UQCCR Seminar Series - 21 July: Associate Professor Judith Greer and Dr Matthew Roberts

Associate Professor Judith Greer - Role of immunity against myelin proteolipid protein in failure of remyelination and axonal damage in multiple sclerosis

Judith Greer is an immunologist with a strong interest in the nervous system and autoimmune diseases affecting the nervous system. Her research is directly particularly towards trying to identify brain components that are targeted by the immune system in people with a variety of disorders, particularly multiple sclerosis (MS), which is traditionally thought to be an autoimmune disease, but also in psychosis, where we are now starting to understand that autoimmune targeting of the brain can play a role in some patients. She is interested in how the specificity of autoimmune responses within the nervous system relates to the symptoms experienced by patients, and in developing new ways to specifically turn off the damaging immune responses in the brain.

Dr Matthew Roberts - Precision Imaging in Prostate cancer

Matthew Roberts is an early career surgeon-scientist working at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and Group Leader at the University of Queensland (UQ) Centre for Clinical Research.  Dr Roberts formally begun his research program in 2020 after obtaining a Metro North Clinician Research Fellowship, enabling a part-time research commitment among clinical duties. He is CI of multiple local and national clinical trials in planning that will assess the prognostic role and management impact of novel imaging techniques in prostate cancer. Overall, Dr Roberts’ research program aims to develop, improve and use methodologies to improve diagnosis (using nanotechnology platforms), guide prognosis (with available imaging and biomarkers) and personalised cancer treatment. He is also building a research program investigating pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of urological infections with clinician and scientist colleagues.

Overview: Prostate cancer is the most common internal cancer and second-highest cause of cancer-related deaths in men. Diagnosis- and treatment-related side-effects causes division among clinicians and requires improvement. My research program includes use of novel imaging to improve diagnosis and characterization of prostate cancer from proof of concept to definitive clinical trials. The developments in prostate cancer imaging will be reviewed, as will current areas of research and future directions.