Melanoma Research

Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world. Only one in 20 people with advanced melanoma survive. Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer and is highly therapy resistant, reasons of which are poorly understood.

Project Leader: Dr Nikolas Haass

Dr Haass is a clinician scientist who graduated summa cum laude with a PhD in Cell Biology (University Heidelberg). His thesis was completed in Professor Franke’s laboratory (German Cancer Research Centre) where Dr Haass cloned a novel gene, pantophysin, characterised its function and showed its role in early embryonal development. This work resulted in several high-impact publications and was honoured by the American Society for Cell Biology with the Worthington-Award.

During his dermatology training (University Hamburg), he participated in several multi-centre trials for melanoma therapy. His research on cell communication in skin cancer was honoured with the “Award for Outstanding Work of Young Researchers in Dermatology”. As postdoctoral fellow (German Research Foundation-funded) in Professor Herlyn’s laboratory (Wistar Institute, Philadelphia), Dr Haass made numerous important contributions to understanding cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions of melanoma with its microenvironment and signalling pathways in melanoma, particularly with regards to identifying novel therapies. He developed a novel 3D spheroid melanoma model in collaboration with Dr Smalley.

Since 2007, Dr Haass has been a Cameron Melanoma Research Fellow. Dr Haass’s papers have a large impact in the field (approximately 700 citations in total). The Mol Cancer Ther, Cancer Res and PNAS papers were evaluated by Faculty 1000 Biology as “recommended” and “exceptional” and the Pigment Cell Res paper was one of the most cited ones of the journal.

Research Focus

As part of the Immune Imaging Group headed by Professor Wolfgang Weninger, the research focus on melanoma at the Centenary Institute is on real-time imaging of melanoma cells in 3D culture and in vivo. As a key member of this team, Dr Haass has special interests in subpopulations of melanoma cells and their response to therapy.

Project: Real-time cell cycle analysis of melanoma

This project will investigate how differences in the growth capacity of melanoma cells in different tumour regions contribute to therapy resistance. The team will use a novel microscopic system that allows the researchers to visualise division of individual melanoma cells in intact tumours in real time. Using this system, the researchers will test the effects of targeted therapies on melanoma cell growth and survival.