Management Committee

The large collaborative International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) was established at this time and with Professor Sean Grimmond from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in Queensland, Professor Biankin established the pancreatic cancer arm of the ICGC – the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative (APGI). The APGI went on to map and upload the complete DNA read-outs for around 400 pancreatic cancers to the ICGC project, making it one of the largest sets of genome sequences for any cancer type. This work took pancreatic cancer from one of the least genetically characterised cancers to one of the best.

The capacity to sequence cancer genomes at large scale enabled Professor Biankin and his team to understand much more about the molecular diversity of pancreatic cancers and tumour evolution and much more about what was clinically and translationally relevant.

Professor Biankin is a strong supporter of the concept of ‘learning healthcare systems’ that deliver the kind of large datasets that precision medicine needs to allow researchers to continually refine current treatments and develop new ones.

Through the APGI, Amber developed and coordinated a national pancreatic cancer biobank network, with international linkage. Amber has the unique blend of clinical, community and scientific experience, which she has successfully applied in various settings with a range of stakeholders. Her unique skill set has been pivotal in the success of not only her own local groups, but providing a platform for cancer research groups across the world to thrive, through her ability to be the link between the research team, the clinical team, and patient and community groups.

Amber has extensive experience in ethical, policy and societal issues in research and currently advises the Federal Government in relation to genomic sequencing and the return of research results.

Rita Lawlor is co-founder of the ARC-Net applied cancer research centre where she coordinates research activities and runs the cancer biobank.

She has extensive project management experience and managed the Italian initiative in ICGC and is co-PI for the ARGO project. She currently coordinates the national Italian Cancer Research Association funded project “Clinically applicable biomarkers to early diagnosis, patient risk stratification and therapeutic response in pancreas cancer”.

She is a member of the steering committee of BC-NET (Biobank Cohort Network of Low Middle Income Countries) network of IARC (International Association for Research on Cancer). She is a former director of ISBER, International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (www.isber.org) and is past president of ESBB, the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (www.esbb.org). She is currently on the board of the Italian Foundation for Pancreas diseases (FIMP).

Rita is originally a Computer Science graduate with a doctorate in translational biomedical sciences in Oncological Pathology. More recently she was conferred with a fellow of Information Privacy from IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) and is chair of the ISBER GDPR Task Force.

Her current research interests are in molecular diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets and the role of cancer heterogeneity and molecular characterization of samples in the application of personalized medicine.

Prior to joining OICR in 2006, Dr. Stein played an integral role in many large-scale data initiatives at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Genome Center. He led the development of the first physical clone map of the human genome, and ran the data coordinating centre and the data portal for the SNP Consortium and the HapMap Consortium. Dr. Stein has also led the creation and development of Wormbase, a community model organism database for C. elegans, and Reactome, which is now the largest open community database of biological reactions and pathways.

At OICR, Dr. Stein has led several international cancer data sharing and research initiatives, including the creation and development of the data coordination centre for the International Cancer Genome Consortium and other related projects. He continues to collaborate with national and international partners to create and promote data sharing standards, protocols and implementations.