Professor Adrian Herington
Position:
- Associate Director IHBI (TRI), Institute of Health & Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Health
- Member, Translational Research Institute (TRI), Queensland University of Technology
- Member, Hormone-Dependent Cancer Program, Queensland University of Technology, Institute of Health & Biomedical Innovation
- Member, Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre – Queensland, Queensland University of Technology
Websites:
Biography:
Following his PhD in Biochemistry at Monash University, Prof Herington spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Dr William Daughaday, the “father of the insulin-like growth factors (IGF)”. Returning to Australia in 1974, he worked primarily in the growth hormone (GH) and IGF fields at Prince Henry’s Hospital Research Centre and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and developed a strong national/international reputation for contributions to understanding the characterisation, hormonal regulation, and solubilisation/purification of the GH receptor and the circulating soluble binding protein for GH.
His IGF research involved studies on the roles, nutritional and hormonal regulation, and clinical correlations of the IGF family, an endogenous IGF inhibitor, and the IGF binding proteins.
In 1995 he moved to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane as Professor of Biochemistry (and, from 2000-2009, as Head of the School of Life Sciences).
He is currently the Associate Director of QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the new Translational Research Institute (TRI) on the Princess Alexandra Hospital campus.
The recent focus of his research in the hormone-dependent cancer field, together with Dr Sally-Anne Stephenson, has been on the role and mechanisms of action of the Eph/Ephrin receptor tyrosine kinase-ligand system and their therapeutic implications in breast and prostate cancer.
Additional research interests involve the GH secretagogue, ghrelin, in hormone dependent cancers (prostate, breast and ovarian). Together with Assoc Prof Lisa Chopin, they have pioneered studies in the expression, characterisation and mechanism of action of ghrelin in stimulating cell proliferation in these cancer cells. Prof Herington has a total of 194 research papers/major reviews published in highly regarded refereed international journals/books and over 5,500 citations.
Best publications:
SEIM I, JOSH P, CUNNINGHAM P, HERINGTON AC, CHOPIN LK. Ghrelin axis genes, peptides and receptors: recent findings and future challenges. In: The ghrelin axis in disease (Eds Herington AC, Chopin LK) Special Issue; Mol Cell Endocrinol 340: 3-9 2011
LUBIK A, GUNTER J, HENDY S, LOCKE J, ADOMAT H, THOMPSON V, HERINGTON AC, GLEAVE M, POLLAK M, NELSON C. Insulin increases de novo steroidogenesis in prostate cancer cells. Cancer Res 71: 5754-5764 2011
RUTKOWSKI R, MERTENS-WALKER I, LISLE JE, HERINGTON AC, STEPHENSON SA. Evidence for a dual function of EphB4 in tumour promotion and suppression regulated by the absence or presence of the ephrinB2 ligand. Int J Cancer 131: E614-24. doi: 10.1002/ijc.27392. 2012
CHOPIN LK, SEIM I, WALPOLE C, HERINGTON AC. The ghrelin axis – does it have an appetite for cancer progression? Endocrine Rev 33: 849-91. 2012
LUBIK A, GUNTER J, ETTINGER S, FAZLI L, STYLIANOU N, HENDY S, ADOMAT H, HOLLIER B, GLEAVE M, POLLAK M, HERINGTON AC, NELSON C. Insulin-like Growth Factor 2 increases de novo steroidogenesis in prostate cancer cells. Endocr Relat Cancer 20: 173-86. doi: 10.1530/ERC-12-0250. 2013
LISLE J, MERTENS-WALKER I, RUTKOWSKI R, HERINGTON AC, STEPHENSON SA. Eph receptors and their ligands: Promising molecular biomarkers and therapeutic targets in prostate cancer. Biochim Biophys Acta – Rev Cancer 1835: 243-57. doi: 10.1016/j.bbcan.2013.01.003. 2013
Eph receptor tyrosine kinase, ephrin ligands, prostate cancer, breast cancer, ghrelin.
