Applying genomics to tackle cancers of low survival and unmet need | Prof Sean Grimmond

PROFESSOR SEAN GRIMMOND
Director, UMCCR
Bertalli Chair of Cancer Medicine

Professor Grimmond’s research is committed to improving cancer patient outcome through cancer genome discovery, improved molecular detection & diagnosis, and using clinical genomics to accelerate novel interventions in cancer care.

His presentation covers three current areas of research:

• Improving the reference atlas of driver mutations and mutational mechanisms underlying all common malignancies as part of the ICGC-TCGA PCAWG program
• Progress on the UMCCR’s Cancer of Low survival & Unmet Need Initiative (COLUMN) – a strategic partnership with ILMN, focused on enabling programs that require rapid whole genome and/or transcriptome testing of challenging cancer patients
• Assessing the utility of ctDNA genomic profiling for cancer diagnosis and disease surveillance.

Sean Grimmond is Director of the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research, Departmental Head of Clinical Pathology in the Melbourne Medical School and holds the Bertalli Chair in Cancer Medicine. Over the last 20 years, he has pioneered the application of genomics tumorigenesis and mammalian development. Over the last decade, he led efforts within the ICGC to identify the mutagenic processes, driver mutations, and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities underlying many of our most challenging malignancies. More recently he and his colleagues have focused on creating clinical-genomic applications for cancer diagnosis, ex-vivo patient-matched cancer modelling and cancer genome discovery.