NOVEL THERAPY FOR PANCREATIC CANCERS, TARGETING MOLECULAR FOUNDATION
Dr Michael KC Lee,
Medical Oncologist,
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre,
Melbourne, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne, Australia | February 2026
Dr Michael Lee is an experienced medical oncologist, sub-specialising in gastrointestinal cancers and neuroendocrine tumours at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
He plays a key role in molecular tumour boards at VCCC Alliance (Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre) and MPCCC (Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium), ensuring the accurate and effective use of precision medicine in cancer care across the state.
His care philosophy, embodied in his practice name, “Can-Therapy,” promotes a CAN-do approach to CANcer care: empowering patients to thrive beyond cancer through cutting-edge research and personalised, values-driven care. Beyond the clinic, he leads research as a clinician scientist, developing therapeutic strategies that target RNA processing – the molecular blueprint cancer hijacks to fuel its growth and resistance – by altering its sequence is like changing words in a sentence to redefine cancer’s trajectory.
Supported by Pancare Foundation, the Paul Dear Post Doctoral Fellowship and his industry collaboration, his work aims to revolutionise outcomes for patients with this aggressive cancer by targeting its molecular foundation.
He is a recognised expert in pancreatic cancer care, combining research insights with exceptional patient care, while also providing comprehensive treatment for all cancer types.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8075-3608
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Post stroke brain recovery targeting blood flow and vessel health
Dr Daniel Beard is a Senior Lecturer and Group Leader of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of Newcastle, with a distinguished career in stroke research. Dr Beard completed his PhD in Human Physiology in 2015, uncovering the impact of intracranial pressure on collateral vessel failure. He has held prestigious research and teaching roles at the University of Oxford and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, contributing to international collaborations on neurovascular protection. His research has been supported by competitive grants, including an NHMRC Ideas Grant, and he has received numerous awards for innovation, research excellence and teaching excellence.
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Brain ageing, dementia and psychiatric disorders
Professor Perminder Sachdev graduated from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1978 and completed his MD in Psychiatry there in 1983. Following time in New Zealand, he relocated to Australia, where he completed psychiatric training and a PhD at UNSW in 1991. His doctoral work examined ethnopsychological concepts in Māori culture. His early research focused on drug-induced movement disorders, including akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome, while his later work has centred on dementia and pre-dementia syndromes, particularly neuroimaging, biomarkers and risk factors.
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In his father’s footsteps as a kidney transplant specialist
Since he was a young child, Dr Collins, has been interested in kidney failure and kidney transplants in particular. His father was also a kidney specialist, and he used to sit by the phone when his father, was on call and ringing people who were being offered a kidney transplant. The joy in their voices through this interaction created a lasting and profound impact on Dr Collins. This carried through his career and today he continues to seek better outcomes for Kidney patients.
