Immune surveillance of growth factors in anti-tumour immunity | Dr Alexander Barrow

DR ALEXANDER BARROW
Senior Lecturer in Immune-oncology
Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Melbourne and Peter Doherty Institute

The Barrow lab is interested in how growth factors produced by malignant cells can activate anti-tumour immunity. For example, tumour cells produce platelet-derived growth factor D (PDGF-D) that can bind the NKp44 receptor, activating NK cell secretion of IFN-γ and TNF to prevent tumour cell proliferation (Barrow et al. Cell, 2018). However, the clinical relevance of this NK cell activation pathway for anti-tumour immunity and whether PDGF-D can activate other anti-tumour mechanisms, such as NK cell cytotoxicity, remain unclear. In order to answer these questions, the lab has adopted a combined approach using computational biology, immunohistochemistry, and cellular assays to define the role of PDGF-D in NK cell anti-tumour functions in vivo and ex vivo.

Dr Alexander Barrow, PhD (Bristol, UK) performed his postdoctoral training at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) before obtaining a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship which he used to travel to Marco Colonna’s lab at Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, USA. Alex is interested in how the immune system distinguishes malignant cells from normal healthy cells. Much of this work has focused on identifying ligands for orphan receptors expressed by natural killer (NK) cells and innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). In 2018, he showed that NK cells and ILCs express the activating NKp44 receptor that can sense platelet-derived growth factor D over-expressed by malignant cells to activate NK cell anti-tumour functions.

Dr Barrow is a newly appointed lab head and senior lecturer in immune-oncology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and chief investigator on a three-year MRFF research acceleration project grant to study the role of natural killer cells and growth factor immune surveillance in brain cancer. He has over 2700 scientific citations, three patents, and is the principal coordinator for two subjects; Frontiers in Human Disease (PATH30003) and Advanced Investigation of Human Disease (PATH30004), in the Pathology major.