Professor Kristen Radford

Professor Kristen Radford leads the Cancer Immunotherapies Group at Mater Research, University of Queensland in the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane Australia.  She completed her PhD in melanoma biology at the University of Newcastle, NSW followed by a postdoc at Cancer Research UK in London. She then joined the newly established Mater Research Institute where she developed a dendritic cell vaccine that was translated to a first-in-man clinical trial for metastatic prostate cancer. Her group first characterised the rare human cDC1 (CD141+) dendritic cell subtype that is required for inducing anti-tumour and anti-viral immune responses. She is now pursuing the therapeutic potential of this discovery with international funding to develop vaccines that specifically target human cDC1 in vivo.  Prof Radford has published 55 papers and attracted over $6 million in peer reviewed funding. Her work has been recognised by many awards including NSW Young Australian of the Year, a prestigious NHMRC CDF2 Fellowship 2011-2014, the Sr Regis Mary Dunne Medal for Outstanding Research Contribution 2015 and a 2020 Fulbright Future Scholarship. Prof Radford is also Director of the Australian Humanised Mouse Program. “Humanised” mice are immunodeficient mice reconstituted with human hematopoietic stem cells that develop functioning human immune cells, including dendritic cells. These are emerging next-generation models for human immuno-oncology and are valuable models for understanding human dendritic cell biology and evaluating new human cancer immunotherapies.