CBS Seminar: Erica Sloan

Neural-immune communication in cancer

Professor Erica Sloan, PhD

Drug Discovery Biology

Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Monash University

Professor Erica Sloan leads the Cancer Neural Immune laboratory at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her work characterises neural-cancer interactions and is focused on translating this knowledge to improve outcomes for cancer patients.

In her seminar, she will discuss current research on how sympathetic and sensory nerves interact with solid tumors, including triple negative breast cancer and pancreatic cancers. Relapse is common in these hard-to-treat cancers, and neural signalling is emerging as a target for new interventions. Research led by Dr Sloan has characterized how neural signaling shapes the tumor microenvironment by modulating the behavior of cancer cells, immune cells and vasculature. Her recent research is defining how tumor cells hijack standard cancer treatments to leverage neural signaling leading to disease recurrence.  She will discuss findings from preclinical and clinical studies that support blocking neural signalling – including through drug repurposing – to benefit patients with cancer.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=4dHDl0YAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

https://www.monash.edu/mips/themes/drug-discovery-biology/labs/cni