University of Adelaide
Carmela has a strong research interest in understanding the ways cancer cells communicate with their microenvironment and spread to other sites in the body. Her research program has focused on hormone-regulated proteins in breast and prostate cancer. Using a novel approach in her postdoctoral studies by examining the non-cancer stromal cells which surround the cancer cells, she was the first researcher to identify that the expression of the extracellular matrix protein, versican correlated with cancer spread in prostate and breast cancer. Carmela’s studies are highly relevant to breast cancer and will provide new information on the way breast cancer cells move and spread to other parts of the body.
2005