Dr Camille Guillerey is a Senior Research Officer and Career Track Fellow in the Cancer Immunotherapies Group at Mater Research. She leads a small team of young scientists and students performing research on blood cancers. Camille believes that by understanding how our immune system responds to cancer, we will be able to design better immune-based therapies for cancer patients.
Camille’s research is currently focused on Natural Killer cells, a population of immune cells that recognise and kill cancer cells. She is interested in understanding how Natural Killer cells interact with other immune cells to develop protective immune responses since improved basic knowledge of immunological processes will help design new trherapies for various human pathologies such as cancer, infectious disease or autoimmune disorders. In addition, Camille aims to identify mechanisms that may prevent Natural Killer cells from eliminating cancer cells and apply these findings to develop new treatments for childhood leukemia.
Camille has authored 27 publications, and has received more than 1.2M AUD in competitive funding from ARC, NHMRC, Cancer Australia, Cure Cancer Australia and the Children Hospital Foundation. She is currently collaborating with researchers from France and across Australia.
Through this research, Camille has made integral contributions to improve knowledge on immune responses to blood cancers. She identified the immune molecules TIGIT and CD137 as promising targets in immune multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. Her research contributions have been recognized with her nomination as a finalist for the 2019 Women in Technology rising star award.
“I am motivated by the idea that my work will improve people’s life and I believe that every single step in research, even the tiniest one, will pave the way to a cure for cancer.”