Associate Professor UNSW and Group Leader – Gene Dysregulation Group at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick.
Associate Professor Tao Liu’s project High-risk neuroblastoma cases with TERT oncogene rearrangement was one of two major research projects awarded $125,000 in funding by Neuroblastoma Australia for 2020.
The funding from Neuroblastoma Australia will allow our team at Children’s Cancer Institute to identify the specific drivers of high-risk neuroblastoma with TERT oncogene rearrangement and demonstrate a novel therapy that specifically target these drivers. We hope that, if successful, the novel therapy can be taken into clinical trials, leading to better survival rates and better quality of life for children with this devastating childhood cancer. Associate Professor Tao Liu
Neuroblastoma Australia and the Cancer Council NSW supported a previous project called The critical role of the long intergenic noncoding RNA MALAT1 in Neuroblastoma during which Dr Liu’s team uncovered the possibility of using MALAT1 as a new and effective target for neuroblastoma treatment. This means there is an opportunity to create new drugs that directly inhibit the activity of MALAT1 to stop neuroblastomas from spreading.
Going forward, Dr Liu and his team will work on developing stable MALAT1-blocking compounds. If these blockers are successful in the lab, this could lay the foundation to start clinical trials testing this treatment with neuroblastoma patients.
More information
- Associate Professor Tao Liu
- Introducing Associate Professor Tao Liu and his groundbreaking research
- Two research grants awarded to the Children’s Cancer Institute
- Project updates from our 2020 research grant winners
- Article: Investigating a novel therapy for a problematic childhood cancer
- The Cancer Council NSW
