School of Medical Sciences ACSRC Research groups

Read more about our current research groups:

You may also be interested in Dr Hicks' research with Pre-clinical models

Experimental Therapeutics Group

Exploiting the tumour microenvironment to improve cancer targeting and therapy.

Extravascular transport of anticancer agents Professor Bill Wilson and Dr Kevin Hicks	PR104 and related dinitrobenzamide mustard prodrugs Professor Bill Wilson and Dr Adam Patterson
Hypoxia-selective prodrugs of minor groove alkylators Dr Frederik Pruijn	SN 30000 and related tirapazamine analogues as hypoxia-selective anticancer drugs Professor Bill Wilson, Dr Kevin Hicks and Dr Jingli Wang

Read more about the Experimental Therapeutics Group

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Medicinal Chemistry Group

Design, synthesis and development of new drugs for the treatment of cancer, tuberculosis and immunosuppression.

Development of novel tuberculosis drugs Associate Professor Brian Palmer	Selective DNA alkylating agents Dr Moana Tercel
Free Radical Research (FRR) Group Associate Professor Bob Anderson	Selective Inhibitors of Phoso-inositide 3-Kinases Professor Bill Denny, Associate Professor Gordon Rewcastle and Dr Jackie Kendall
Molecular Modelling Dr Jack Flannagan	Targeting hypoxia and HIF-1 Associate Professor Mike Hay
P erforin Inhibitors Dr Julie Spicer	Next generation bioreductive prodrugs Dr Jeff Smaill
T argeting neglected tropical diseases Dr Andrew Thompson

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Mutagen Testing Group

Project Leader: Professor Lynn Ferguson

Assessment of genetic consequences of anticancer drugs and biomonitoring of potential occupational hazards	Optimising dietary strategies for cancer prevention, using in vitro and in vivo models
Mutagen testing services for New Zealand entrepreneurs

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Stromal Targeting Group

Project Leader: Associate Professor Lai-Ming Ching

Development of novel cancer therapies that target the tumour stroma.

Targeting the inflammatory cell infiltrate with IMiDs	Targeting tryptophan metabolising enzymes to reverse tumour-mediated immune suppression
Targeting the tumour vasculature with DMXAA

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Translational Therapeutics Team

Project Leader: Dr Adam Patterson

The discovery and development of novel anticancer therapies including small molecules and biological agents.

'Armed' conditionally replicating vector

Optimised enzymes for prodrug activating gene therapy

Hypoxia-selective multikinase inhibitors

Optimised prodrugs for gene therapy

Identification of human oxidoreductases that activate bioreductive agents

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Tumour Biology Group

Project Leader: Professor Bruce Baguley

The development of topoisomerase inhibitors and determination of their mechanism of action, analysing the effect drugs have on the cell cycle, and the investigation of resistance mechanisms.

Growth of tumour cells from cancer patients	New inhibitors of cancer cell signalling pathways
Inhibitors of the enzyme topoisomerase II	Tumour vascular directed therapy
Assessing the effectiveness of small molecule inhibitors on breast cancer cell growth