“The Fellowship schemes from Cancer Council Victoria are vital for early career researchers like me. Grant funding is competitive, and it can be hard to compete with experience researchers. It’s through these programs that we can build our research profiles and establish our own research programs independently.”
Dr Laura Porter is one of four Postdoctoral Research Fellowship recipients, whose research grant is funded by compassionate Victorians like you. The Fellowship will provide Dr Porter with the financial security she needs to pursue her groundbreaking research over the next three years.
Working in the prostate cancer research group at Monash University, led by Prof. Gail Risbidger and Prof. Renea Taylor, Dr Porter is establishing herself as a translational researcher, bridging the gap between general science and the clinic.
As part of her research, Dr Porter is hoping to improve the use of CAR T cell therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer in Victorian men with 5,800 new diagnoses every year.
CAR T cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy where a patient’s ‘killer T cells’ are harvested from their blood and re-engineered in the lab to specifically recognise cancer cells. The T cells are infused into the patient where they traffic throughout the body to identify and kill cancer cells that they encounter.
“CAR T cell therapy is a really exciting treatment for cancer, that has been extremely effective in the treatment of some blood cancers. However, so far it has been far less effective for the treatment of solid tumours, including prostate cancer,” said Dr Porter.
“Prostate tumours have a hostile environment that prevents the CAR T cells from killing the cancer cells. There are a lot of different physical and chemical barriers that prevent the CAR T cells entering the tumour and, even once they’re in there, the CAR T cells can become exhausted and do not function properly.”
By combining CAR T cells with a ‘modulating agent’, Dr Porter’s research has shown that they can change the hostile environment allowing the CAR T cells to survive for longer and have a greater effect, resulting in the eradication of prostate tumours.
“However, a problem is that tumours from different patients can respond differently to different treatment strategies. We are hoping to identify a treatment strategy that can be used to allow many different patients to respond to CAR T cell therapy, which we can hopefully translate into clinical trials.
“We’re using two different approaches. One is to identify new modifying agents that will work on that tumour environment to help the CAR T cells target the cancer cells. And the other approach is to incorporate some exciting new CAR T cell technology.”
Dr Porter and her team are working closely with the Cancer Immunology program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, including Prof Phil Darcy and Prof Joe Trapani, who are providing next generation CAR T cells to support this research. By combining the most cutting-edge CAR T cells with the best treatment strategies, they’re hoping to establish new approaches for CAR T cell therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer
“I’m very fortunate to work in a multi-disciplinary team, where we bring together the expertise of prostate cancer researchers, like myself, with people who are experts in cancer immunology and cancer immunotherapy, and we’re combining our knowledge to try and improve this treatment for patients with prostate cancer,” said Dr Porter.
“Most of us know somebody who’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer, myself included, which makes it very personal. Prostate cancer affects the lives of many patients and their families in Australia, and that's why we do this work, so we can hopefully improve the outcomes for these patients. And improve their experience as well.”
Cancer Council Victoria’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowships support early career researchers who have not received significant research funding to undertake research into the causes, prevention, detection, treatment, or care of cancer.
Supporting early career researchers like Dr Porter is vital to not only advancing innovative cancer research but also advancing the career of future leaders in cancer research.
Thanks to the generosity of Victorians, some of the state’s best early-career cancer researchers can accelerate their pursuit of tomorrow’s lifesaving treatments.
Together, we are empowering the next generation of cancer researchers
Every donation towards early career researchers is an investment in the future. Together, we can empower Postdoctoral Fellows to make transformative discoveries that will benefit people affected by cancer worldwide.
Donate Now
<Back to Breakthrough August 2024