A Children’s Medical Research Institute cancer biologist has been awarded a 2024 Ramaciotti Health Investment Grant as well as the prestigious Derek Hart Memorial Award for her work which aims to change the way children’s cancer is treated.
Dr Rebecca Poulos from CMRI’s ProCan team received the funding and award for her project – Enhancing Childhood Cancer Diagnostics with Targeted Proteomics via Mass Spectrometry.
As a cancer data scientist, Dr Poulos is interested in proteins. The types of proteins made by our cells can change when they become cancerous—these changes are potential markers to help diagnose and treat cancer.
“Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease in Australian children. There is an urgent need to improve precision medicine to advance outcomes in hard-to-treat paediatric cancers. Many diagnosis and treatment decisions in cancer are made by measuring proteins in tissue from biopsy,’’ Dr Poulos said.
Current testing is limited by sample availability and can take several weeks. In her project Dr Poulos wants to use mass spectrometry to study the protein of paediatric cancer samples, in order to produce a report for clinicians within 48 to 72 hours that would help them determine which treatment would be most effective.
“Proteins are the ultimate effectors of biological function. Proteins therefore have significant value as potential prognostic or predictive biomarkers. Proteins should better predict cancer treatment response than DNA or RNA because most anti-cancer drugs interact directly with proteins.’’
Dr Poulos will be designing an assay for 150 proteins that are important for childhood cancer, with a particular focus on hard-to-treat cancers.
“This would have immediate translational application, enhancing current diagnostics for childhood cancer. Rapid results would have clinical benefit by improving diagnostic accuracy and informing treatment options for precision medicine in childhood cancer.’’
She hopes that, if successful, this project could be in the clinic within five years and would also apply to some adult cancers.
Dr Poulos thanked Perpetual Trustee Company Limited as trustee for the Ramaciotti Foundation and the Ramaciotti Scientific Advisory Committee for the award.
“The fact that this grant will allow us to do something that is immediately translational means it will be able to have real impact.’’
Contributors to the project include CMRI’s ProCan Scientific Manager Dr Peter Hains, Prince of Wales Hospital and Children’s Cancer Institute paediatric pathologist Dr Andrew Gifford and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Staff Specialist paediatric oncologist Dr Bhavna Padhye.