Investigating the role of cachexia in the response to surgical tumour resection in mice
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Research Project Leader
Professor Gordon Lynch+61 3 8344 0065
Project Details
Cancer cachexia is the progressive skeletal muscle wasting and weakness observed in 80% of cancer patients.
Cachexia reduces mobility and quality of life and in the most severe cases, can lead to death. Unfortunately, there are currently no effective treatments for cachexia, with one of the reasons being a lack of understanding of the cellular mechanisms responsible for this profound wasting and weakness. Chemotherapy and surgical interventions exist only to address primary tumour burden and the efficacy of both are dramatically limited by cachexia itself.
This project will use cell- and animal-based experiments to comprehensively identify how skeletal muscle responds to chemotherapy and surgical tumour resection and will lead to developing more targeted therapies to address cancer associated muscle wasting.
Researchers
Dr Kate Murphy, Senior Research Fellow
Professor Gordon Lynch, Head of Laboratory
Research Opportunities
This research project is available to Honours students to join as part of their thesis.
Please contact the Research Group Leader to discuss your options.