SEMINAR: �Hormones, microRNAs and cancer � insights and challenges for a personalised approach�

Peter Leedman is a Professor of Medicine (endocrinologist) at the University of Western Australia and Royal Perth Hospital and Director of Translational Research at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR). He has had a long-term interest in understanding how hormones act at the molecular level, with a focus on RNA biology, and how this information can be harnessed to personalise cancer therapy. His laboratory has focused on the mechanisms regulating expression of key therapeutic targets in hormone-dependent cancers (breast and prostate cancer) and more recently in poor prognostic tumors, including head and neck cancer and colon cancer. His team has identified key functional roles for a number of miRNAs in these tumors and uncovered several new members of a complex network of RNA-binding nuclear receptor hormone coregulators.