Smart State Fellowship for QIMR scientist

The Institute congratulates Associate Professor Maher Gandhi a winner of one of two Queensland Clinical Smart State Fellowships announced last week. The Fellowships provide funding for clinician-scientists to undertake innovative research in Queensland.

Dr Gandhi heads the Clinical Immunohaematology Laboratory at QIMR, and is a consultant haematologist at Princess Alexandra Hospital. His Laboratory undertakes research on lymphoma, the fifth most common cancer among Australians. In particular, he focuses on lymphomas in which EBV is involved including cases of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Post-transplantation Lymphoproliferative Disorder and Diffuse Large B cell Lymphoma. In Australia, it is estimated that EBV is implicated in 350 cases of lymphoma per year. This number is far higher in developing countries.

Currently his major research interests involve viral and immune biomarkers, immuno-evasion, viral microRNA expression and optimisation of cellular immunotherapies. Success in these aims will allow identification of patients most at risk of developing lymphoma and assist understanding of the basis by which these lymphomas develop.

In turn, this may lead to new targeted therapies, including transfer of the relevant components of a healthy person's immune system into a patient with an EBV-positive lymphoma, so as to eradicate the disease. To date, Dr Gandhi has treated three patients with this approach.



4 June, 2008