Christine is the recipient of the NELUNE Foundation's Rebecca Wilson Fellowship in Cancer Research, established by the Foundation in 2017 in recognition of the late, great Rebecca Wilson - a passionate advocate of the Foundation's work.
Christine's research aims to understand the mechanisms driving human cancer development, progression and metastasis, and to translate these findings to improved treatments for patients.
After completing her PhD in cancer biology at the University of Melbourne, Christine continued her post-doctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Christine's lab at Garvan investigates the effects of cancer cell plasticity – the ability of cancer cells to switch between different states – which changes a cancer's behaviour and can drive tumour progression, metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy. Specifically, her lab specialises in breast cancer biology, and discovering the mechanisms that underpin cancer cells switching into different states that are more aggressive and therefore less susceptible to many therapies.
Through the publication of a number of high-impact papers, including in Cell, Science and Nature Medicine, Christine has challenged, and changed, pre‐established paradigms in cancer biology. Her research has verified plasticity as an innovative target to combat aggressive and chemotherapy-resistant cancers. Her immediate goal is to translate those research findings into new therapies to improve patient survival and quality-of-life.
At Garvan, Christine has discovered a key mechanism by which triple negative breast cancers develop resistance to chemotherapy. She is currently designing a clinical trial that will reveal whether a new therapeutic approach that targets this mechanism of drug resistance could improve the effectiveness of standard-of-care chemotherapy, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
A/Prof Christine Chaffer's research at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research aims to understanding the mechanisms driving human cancer development, progression and metastasis, and to translate these findings to improved treatments for patients.
After completing her PhD in cancer biology at the University of Melbourne, A/Prof Chaffer continued her post-doctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A/Prof Chaffer's lab at Garvan investigates the effects of cancer cell plasticity – the ability of cancer cells to switch between different states – which changes a cancer's behaviour and can drive tumour progression, metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy. Specifically, her lab specialises in breast cancer biology, and discovering the mechanisms that underpin cancer cells switching into different states that are more aggressive and therefore less susceptible to many therapies.
Through the publication of a number of high-impact papers, including in Cell, Science and Nature Medicine, A/Prof Chaffer has challenged, and changed, pre‐established paradigms in cancer biology. Her research has verified plasticity as an innovative target to combat aggressive and chemotherapy-resistant cancers. Her immediate goal is to translate those research findings into new therapies to improve patient survival and quality-of-life.
At Garvan, through work supported by the Nelune Foundation's Rebecca Wilson Fellowship, A/Prof Chaffer has discovered a key mechanism by which triple negative breast cancers develop resistance to chemotherapy. She is currently designing a clinical trial that will reveal whether a new therapeutic approach that targets this mechanism of drug resistance could improve the effectiveness of standard-of-care chemotherapy, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.