A/Professor Ricky Johnstone

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC
Rotary Club of Williamstown
Leukaemia - 2010

Associate Professor Ricky Johnstone is a cancer researcher who has utilized genetic mouse models of hemopoietic malignancies and solid tumors to decipher the molecular events underpinning cancer cell death by drugs such as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi). A true understanding of how HDACi kill tumor cells has provided a molecular rationale for the development of unique combination anti-cancer therapies using HDACi and other novel targeted therapeutics. 

Dr Johnstone completed his BSc.(Hons.) degree from the University of Melbourne in 1988 with a double major in Pathology and Immunology. In 1990 he accepted an Australian Postgraduate Award and started work on his PhD at the Austin Research Institute that was completed in 1993. In 1994, he was awarded a C.J. Martin Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) to perform postdoctoral studies in the Department of Pathology at Harvard University Medical School in Boston, USA in the laboratory run by Prof. Yang Shi, studying the regulation of transcription by the WT1 tumor suppressor protein. In 1999, he was awarded an R.D. Wright Research Fellowship from the NHMRC and in 2000, won a Wellcome Trust Senior International Research Fellowship. 

He moved to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in February 2000 to establish the Gene Regulation Laboratory within the Cancer Immunology Program and was appointed as Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellow and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow (Honorary) in 2005. . He has won prestigious scientific prizes including the 2003 AMGEN Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Research and the 2005 Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal that recognises outstanding research in the medical sciences. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts.

In 2008 Dr Johnstone and Dr Grant McArthur established the Cancer Therapeutics Program within the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to bring together a critical mass of researchers with the aim to translate fundamental research findings into clinical outcomes that will benefit cancer patients. In 2008 Dr Johnstone was appointed as an Assistant Director of Research at the Peter Mac and will play a key role in defining the strategic direction of the research division over the coming years.
 
SUMMARY OF PROJECT:

Design and testing new combination therapies for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma
 
The aim of this project was to identify novel therapies for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. To complete these studies we have established some very important experimental models and systems that are now routinely used in my laboratory and indeed throughout the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. We have established the best available pre-clinical model for human multiple (MM) myeloma in our laboratory. 

This model involves genetically engineered mice that develop MM that accurately reflects the genetics, biology and pathology of human MM. We have used primary MM cells derived from this genetically engineered mouse to test the efficacy of novel anti-cancer drugs. We have determined that a new class of drugs termed histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) have very robust anti-MM effects in this model and this is achieved due to the ability of the HDACi to directly kill the MM cells. Moreover, we have shown that combining HDACi with bortezomib, an approved anti-MM drug results in even more impressive anti-tumor responses. 

We are very encouraged by our pre-clinical studies especially as this coincides with clinical trials conducted around the world that have been initiated to test the safety and efficacy of the HDACi + bortezomib combination. We hope that this combination approach will result in better outcomes for patients with MM.