Professor Peter Hersey

Professor Peter Hersey has extensive experience in both clinical and laboratory based research on melanoma. This has been from positions as a staff specialist and as research director at the Newcastle melanoma unit and C/joint professor of Oncology in the University of Newcastle and from the inaugural chair of Melanoma Biology in the University of Sydney from 2011. His translational research activities have involved phase I-III trials of immunotherapy in melanoma, with modified peptide antigens and dendritic cell vaccines. He has taken a leading role in studies on properties of melanoma cells that make them resistant to treatment and new treatment approaches to overcome these properties. He is generally recognized as a pioneer of immunotherapy for melanoma in Australia and in focusing on properties of melanoma cells that make them resistant to apoptosis. He has participated in most of the key clinical trials on immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. He is a member of the Melanoma Research Institute of Australia and has received continuous funding from the NHMRC for his research. He is a joint holder of a prestigious NHMRC program grant since 2005 which has been renewed for a third 5 year period. Current interest centers on the role of epigenetic regulators in progression and treatment of melanoma.