Pharmacogenomics - PhD and honours Projects - Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics
Project Type
PhD
Summary
It is with some certainty that over the next 20 years we will see huge advances in the area of personalized therapies for disease. This will come about due to the improved ability to detect and interpret specific molecular attributes of an individuals' disease condition. Along these lines, Dr Waltham's main area of interest is pharmacogenomics, a discipline which incorporates bioinformatic approaches to the cataloguing and processing of information relating to pharmacology and genetics. It is applied to identify drug targets, examining the 'molecular patterns' found in patients' samples, and to the study of how genes affect a person's response to drugs.
Principle disease interests of the Pharmacogenomics Lab are cancer and diabetes. We have four main project areas: (1) Anti-cancer and anti-metastasis drug development, (2) Gene expression profiling of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis, (3) Diabetic complications, and (4) Bioinformatics. Studies are funded by various philanthropic organizations, NHMRC and JDRF. PhD projects are available to well qualified applicants in each of the project areas at various times of the year. Interested students can contact Dr. Mark Waltham directly for specific information.