In Australia, lung cancer causes more deaths than breast and colorectal cancers combined.

Prof Asselin-Labat, head of the personalised oncology division at WEHI, said while lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths in Australia, research into the disease was surprisingly underfunded.

“Recognising this critical gap, I made a pivotal decision 12 years ago to shift my focus to lung cancer,” she said.

Over the last decade, Prof Asselin-Labat has leveraged her expertise in breast stem cells and cancer biology to investigate the interactions between lung cells and the immune system, aiming to uncover new therapeutic strategies.

“It is the greatest honour to receive this award on behalf of our team. I feel we’re on the brink of understanding a powerful inner world that will unlock the immune system to help fight one of the deadliest cancers – and many others too, like melanoma,” she said.

Supported by a $5 million NHMRC Synergy Grant, Prof Asselin-Labat is now leading a multi-institutional collaborative team to investigate the interplay between the immune system and cancer, seeking to answer big questions like why some patients respond to immunotherapies while others do not.

“This funding will help take us to the next level, to hopefully create the next generation of cancer therapies, powered by the potential of the immune system.”

The Synergy Grant project is led by Prof Asselin-Labat, in partnership with the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Monash Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peter Mac Callum Cancer Centre and Austin Health.

The team will study the interactions of cancer with the immune system to understand why current immunotherapies and mRNA vaccines are not always effective, and to develop improved versions.

“We need to learn how cancer tricks our bodies’ defences, so we can make treatments like immunotherapy and vaccines work better,” said Prof Asselin-Labat.

“Understanding how cancer avoids being attacked by the immune system, will help inform the development of more powerful cancer treatments.”

The key mission is deciphering the highly complex ecosystems of cancer tumours. Within them, there are multiple immune cell types engaged in a constant battle – either suppressing tumour growth or promoting its invasion.

Investigating these dynamics requires a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing expertise from cancer biology, immunology, bioinformatics and cutting-edge technologies in genomics and imaging.

“Throughout my career, working with multidisciplinary teams has been at the core of my approach to tackle these multifaceted scientific challenges. This collaborative mindset – from engineers to clinicians – allows us to ask complex, high-impact research questions that drive deeper insights into tumour biology,” said Prof Asselin-Labat.

In the next five years, the research team hopes to gain a deep understanding of tumour and immune cell behaviours in response to immunotherapies, including cancer mRNA vaccines.

“There is a lot of excitement around mRNA vaccines for cancer treatment, and cancer vaccines are showing promise as a therapy for melanoma. Unlike the prophylactic vaccines for COVID or flu that prevent illness, these vaccines aim to treat existing disease,” said Prof Asselin-Labat.

The vital funding will hopefully lead to identifying new therapies and strategies to boost immune responses and improve treatments for many cancers, including melanoma and lung cancer.

The NHMRC award is one of just nine awarded nationally and is named in honour of Professor Fiona Stanley AC FAA, an epidemiologist known for her research into the causes of major childhood illnesses such as birth defects.

Led by Prof Asselin-Labat, the research team includes Professor Axel Kallies (Doherty Institute), Dr Belinda Phipson (WEHI), Dr Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre), Professor Thomas Gebhardt (Doherty Institute), Dr Emily Pilkington (Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences) and Dr Oliver Klein (Austin Health and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Centre).