Paul Neeson
GROUP LEADER
Immuno-Oncology
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Australia
Biography
Associate Professor Paul Neeson completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne (Pathology), before doing a post-doc in the Paterson lab (University of Pennsylvania) where he worked on B-cell lymphoma vaccines. He returned to Melbourne and established the human immunology translational lab (HITRL) in Cancer Immunology Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. The lab’s original focus was in haematological cancers, examining responses to novel immunotherapy combinations. Along with the increasing clinical interest in Immuno-Oncology, his lab now also examines the immune context of solid tumours and patient responses to checkpoint inhibitor or chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy. Recent immunotherapy trials have shown dramatic responses in patients with a wide range of cancer sub-types. However, predicting which patients will respond to immunotherapy, and what type of immunotherapy is appropriate has proven difficult. To address these issues, we have developed a range of technologies to explore the immune context of human cancer including multiplex immuno-histochemistry, immune gene expression profile and immune signal network analysis on primary or metastatic tumour FFPE sections. We have also developed a TIL (tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte) program to explore the immune context by mass cytometry in fresh tumour samples.
Research Interest
Immuno-Oncology
Publications
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A radio-resistant perforin-expressing lymphoid population controls allogeneic T cell engraftment, activation, and onset of graft-versus-host disease in mice. Davis JE, Harvey M, Gherardin NA, Koldej R, Huntington N, Neeson P, Trapani JA, Ritchie DS. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2015 Feb;21(2):242-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2014.11.003. Epub 2014 Nov 12
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The use of ipilimumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and metastatic melanoma. Lee B, Wong A, Kee D, Neeson P, Shackleton M, McArthur G, Sandhu S. Ann Oncol. 2016 Jun;27(6):1174-7. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdw056. Epub 2016 Feb 9
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Dual-specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells and an Indirect Vaccine Eradicate a Variety of Large Solid Tumors in an Immunocompetent, Self-antigen Setting. Slaney CY, von Scheidt B, Davenport AJ, Beavis PA, Westwood JA, Mardiana S, Tscharke DC, Ellis S, Prince HM, Trapani JA, Johnstone RW, Smyth MJ, Teng MW, Ali A, Yu Z, Rosenberg SA, Restifo NP, Neeson P, Darcy PK, Kershaw MH. Clin Cancer Res. 2017 May 15;23(10):2478-2490. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-16-1860. Epub 2016 Dec 13
