Dr Kieran Harvey

Dr Kieran Harvey - Research at Peter Mac

“My laboratory studies organ size-control using the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which has been an incredibly powerful tool for biomedical research for more than a century. Major signalling pathways that specify the body plan and size of both vertebrates and invertebrates were first discovered in Drosophila, including the Notch, Hedgehog, Wingless/Wnt, and Salvador/Warts/Hippo pathways.”



RESEARCH GROUP:
Cell Growth and Proliferation Laboratory, Cancer Cell Biology Program,
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Link to Cell Growth & Proliferation Laboratory

RESEARCH POSITIONS:
Group Leader, Cell Growth and Proliferation Laboratory,
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Contact Details:
Phone: +61 (0)3 9656 1291
Email: kieran.harvey@petermac.org

ACADEMIC & SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATIONS AND HONOURS:
Honorary Fellow, Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne.
International Human Frontier Science Program Career Development Award Fellow, 2006-2009.
NHMRC of Australia Career Development Award Fellow, 2008-2012.
Victorian representative of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology, 2007-2009.

RESEARCH FOCUS
We are interested in mechanisms that control the size of developing organs, with a particular focus on the newly identified Salvador/Warts/Hippo pathway. We concentrate on how this pathway transduces signals, the tissues that it controls the size of, and its role in human diseases such as cancer.

AREAS OF RESEARCH INTEREST
Size control, Tissue growth, Proliferation, Apoptosis, Cancer, Drosophila melanogaster.

PERSONAL HISTORY
"My interest in Biology and research developed during my undergraduate days at the University of Adelaide. I was fascinated by recombinant DNA technology, embryonic development and control of cell proliferation. I performed Doctoral studies on the Nedd4 ubiquitin protein ligase between 1996 and 2000 in the laboratory of Prof. Sharad Kumar (Hanson Institute, Adelaide, Australia). I learnt a great deal about molecular biology during this time but by 2000 realised that I wanted to move my experimentation into an in vivo system. I felt that the most powerful model organism at the time was Drosophila melanogaster and so I commenced postdoctoral studies with Prof. Iswar Hariharan at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA 2001-2004) and subsequently at the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, USA, 2004-2005). During this time I participated in a large scale screen for genes that controlled cell growth and proliferation. The major discovery I was involved in was that of a novel growth control pathway; the Salvador-Warts-Hippo pathway, which we discovered to be a key determinant of organ size, as well as human tumorigenesis.

In 2006 I returned to Australia to establish my laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. My interest continues to lie in size control and how the signalling pathways that control size are deregulated in cancer. The majority of our research program utilizes the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, and we also employ mammalian cell culture and mouse models when applicable."

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS
  • 1999 – Together with the Kumar and Cook laboratories showed that the Nedd4 ubiquitin-ligase controls activity of epithelial sodium channels [Harvey, Cell Growth & Proliferation].

  • 2002 – Part of a team in the Hariharan laboratory that identified a novel signalling pathway that controlled tissue growth and tumorigenesis (now known as the Salvador/Warts/Hippo pathway) [Harvey, Cell Growth & Proliferation].

  • 2003 – identified the Hippo kinase as a protein that functioned together with Salvador and Warts to control tissue growth [Harvey, Cell Growth & Proliferation].

  • 2006 – Identified Fat cadherin as a transmembrane receptor protein for the Salvador/Warts/Hippo pathway [Harvey, Cell Growth & Proliferation].

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