Associate Professor Chris Hovens
Position:
- Scientific Director, Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre Epworth
Biography:
A/Prof Hovens is a co-founder of the drug discovery/development company, Velacor Therapeutics Pty Ltd for which he serves as Chief Scientific Officer. He is a co-inventor on 13 different patents in the area of drug discovery and development, ranging across indications from cancer to neurodegenerative disorders. The overall goal of the research program is to improve the accuracy of prognostic information for PCa patients by understanding the processes which govern the neovascularisation of prostate tumours at both the primary site, as well as at sites of distant metastasis.
By quantifying the levels of circulating pro-angiogenic/lymphangiogenic cells and bone marrow-derived progenitor cells in PCa patients, A/Prof Hovens’s team will develop improved prognostic discriminators of the developmental course of the disease as well as surrogate biomarkers of treatment response.
By taking a concerted and comprehensive approach to the detection and quantification of circulating endothelial cells and their progenitors in PCa, A/Prof Hovens aims to fast-track the development of new clinical diagnostic and prognostic methodologies. These studies should definitively determine the role of mobilise-able endothelial progenitor cells in PCa neovascularisation and may improve our ability to clinically stratify PCa patients and predict their long-term response to existing and new developmental therapies.
castrate resistant prostate cancer, metastasis.
