I was born and raised in China. Nearly all the female members of my family and relatives had careers in the medical field. My grandmother was a pharmacist, my mother was a cardiologist, and three of my uncles all married medical doctors working at my mother’s hospital. During my time at school, I never thought seriously about what career I would take in the future, but maybe the medical environment around home influenced my decisions. Eventually, I became a researcher in the field of biomedical research. My mum called it “destiny”.

After school and my initial university studies, my parents thought going overseas would provide me with better education and career opportunities than in China at that time, and thus sent me to study in New Zealand. I became interested in immunology during my studies at the University of Auckland and subsequently did my PhD in immunology at the Malaghan Institute in Wellington. Although I enjoyed basic research, I always wished that I could carry out research that would directly benefit people. While I was writing up my PhD thesis, I received a call from my mum telling me a close family friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was shocked and hoped she could be treated and recover from her cancer. But unfortunately, in 2009, there was limited treatment options for metastatic breast cancer patients. She passed away fairly soon after and I heard about the impact of her disease on her family, both financially and emotionally. Since that time, I decided to concentrate my research efforts into the field of cancer. This is the reason why after completing my PhD, I started my postdoc at Peter Mac.

I have now been conducting research into cancer immunotherapies for more than ten years. The past few years has been the golden era for cancer immunotherapies. When I first started in 2010, many people did not believe immunotherapies would have a place in cancer treatment. Now a number of immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint blockade therapies, oncolytic virus and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have been approved to treat cancer patients and have revolutionised the field. We have heard many exciting stories regarding cancer patients being “cured” by the immunotherapies, including former US president Jimmy Carter, who became cancer-free after receiving an immunotherapy for his melanoma that had already spread to his liver and brain. In 2016, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) named immunotherapy the “clinical advance of the year”. In 2018, Drs James Allison and Tasuku Honjo were awarded the Nobel Prize for their development of checkpoint immunotherapies.

My research focuses on using genetic modified T lymphocytes to fight against cancers. These modified T cells are inserted with an additional receptor called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that recognises cancer cells. In this approach, the T cells from patients’ blood are isolated, and inserted with a CAR to target cancer cells. After about ten days cell culture in the lab, the CAR T cells are infused back to the cancer patient. This method was initially developed in the 1990s by an Israeli biologist, Zelig Eshhar, and has now been approved in both the US and Australia to treat certain blood cancers. Although its effectiveness for treating blood cancers is great, it scarcely works in solid cancers.

In our laboratory, we have made great progress using CAR T cells for treating solid cancers. In a method we developed in 2019, we built a protein drug that sticks to CAR T cells and links the CAR T cells to another immune cell population inside the body. The linkage reconnects the CAR T cells to the body’s immune system and reinvigorates their anti-tumour effect against solid tumours. In our experiments, this therapy has generated dramatic effects in breast cancer, sarcoma and liver carcinoma models, with the majority of the solid tumours being eradicated. Recently, we formed a spinout company Currus Biologics with a $10M investment from Brandon Capital Partner’s Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) to further develop these protein reagents.

Working with Currus Biologics is exciting and my learning curve is steep. I have been very lucky in having excellent support from my mentors, team members and funding bodies. In particular, I greatly appreciate the mentorship and guidance from my supervisor Dr Michael Kershaw. Mike carried out the first human CAR T clinical trial in the world during his NIH postdoc in the US, and subsequently brought the CAR T cell technology back to Australia at Peter Mac. Subsequently, he initiated the Lewis Y CAR T cell trials at the Peter Mac. Mike is a role model to me. In addition to his insight, deep knowledge and experience, I admire his passion for science and desire to make a difference for the cancer patients.

Over the past 10 years I have been fortunate to have received continuous funding from NBCF. Their support has been invaluable and has enabled me to achieve my research goals. Recently, NBCF formed the Circle of 10 initiative that brings together influential, like-minded women who are passionate in supporting breast cancer research. I was lucky to be supported by the Circle of 10 and we have worked together for the past three years. Their enthusiasm and positive attitude are influential and inspire us to dedicate our research to find a cure for cancer.