying druggable targets in advanced metastatic disease. Jodi's academic career began in the lab of Professor Melissa Brown, working on regulation of the BRCA1 breast cancer susceptibility gene. She was awarded a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Queensland in 2006. She now works with Breast Pathologist, Professor Sunil Lakhani, driving a collaborative brain metastasis research program. This work involves developing in vitro and mouse models of the brain metastatic microenvironment in order to identify and validate candidate genes and signaling pathways involved in metastatic progression and colonization. The program also involves high-resolution molecular profiling of human brain metastases using next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing technologies.

Richard leads the Carbohydrate Chemistry group at Industrial Research Limited (IRL), one of New Zealand's Crown Research institutes. His world-renowned team of 36 research chemists is focused on the discovery and commercialization of 'Glycotherapeutics'-drugs and dietary supplements based upon knowledge of the role of carbohydrate molecules in biological processes. They partner nationally and internationally for biology and biochemistry. As New Zealand's leading applied organic chemistry capability, they also assist NZ industries with the development of a range of new high value products and manufacturing processes. GlycoSyn, IRL's process development and cGMP manufacturing business unit arose from, and as is aligned with, Richard's team. It undertakes groundbreaking work for Australasian biotech companies in cost effectively producing new drugs for clinical trials.

Richard began his career in the Chemistry Division of DSIR in 1980 after completing his PhD in Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington with Professor Robin Ferrier and subsequent Post-Doctoral work with Professor Fred Shafizadeh at University of Montana in the USA. Richard is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and was awarded the Hector Medal in 2006. He has authored 193 original papers and 25 reviews or book chapters.