Christine Chaffer 35th Lorne Cancer Conference 2023

Christine Chaffer

A/Prof Christine Chaffer is head of the Cancer Cell Plasticity lab at Garvan, and co-lead of the Precision Cancer Medicine Program. A/Prof Chaffer’s lab focuses on understanding how cancer cell plasticity – the ability of cancer cells to switch between different states – impacts tumour progression, metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy. Her immediate goal is to translate those research findings into new therapies to improve patient survival and quality-of-life. After completing her PhD in cancer biology at the University of Melbourne, A/Prof Chaffer continued her post-doctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She returned to Australia to start her independent lab at Garvan in 2018. Through the publication of a number of high-impact papers, including in Cell, Science and Nature Medicine, A/Prof Chaffer has challenged, and changed, pre‐established paradigms in cancer biology. Her research has verified cell state plasticity as an innovative target to combat aggressive and chemotherapy-resistant cancers.