Download Biomedicine Discovery Seminar

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Biomedicine Discovery Seminar
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute in conjunction with
Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium
Fibrosis, Cancer and the Pre-Metastatic Niche:
Implications for ECM Remodelling in Cancer Progression
and Metastasis
Tuesday 27 June, 2017
Presenter
Dr Thomas Cox
12.00 – 1.00 pm
Level 3 Seminar Room
15 Innovation Walk
Clayton campus
Abstract
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a master regulator of cellular
phenotype and behaviour. It plays a critical role in both normal
tissue homeostasis and pathological disease progression. Both the
biochemical and biomechanical properties of the ECM contribute to
modulating the behaviour of resident cells and are more than just
passive bystanders. In tissue diseases such as cancer, the ECM
undergoes significant change. These changes, driven by resident
tumour cells, feed into the pathological progression of the disease.
As such, changes in the ECM mark significant transition events in
disease progression. Understanding how the changing ECM
facilitates tumour progression and metastasis is an important step
in the development of new therapeutic approaches for the
treatment of cancer.
PhD, BSc
Matrix and Metastasis Group, The Garvan
Institute of Medical Research
About the presenter
Thomas is a cancer cell biologist working in the field of the
extracellular matrix (ECM) and ECM remodelling in the progression
and metastasis of solid tumours. Thomas graduated with a Ph.D.
from the University of Durham, UK in 2008 and immediately moved
to the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London as a PostDoc.
In 2012, he relocated to Copenhagen University in Denmark to
continue his research in the laboratory of Professor Janine Erler.
Thomas then moved to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in
Sydney Australia at the end of 2016 to set up his own group.
Thomas currently leads the Matrix and Metastasis Group at the
Garvan Institute, Kinghorn Cancer Centre. His group focuses on
the role of Lysyl Oxidase (LOX) and Lysyl Oxidase Like (LOXL)
family members in regulating both the biochemical and
biomechanical properties of the ECM during fibrosis, cancer
progression and metastasis.
www.monash.edu/discovery-institute
CRICOS Provider: Monash University 00008C.