Mass cytometry (CyTOF) technology in cancer drug research | Dr Charis Teh

Mass cytometry (CyTOF) technology captures the cellular gymnastics of survival and killer proteins in blood cancers after drug treatment.

DR CHARIS TEH
Victorian Cancer Agency Mid-Career Postdoctoral Fellow
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

The mass cytometry (CyTOF) technology is a breakthrough new technology that can provide new insights into complex biological systems. It allows high-throughput detection of up to 100 characteristics on a single cell, more than five times the amount of data generated by existing technology. We coupled this technology with probes to simultaneously detect cell death, cell cycle, cell signalling and cancer-related pathways before and after drug treatment in three different B cell malignancies. Deep profiling using CyTOF shed light on the life/death decision pathways of cancerous blood cells, revealing why certain patients are sensitive/resistant and offering new drug combinations that could be explored in clinical trials.

Dr Charis Teh is a Victorian Cancer Agency Mid-Career Research Fellow at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Charis received a BSc from ANU (2007), MPH from University of Sydney (2014) and PhD from the ANU (2012). She has developed technical expertise and knowledge in immunology, cancer, cell death, and the mass cytometry technology at world-renowned laboratories - Prof Garry Nolan (Stanford University), Associate Prof Daniel Gray (WEHI) and Prof Christopher Goodnow (ANU). She is currently channelling her efforts to understand how cancers subvert cell death and immune mechanisms, and how this can be harnessed for treatment.