Rex Elliot Wegener Memorial Fund for Mesothelioma Research

• a stipend valued at $28,597pa (2021 rate) will be awarded and paid to the successful recipient over 3 years on a fortnightly basis;
• a Research Training Program Fee Offset Scholarship to cover tuition fees for Australian Citizens, NZ Citizens and Permanent Residents;

The scholarship may be held independently or in conjunction with other scholarships. Receipt of the Rex Elliot Wegener scholarship does not preclude a candidate from applying for any other scholarship

To be considered for the Rex Elliot Wegener PhD Scholarship, a student must:

• meet PhD admission requirements including: have an Australian Honours degree Class 1 or 2A or equivalent qualification (at least AQF Level 8), including a research component of at least 6 months’ full-time study achieving Distinction (75%) OR including evidence of equivalent research experience
• be intending to enrol Full time in a Higher Degree by Research at Flinders University
• be intending to undertake research in an area that is relevant to the areas specified below.

Project 1: Characterising mesothelioma cancer stem cells

• Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive asbestos-related tumour arising from the cells lining the lungs and chest wall. We see about 200 of the 700 mesotheliomas diagnosed in Australia every year.
• Mesothelioma has an extremely poor prognosis, and to date, no targeted therapies are available. We perform molecular characterisation of these tumours and prepare organoids from patient-derived primary tumour cells.
• Cancer stem cells are hypothesised to be a chief driver of therapy resistance and cancer recurrence due to their intrinsic therapeutic resistance as a result of high expression of multidrug transporters, heightened DNA damage checkpoint activation and repair enzyme expression and differences in cell-cycle kinetics.
• This project will track live cancer stem cells in vitro and explore mechanisms of therapy response. This involves samples of patients enrolled in a clinical trial.
• The successful candidate will characterise the role of cancer stem cells in mesothelioma in the context of therapy resistance.
• The successful candidate with be well-supported in an integrated research laboratory with 2 postdocs, research officer support and ethics in place.

Project 2: Genomic profiling of rare subtypes of malignant mesothelioma

• Malignant mesothelioma is subdivided into three predominant histological subtypes, epithelioid, biphasic and sarcomatoid, which account for 50-60%, 25-35% and 10-20% of all mesothelioma cases, respectively. In addition to these broad subtypes, there are many unusual variants of mesotheliomas that display different macroscopic or microscopic growth patterns or atypical histology including small cell malignant mesothelioma, localised mesothelioma, well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma, and in situ mesothelioma. Some of these subtypes have a distinctly worse prognosis than other types of mesothelioma, but the cause of this phenomenon is unknown.
• Currently, very little is known about the genomic aberrations that contribute to the development of rare histological subtypes and anatomical variants of mesothelioma.
• This project aims to identify genetic mutations in patients with rare subtypes of mesothelioma and to identify if they differ from the genetic mutations that arise in conventional mesothelioma. Through this research we aim to better understand the clincopathological characteristics of rare malignant mesothelioma subtypes and therefore understand if we can treat these patients in a more targeted way.