Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Professor Helen Rizos leads the Precision Cancer Therapy research team and is Principle Investigator of the Macquarie University Cancer Biobank in the Macquarie School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University. Helen graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hon I) from the University of New South Wales, and completed her PhD at Macquarie University. She joined the Melanoma Research Group at the Westmead Instutute for Medical Research in 1995, and become an independent group leader in 2000. She is a Faculty member of the Melanoma Institute Australia, where she co-leads the Advanced Melanoma research theme.
She joined Macquarie University in 2013, and was Head, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences from 2014-2021. She has been awarded Senior Research Fellowships from the Cancer Institute NSW and NHMRC.
Research interests
Helen has made major contributions to our understanding of melanoma oncogenic signaling and mechanisms of response and resistance to systemic therapies in melanoma.
She has contributed to many seminal findings including: i) identifying the role of intratumoural heterogeneity in conferring resistance to targeted therapies, ii) reporting on the continued clinical activity of targeted therapies beyond disease progression, iii) examining the value of ctDNA in predicting the survival and pseudoprogression of melanoma patients treated with immunotherapy, and iv) defining that ctDNA is prognostic in high-risk Stage III melanoma.
Her current research interests include:
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Defining liquid biomarker signatures that identify patients at high risk of recurrence or treatment resistance
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Examining mechanisms of treatment response and resistance
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Identifying new approaches to overcome treatment resistance
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Developing new models to support cancer research and the clinical care of cancer patients
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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W81XWH-22-1-0731: Multimodal Precision Liquid Biopsy to Predict Risk of Melanoma Recurrence
Rizos, H., Diefenbach, R., Coiera, E., Berkovsky, S., Long, G. V., Scolyer, R., Gray, E. S. & Millward, M.
1/09/22 → 31/08/25
Project: Research
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UoM led: Circulating tumour DNA guidEd Therapy for stage IIB/C BRAF mutant positive mElanoma after surgiCal resecTION (DETECTION)
Sandhu, S., Dawson, S. J., Long , G., Carlino, M. S., Menzies, A. M., Scolyer, R., Rizos, H., Lorigan, P., Atkinson, V. & Henderson, M.
4/11/21 → 31/05/25
Project: Research
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USYD Led: Reducing the Morbidity of Head and Neck Cancer Treatment
Clark, J., Gupta, R., Lee, J., Ashford, B. G., Ranson, M., Boyer, M., Rizos, H., Yang, J. Y. H., Suaning, G. J. & Wallace, G. G.
1/02/21 → 31/01/26
Project: Research
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Differential effects of MAPK inhibition on immune activity determine melanoma response
Lim, E., Rizos, H. & Kefford, R.
17/04/17 → …
Project: Research
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Checkpoint kinase 1 inhibitor + low-dose hydroxyurea efficiently kills BRAF inhibitor- and immune checkpoint inhibitor-resistant melanomas
Zeng, Z., Ngo, H. L., Proctor, M., Rizos, H., Dolcetti, R., Cruz, J. G., Wells, J. W. & Gabrielli, B., 23 Aug 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research. 6 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
IFN-γ signaling sensitizes melanoma cells to BH3 mimetics
Ming, Z., Lim, S. Y., Stewart, A., Pedersen, B., Shklovskaya, E., Menzies, A. M., Carlino, M. S., Kefford, R. F., Lee, J. H., Scolyer, R. A., Long, G. V. & Rizos, H., Jul 2023, In: Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 143, 7, p. 1246-1256.e8 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Intratumoral CD16+ macrophages are associated with clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with combination anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 therapy
Lee, H., Ferguson, A. L., Quek, C., Vergara, I. A., Pires daSilva, I., Allen, R., Gide, T. N., Conway, J. W., Koufariotis, L. T., Hayward, N. K., Waddell, N., Carlino, M. S., Menzies, A. M., Saw, R. P. M., Shklovskaya, E., Rizos, H., Lo, S., Scolyer, R. A., Long, G. V., Palendira, U., & 1 others , 1 Jul 2023, In: Clinical Cancer Research. 29, 13, p. 2513-2524 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
3 Citations (Scopus) -
The molecular and functional landscape of resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in melanoma
Lim, S. Y., Shklovskaya, E., Lee, J. H., Pedersen, B., Stewart, A., Ming, Z., Irvine, M., Shivalingam, B., Saw, R. P. M., Menzies, A. M., Carlino, M. S., Scolyer, R. A., Long, G. V. & Rizos, H., 18 Mar 2023, In: Nature Communications. 14, 1, p. 1-18 18 p., 1516.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Citations (Scopus)10 Downloads (Pure) -
Anchored multiplex PCR custom melanoma next generation sequencing panel for analysis of circulating tumor DNA
Diefenbach, R. J., Lee, J., Stewart, A., Menzies, A. M., Carlino, M. S., Saw, R. P. M., Stretch, J. R., Long, G. V., Scolyer, R. A. & Rizos, H., 12 Apr 2022, In: Frontiers in Oncology. 12, p. 1-13 13 p., 820510.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)137 Downloads (Pure)