Professor Wayne Tilley
Position:
- Dame Roma Mitchell Chair in Cancer Research, University of Adelaide / Hanson Institute
Biography:
Prof Tilley is Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories, University of Adelaide and Hanson Institute, which incorporates more than 50 researchers and clinicians working on breast and prostate cancer.
Prof Tilley returned to Australia in late 1990 after an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas where he was one of the first to clone the human androgen receptor (AR).
In 1997, he was appointed Director of the Flinders Cancer Centre.
Following a sabbatical in the Department of Preventive Medicine, the Norris Cancer Center, University of Southern California in 2002, Prof Tilley relocated to the University of Adelaide/Hanson Institute to take up the position of the Dame Roma Mitchell Chair in Cancer Research. Since that time he has developed a research program on hormone action in breast and prostate cancer, and played an integral role in the development of the Adelaide Prostate Cancer Research Centre and the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health.
Prof Tilley’s laboratory has made a major contribution to understanding the molecular mechanisms of resistance to hormonal therapies used in the treatment of prostate cancer. In particular, his laboratory has shown that continued signalling via the AR is an important determinant of disease progression and treatment response in all stages of prostate cancer.
A current major research focus is the development of new treatments for prostate cancer that target the AR. Prof Tilley’s laboratory has also pioneered research into understanding the pivotal role of AR in counteracting the proliferative effects of estrogens in the breast.
prostate cancer.
