Reproductive Cancer Group
Understanding the cross-talk between ovarian cancer cells and the tumour micro-environment may allow us to understand how ovarian cancer spreads, its resistance to chemotherapy, and how to identify novel biomarkers for ovarian cancer detection and novel therapeutic targets for treatment.
The Reproductive Cancer Group builds on an exciting and unique discovery by Dr Ricciardelli—that an extracellular matrix protein called versican correlates with cancer spread in prostate and breast cancer. This discovery suggests that cancer cells utilise proteins from the surrounding stromal cells to aid their movement and has led to versican protein expression being examined in many different cancer types.
Our current studies focus on the interactions of peritoneal cancer and ovarian cancer, and the mechanisms of how tumour cells communicate with the tumour micro-environment to promote motility, tumour spread and chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer.
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Lead researcher
Dr Carmela Ricciardelli
Dr Carmela Ricciardelli is a cancer cell biologist in the Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Adelaide. She has been awarded several highly competitive fellowships from Cancer Council SA including the Lin Huddleston Ovarian Cancer Fellowship (2015-2020), which has enabled her to build a reproductive cancer research group in the Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the University of Adelaide.
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Research team
Research team
Role
Co-group leader
Post-doctoral researcher
Tannith Noye - PhD candidate
Student
Zoe Price - PhD candidate
Student
Wanqi Wang - PhD candidate
Student
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Partnerships
- Professor Ray Rodgers - Robinson Research Institute
- Professor Simon Barry - Robinson Research Institute
- Professor Peter Hoffman - University of South Australia
- Professor Shudong Wang - University of South Australia
- Dr Hiroaki Kajiyama - University of Nagoya, Japan
- Professor Oliver Schilling - University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany
- Jane Rathjen - Carina Biotech
- Justin Coombs - Carina Biotech
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Related areas of research
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