Dr Amy Wilson is a postdoctoral researcher in the Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers group in the Centre for Cancer Research. Her current research is focused on improving treatments for women currently battling ovarian cancer, which unfortunately has a dismal survival rate. Amy is particularly interested in investigating and targeting a small but deadly population of ovarian cancer cells called ‘Leader cells’ in order to improve outcomes for ovarian cancer patients.

Amy completed her PhD in 2020 at Monash University, investigating novel immunotherapies for the treatment of ovarian cancer. During that time, Amy received several awards such as the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Student Merit Award; the Alfred Health Week Monash Comprehensive Cancer Consortium Prize for Best Poster in Cancer Research; the EMT International Association Best Student Poster Award in Japan; first prize in the 2018 Central Clinical School 3-Minute Thesis competition; the ATA Scientific Young Scientist Encouragement Award; and the Ivanhoe Girl’s Grammar School Early Career Ovarian Cancer Research Travel Award for Women. Amy currently holds a CASS Foundation grant.

Selected publications

• Karimnia N^#, Wilson AL^#, Green E, Matthews A, Jobling TW, Plebanski M, Bilandzic M*, Stephens AN* (2021) Chemoresistance is mediated by ovarian cancer leader cells in vitro. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 40(1):276.

  ^#Joint first authors. *Joint last authors

• Wilson AL, Moffitt LR, Wilson KL, Bilandzic M, Wright MD, Gorrell MD, Oehler MK, Plebanski M, Stephens AN (2021) DPP4 inhibitor sitagliptin enhances lymphocyte recruitment and prolongs survival in a syngeneic ovarian cancer mouse model. Cancers (Basel) 13:487.

• Moffitt LR, Bilandzic M, Wilson AL, Chen Y, Gorrell MD, Plebanski M, Stephens AN (2020) Hypoxia regulates DPP4 expression, proteolytic inactivation and shedding from ovarian cancer cells. Int J Mol Sci 21:8110.

• Wilson AL, Wilson K L, Bilandzic M, Moffitt LR, Makanji M, Gorrell MD, Oehler M, Rainczuk A, Stephens AN, Plebanski M (2018) Non-Invasive Fluorescent Monitoring of Ovarian Cancer in an Immunocompetent Mouse Model. Cancers 11:32.

• Sandow JJ, Rainczuk A, Infusini G, Makanji M, Bilandzic M, Wilson AL, Fairweather N, Stanton PG, Garama D, Gough D, Jobling TW, Webb A, Stephens A (2018) Discovery and validation of novel protein biomarkers in ovarian cancer patient urine. Proteomics Clin Appl 12:e1700135.

• Wilson AL, Moffitt LR, Duffield N, Rainczuk A, Jobling TW, Plebanski M, Stephens AN (2018) Autoantibodies against HSF1 and CCDC155 as biomarkers of early-Stage, high-Grade serous ovarian cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 27:183-192.

• Wilson AL, Plebanski M, Stephens AN (2018) New trends in anti-cancer therapy: Combining conventional chemotherapeutics with novel immunomodulators. Curr Med Chem, 25:4758-4784.