Public lecture - Immune therapy for melanoma: next steps

Media Release

14 October 2016

Free Public Lecture

Immune therapy for melanoma: next steps

One of the biggest medical advances in recent years has been the advent of effective immune therapy for melanoma. Many patients respond very well to immune therapy, even when their cancer has spread throughout their bodies, and for some patients it seems likely that awakening their immune system has now cured them of their cancer. But despite the excitement, many patients aren’t helped by the current immune therapy drugs, which raises some very obvious questions: Why do some people respond to current immune therapy while others don't? What new combinations of therapies might help more patients? Can we imagine effective immune therapy for everyone with melanoma? And how does all of this affect the future of treating other cancers?

Professor Dunbar’s talk will try and answer some of these questions in plain language, as well as providing some background knowledge about how immune therapy works.

Professor Rod Dunbar holds both a medical degree (MBChB) and a PhD from the University of Otago. He spent 6 years as a post-doctoral research fellow in human immunology at the University of Oxford, before returning to New Zealand in 2002. His laboratory is based at the School of Biological Sciences in The University of Auckland, with a focus on human cellular immunology and stem cell biology, and a particular interest in how the immune system can be harnessed in cancer treatment. In 2009 Rod was appointed the Director of the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, New Zealand’s national Centre of Research Excellence devoted to the discovery of new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics.

When: Tuesday 18 October 2016, 7pm

Where: AMRF Auditorium

Ground Floor, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences

The University of Auckland

85 Park Road, Grafton, Auckland

Please click here to view the Lecture flyer and click here to read our recent newsletter.

Please click here to register for the event.

The Auckland Medical Research Foundation is a major independent funding agency and Charitable Trust that provides contestable funding for medical research based in the greater Auckland region. Over the past 60 years the Auckland Medical Research Foundation has distributed over $67 million in funding to a wide range of research activities - in the region of $3-5 million annually.

For further information see our website at www.medicalresearch.org.nz

ENDS

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