Associate Professor Christine Chaffer
Director – Cancer Plasticity and Dormancy Program
Faculty – Cancer Call Plasticity, Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Postdoctoral training - Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research, MIT, Cambridge, USA
PhD in Cancer Biology - The University of Melbourne
Christine leads the Cancer Cell Plasticity Lab at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Her research focuses on cancer cell plasticity – the ability of cancer cells to change their physiological characteristics. This feature allows cancer cells to create and spread tumours around the body, to resist therapies and to recur post-treatment. Christine’s goal is to anticipate and intercept cancer evolution by understanding how tumour cells adapt at the single-cell level, and transform this knowledge into therapies that block recurrence and move us closer to curing metastatic disease.
Christine’s work also aims to provide translational therapeutic benefits. She has challenged, and changed, pre‐established paradigms in cancer biology, demonstrating the effects of cancer cell plasticity on driving tumour progression and development into metastatic disease. Christine combines technologies including single-cell transcriptomics, CRISPR functional genomics, organoid and patient-derived models, and live-cell imaging with new machine learning tools to reveal mechanisms that underlie relapse and therapeutic resistance.
Christine is deeply committed to translating her findings into clinical impact. Her work has directly informed and provided the groundwork for clinical trials, including the 4CAST trial for triple negative breast cancer, which tests a new combination therapy to target a ‘defence switch’ on cancer cells that alerts cancer to the threat of chemotherapy. As Principal Investigator of the inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation $25 million Clinical Research Accelerator (CRA)—the AllClear program—she leads an international consortium to translate her research on cancer dormancy and plasticity into investigator-initiated clinical trials designed to prevent recurrence in breast cancer.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
2025-2030 National Breast Cancer Foundation Collaborative Accelerator Grant ($25million)
2025-2030 NHMRC Investigator Grant ($2,393,000)
2023-2026 NHMRC Ideas grant ($930K)
2023 St. Vincent’s Clinic Foundation- Tancred Research Grant ($50K)
2022-2023 MRFF grant – Brain cancer ($550K)
2022-2024 MRFF grant – 4CAST clinical trial in triple-negative breast cancer ($650K)
2022-2024 Australian Research Council – Discovery project ($611K)
2020-2022 NHMRC Ideas grant
2020 Tour de Cure
2018-2020 Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Fellowship
2018-2020 National Breast Cancer Foundation Investigator Award
2018-2019 St. Vincent’s Clinic Foundation Research Award
2017-2021 Rebecca Wilson Fellowship in Breast Cancer Research
2016-2018 NHMRC Project Grant
2013 Koch Institute Frontier Research Awards, USA, Peer Reviewed,
2010-2014 Research support – Advanced Medical Research Foundation, USA
2011-2012 Post-doctoral Fellowship – Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, USA,
2008-2010 CJ Martin Post-doctoral Research Fellowship - NHMRC, Australia
2004-2006 Dora Lush Biomedical Postgraduate Research Scholarship – NHMRC, Australia
Using in vitro, in vivo models and patient tissue samples, together with the latest sequencing technologies (including single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics), we are interrogating mechanisms that drive cancer cell plasticity with single cell resolution, to address the following key areas:
- Redefining Cancer Dynamism: Moving beyond the "snapshot" model to treat cancer as a continuously evolving and fluid biological system.
- Mapping State Transitions: Developing advanced tools to capture and interpret the high-resolution transitions between cancer cell states.
- Directing Evolutionary Outcomes: Engineering therapeutic strategies that govern cellular plasticity to prevent resistance and fundamentally improve patient survival.
PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
Patient Advocate and Advisory Group (PAAG): Christine leads the AllClear Program, which is committed to meaningfully engaging patients with lived experience of breast cancer, patient advocates and the public throughout our research decision-making - from basic science to clinical research, and experimental design to the dissemination of outcomes. The PAAG includes individuals with the lived experience of breast cancer drawn from across New South Wales, including rural, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and multicultural communities.
Christine also has a long-standing relationship with Lee Hunt, the chair of the PAAG and a cancer consumer and advocate who focuses on improved outcomes, treatment access and survivorship for cancer patients. Lee, along with other PAAG members, facilitated the inclusion of regional, remote and culturally diverse perspectives in the AllClear program, and embedding diversity, equity and inclusion programs into AllClear supported clinical trials.
SCIENTIFIC ENGAGEMENT
Scientific Advisory Committee: Christine is part of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Breast Cancer Trials. As part of the SAC, Christine strategically reviews new clinical trial questions, current practices, and patient groups to determine gaps and opportunities for future clinical trials. She also evaluates new clinical trial proposals, prioritising trials with urgent need, and monitors current and ongoing trials for BCT.
Peer review: Christine regularly reviews for national category 1 and major philanthropic grant schemes, including the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Cancer Research Trust WA and the National Health and Medical Research Council. Christine also reviews for leading international peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Cancer Discovery, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Medicine, Cell, Oncogene, Cancer research, Nature Materials.
MEDIA
Media Release: Historic $25 million research grant aims to halve breast cancer deaths
Sydney Morning Herald article: Cancer breakthrough could end relapse for thousands
ABC News Video: Is artificial intelligence changing the future of healthcare?
Nine News Facebook Video: A/Prof Christine Chaffer spoke with 9 News on The National Breast Cancer Foundation’s landmark investment to drive research focused on stopping breast cancer recurrence
7 News Facebook Video: A/Prof Christine Chaffer speaks with 7NEWS Sydney on the impact of her latest research for triple negative breast cancer moving into clinical trials.
Medical Minds Podcast, 2nd March 2023: New ways of treating breast cancer
My Research Supervision
|