Prof. Gail Risbridger

Professor Risbridger is an International leader in prostate cancer and Men’s Health at Monash University, Melbourne. Through understanding stromal-epithelial cell signalling in the prostate, her pioneering work on human tumours identified therapy resistant stem cells and how they interact with tumour stroma. Her expertise in stem cell biology and endocrinology continues to underpin a world class program of patient derived xenografts (PDX) that are a key feature of her capacity to translate research outcomes. In the last 5 years her research discoveries using pre-clinical cancer models (PDX, organoids and explants) have included identifying therapy resistant, stem-like cells in treatment naïve tumours (Science Translational Medicine 2013) supporting the rationale for up front therapies (eg chemotherapy) in combination with hormone therapy and how genomic instability in distinct but clonally related cells leads to therapy resistance in BRCA2 mutation carriers making these patients unsuitable for active surveillance even with low grade, low volume tumours (Nature Biotechnology 2017, Nature Communications 2016, European J Urology 2014).