Associate Professor Marina Pajic

Associate Professor Marina Pajic leads the Personalised Cancer Therapeutics lab at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (Australia). Over the last 10 years, she has developed an innovative program of research that builds on the unique infrastructure she has generated, a wealth of integrated human cancer genomic and gene product expression profiles, complex 3D and patient-derived mouse models and close clinical links, to reveal new insights into the deregulation of molecules commonly hijacked in pancreatic cancer, which drive tumour (i) heterogeneity (ii) metastasis and (iii) chemoresistance. She has built an integrated program with Australian and International collaborators and is using this knowledge to inform the rational design of novel, tailored treatment options for pancreatic cancer. As Co-Director of the Translational Oncology Program at the Garvan Institute, she is developing the 10-year research strategy for the program, driving integrative transdisciplinary research, development of relevant platforms and support for effective early trials in oncology.

Her research is supported by the major national health and medical research funding bodies, including the NHMRC, Cancer Australia, Cancer Council NSW, Cancer Institute NSW, Australia Cancer Research Foundation, Ms Jane Hemstritch, the Girgensohn Foundation and Paul Ainsworth Foundation and most recently recognised via the $8M Snow Medical Research Fellowship. With over 90 high quality and highly cited publications in the field (>19,000 citations). Marina’s contributions have been recognised by several prestigious awards including the Australian Academy of Science 2020 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal for achievements in the field of applied cancer genomics and precision medicine for pancreatic cancer.