Associate Professor Jennette Sakoff obtained her PhD at The University of Newcastle as a cell biologist and is a Chief Hospital Scientist and Head of the Experimental Therapeutics Group at the Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital.
Associate Professor Sakoff has established a state-of-the-art translational research facility at the Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital for the development and optimisation of chemotherapy treatments for the fight against cancer.
Jennette has made significant contributions to cancer research with expertise in cell culture, drug screening, cell biology, proteomics, cell cycle analysis, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug combination studies and clinical toxicity. Her research has provided significant input into the development of agents targeting protein phosphatases, dynamin, clathrin and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) pathway.
Of note, Associate Professor Sakoff discovered two new classes of agents (ANI-7 and NAP-6) that are highly selective at killing breast cancer cells grown in the laboratory, while having minimal to no effect on normal breast cells or other tumour types. She identified their mode-of-action as hijacking the AhR pathway, culminating in the production of highly reactive agents that bind DNA and induce cell death. ANI-7 is now commercially available from many chemical sources including MedChemExpress (USA) and Sigma-Aldrich. Leading from this, she has now discovered a chemical switch that turns an activator of the AhR to an inhibitor of the AhR as a novel treatment of pancreatic cancer.
