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Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program

4 Minute read

The Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program is a supplementary learning opportunity to enrich your graduate research experience. The program offers an opportunity to share your research with other disciplines and expand your peer network.

You can find existing Graduate Research courses using our Find a Course search tool.

The Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program provides specialist cancer research training and support for PhD candidates. It complements your core PhD activities.

The program provides a unique opportunity for PhD candidates researching cancer-related topics to work together. It attracts PhD candidates from a range of disciplines.

To be eligible, you must be enrolled as a PhD student in a partner organisation. Together, these organisations form the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) alliance. Through this program, you will experience clinical and research activities across the alliance.

Upon completion, you will be ready to conduct world-class cancer research. The program will also prepare you for a wide range of career options. It does this by broadening the scope of your research knowledge. And by providing professional development and career training programs.

What are the key benefits?

Through the Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program, you will:

  • experience clinical and research activities across the ten partners of the VCCC alliance
  • understand the bench-to-bedside model. This model is fundamental to the VCCC approach to integrated research.
  • enhance your academic progress and stay on track for timely completion of your PhD thesis
  • access professional development and career training opportunities. These opportunities will prepare you for a broad range of career options.
  • build your CV and give yourself a career advantage. Gain formal recognition of specialist cancer training and professional skills. You will receive a record of participation at the end of your candidature.
  • access the Program’s online ‘Community’ resource. You will stay informed of activities. And you can access recordings of past seminars and events.
  • network with students who have common research interests, from other organisations in the VCCC alliance.

Who facilitates this program?

  • Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology
  • University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research .

Through the program, you will build your CV and obtain a career advantage. You will have access to a coordinated program of skills, research and career training. This is in addition to your usual PhD activities.

Academic skills development

  • Cancer-specific seminars and presentations
  • Annual 'Methods in Cancer Research' seminar series
  • core technologies
  • intellectual property and commercialisation
  • good clinical practice
  • Annual three-day Thesis Boot Camp. This helps with writing your thesis and submitting it on time.
  • Evaluation and discussion of scientific journal articles

Professional and career development

  • Topics include networking, leadership, managing your candidature/supervisor, and preparing grant and fellowship applications.
  • How to get the most out of a mentoring/coaching relationship.
  • Getting help to identify internship and placement opportunities with industry/external groups.

Communication skills development

  • preparing conference abstracts and posters
  • writing and presentation
  • Teaching opportunities, including the supervision of work placement students
  • Community engagement activities.

Research seminar series

  • Hallmark event for the Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program.
  • Annual seminar series delivered in themed blocks of lectures.
  • Each theme emphasises the bench-to-bedside model. It incorporates a range of topics from basic, translational and clinical research and impact on clinical outcomes.
  • Past topics include: cancer immunology, cancer genetics and genomics, oncogenes and tumour suppressors, and pillars of cancer care.

Student Symposium

  • Annual event held by postgraduate student societies. This event showcases student research as oral and poster presentations.

Grand debate

  • Annual cancer-themed debate with participants from VCCC alliance organisations.

Chat with a Nobel Laureate

  • Annual Q&A-style event with a Nobel Laureate.
  • Social events and opportunities to connect with graduate researchers from other organisations. These people may have similar research interests to you.

Participate

To be eligible for this program, you must be:

  • working on a cancer-related PhD project
  • enrolled at one of the organisations of the VCCC alliance.

Download the program brochure to find out more.

Contact us for more information, or to join the program.

VCCC alliance organisations

  • Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
  • The University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research
  • The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
  • Murdoch Children's Research Institute
  • The Royal Melbourne Hospital
  • The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne
  • The Royal Women's Hospital
  • St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
  • St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research
  • Austin Health
  • Olivia Newton John Cancer Research Institute
  • Western Health
  • Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre

First published on 21 February 2022.

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About the lab.

My lab’s research focuses on blood cancers – leukaemias, lymphomas and myeloma. My research aims to understand these diseases and to develop new treatments for them.

My lab works hand-in-glove with David Huang’s laboratory. We collaborate closely with other labs in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancers Division, and with other groups as part of the Overcoming Blood Cancer Resistance program funded through an NHMRC Synergy grant.

We are a dynamic mix of Science graduates and clinician scientists, and include post-docs, research assistants and PhD students.

Our mission

Currently there are some blood cancers for which our treatments are very inadequate, and people who suffer from these leukaemia’s, lymphomas and myelomas urgently need new breakthrough therapies.

Our goal is to discover new vulnerabilities in these blood cancers so we can work out how to exploit these “”Achilles Heels”” to make major advances. We seek to understand what makes blood cancers tick, in order to shut them down, first in the lab, then in clinical trials and then hopefully as regular treatment.

Defined the physiological functions of intracellular signalling proteins, RAC2 and SOCS3. Defined the potential of the first BH3-mimetic (ABT-737) to induce apoptosis in specific blood cancers and blood cells. Defined the potential of a BCL2-specific BH3 mimetic ABT-199 (venetoclax), to kill CLL cells while sparing platelets. Proved the mechanism-of-action of venetoclax in patients, and its independence from TP53. Defined the clinical safety and efficacy of venetoclax alone and in combination with monoclonal antibodies, BTK inhibitors, or chemotherapy in clinical trials. Defined heterogenous mechanisms-of-resistance to venetoclax in patients. Identified the potential for MCL1 selective inhibitors to kill specific blood cancer cells.

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My team is passionate about making a difference, so their work is team-based and outcome-focussed. We work in close partnership with David Huang’s lab, with several key co-appointments. We also collaborate with colleagues in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancers division and across WEHI and with clinical partners in The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

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