Associate Professor Lisa Ebert, B.Sc. (Hons), PhD
Associate Professor Lisa Ebert (B.Sc. (Hons), PhD) is a clinically-oriented cancer research scientist, with a particular interest in immunology and cancer immunotherapy.
She completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, before undertaking post-doctoral research at the University of Bern (Switzerland) and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Melbourne). During this time, she developed particular experience in human immunology, cancer cell biology, multi-parameter flow cytometry and immune monitoring of cancer immunotherapy clinical trials.
She is now a Senior Research Fellow in the Translational Oncology Laboratory at the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB) - an alliance between UniSA and SA Pathology. Her research is aimed at understanding interactions between cancer cells and the immune system, and using this knowledge to improve cancer treatment. Recent projects have focused on identifying molecules that regulate blood vessel development in melanoma, developing new immunotherapy approaches for treating glioblastoma (brain tumours) and optimising the therapeutic efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma.
Current NRF-funded projects include:
Arming a patient’s immune system to treat aggressive brain cancer
Here, we aim to develop a new and highly targeted treatment for GBM using Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cells. This type of therapy uses a patient’s own immune system to attack their cancer cells and has shown remarkable success in treating some types of leukaemia. Our new data suggests that we may now be able to adapt this approach to treat GBM.
Optimising a new immunotherapy approach for glioblastoma
With the ongoing support of the NRF, Assoc Prof Ebert and her team are working on developing a new treatment for glioblastoma using CAR-T cells. This cutting-edge approach involves ‘super-charging’ a patient’s own immune cells to enable them to specifically destroy cancer cells. With encouraging pre-clinical results, this research is set to enter clinical trials in glioblastoma patients within the next 12-18 months.
