Melanoma Research Laboratory

Melanoma Research Laboratory - Research at Peter Mac

The Melanoma Research Laboratory seeks to understand the basis of melanoma onset and progression, and to develop new therapies for this type of cancer.

Research focus

Normal melanocyte development.
Mechanisms of melanomagenesis.
Understanding melanoma progression.
Identification and testing of new treatments.

Above: a microscope image of a section of melanoma.

Research overview

In Australia, melanoma causes the second-most years of lost productive life from any cancer. It is thus a major public health concern in this country, as well as many other regions in the world. Our research program aims to identify ways to reduce the incidence of melanoma and to improve the outcomes of patients with established disease.

We underpin molecular studies of melanoma development and progression with detailed biological investigations, using in vivo models. Our primary focus currently is on studying the growth of human melanomas in immunocompromised mice that are highly permissive for revealing the malignant potential of cells (Nature 456:593). This in vivo tumourigenesis assay is remarkably efficient, allowing the development of tumors from transplantation of single human melanoma cells and providing a unique vehicle for the characterization of clonal evolution in human cancer.

Through identifying tumors that vary in their abilities to propagate disease, we aim to identify molecular correlates of melanoma growth and metastasis. Our close links with the Melbourne Melanoma Project provide us with ample human tumor specimens that have been kindly donated for study, each of which is carefully annotated with clinical data. This enables us to link our laboratory findings directly to patient characteristics and outcomes.

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