Medical Research

Biography

Dedication, collaboration, and hard work are the hallmarks of Associate Professor Matt Dun’s medical research career, which employs cutting edge technologies to develop new treatments for children diagnosed with the most aggressive forms of cancer.

Associate Professor Dun is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator, and Chad Tough Defeat DIPG New Investigator, decorated with 27 national and international awards including the NSW Premier’s Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow 2019, a Tall Poppy Science award in 2020 and an International DIPG Big Hero Award in 2022 (presented to him Washington DC). In 2022 alone, he has attracted almost $3 million in research funding and in the past 10 months published in the most prestigious journals including Science Signaling, Neuro-Oncology, Nature Genetics and Cancer Discovery.

This year also marks the early stages of translation of Associate Professor Dun’s extensive pre-clinical efforts into clinical trials. Discoveries from his team the Cancer Signalling Research Group (DunLab) have led to the commencement of an adaptive combination therapy international phase II clinical trial (NCT05009992) for patients diagnosed with diffuse midline glioma (DMG). Through a collaboration with clinical colleagues in the US, all patients in the trial will receive the combination of ONC201 (dopamine receptor antagonist) and paxalisib (PI3K/Akt inhibitor, discovered for DMG in his lab). It is hoped that such strategic combination of therapies will start to increase the numbers of long-term survivors, and thereby provide hope for families diagnosed with the worst of childhood cancers.

What are your research interests?

My research program is focused on developing new anti-leukaemia drugs and determining their mechanism of action, synthesised in collaboration with the University of New South Wales. This targeted anti-cancer approach is complemented by a program of discovery research focused on furthering our understandings into how common gene mutations regulate the growth, survival and proliferation of cancer cells.

I am also interested in how normal healthy stem cells stored in the bone marrow grow and develop (cellular signalling) in response to signals or growth factors from the immune system. Hence, I have a research program studying the molecular switches regulated by the activity of protein phosphatases.

Finally, all of the complex and intricate activities of our cells (cellular physiology) are regulated through the actions of proteins, therefore I have a significant interest in methods that help us study the composition and function of proteins. Techniques such as mass spectrometry and biochemical techniques that can help us to understand the function of individual proteins and proteins that form complexes.

Why did you get into research?

The ability to make discoveries that one day may improve the health of our community is an honour that not many professions can lay claim to. Also research is about choosing your own adventure and I love that about the job.

What would be the ultimate goal for your research?

The end goal is to take one of our basic research discoveries and translate it into an improved health outcome for our community. I am committed to the training of talented local students and mentoring them in their research careers. This increased intellectual property helps to grow our community, providing increased economic and health benefits. 

Specialised/Technical Skills 

• Characterisation of protein expression
• Proteomic profiling including iTRAQ and SILAC
• Phosphoproteomics
• Quantitative posttranslational modification analysis
• DNA mutational analysis
• Cellular imagery
• Identification of protein-protein interactions via Co-immunoprecipitation
• Far-Western blotting and Blue Native PAGE
• Cell culture
• Functional assays, the generation of recombinant proteins and polyclonal antibodies.

Affiliations

• PRC for Cancer (PRC-Cancer)
• Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR)
• Australasian Proteomics Society (APS)
• American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)
• Haematology Department, The Calvary Mater Hospital
• Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Southern Denmark
• Chemistry Department, The University of New South Wales
• Lowy Cancer Research Centre, Prince of Wales Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, The University of New South Wales
• Department of Human Genetics, VIB, KU Leuven, Belgium
• The Alfred Hospital and Monash University