Staff profile

Professor Don Phillips

Emeritus Professor

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Molecular Sciences
Department of Biochemistry

Room 418 (Office), 423 (Lab), Physical Sciences 4, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BSc (Hons), PhD (Adel), DipT (Adel)

Membership of professional Associations

American Association for Cancer Research, Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Area of study

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Brief Profile

Professor Phillips completed his PhD in the field of Biological Chemistry (structural studies of DNA) at the University of Adelaide and joined the Department of Biochemistry at La Trobe University in 1972. He has been a visiting professor at many institutions, including the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill (London), Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, National Cancer Institute (Milan) and Iwate University (Japan).

His scientific objectives are to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of action of clinical and experimental anticancer agents, and to utilise this knowledge to enhance the clinical use of these agents and by using nanoparticle and tumour targeting delivery vehicles.

His interests are Australian wine, golf, fishing, football (Adelaide Crows supporter), gardening and good coffee.

Recent Publications

Selected publications (2005 - 2010)

Rephaeli, A., Blank-Porat, D., Terasenko, N., Entin-Meer, M., Levovich, I., Cutts, S. M., Phillips, D. R. and Nudelman, A. (2005) In vivo and in vitro antitumor activity of butyroyloxymethyl-diethyl phosphate (AN-7), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, on human prostate cancer. Internat. J. Cancer, 116, 226-235.

Cutts, S. M., Nudelman, A., Rephaeli, A. and Phillips, D. R. (2005) The power and potential of doxorubicin-DNA adducts. IUBMB Life, 57, 73-81. 

Nudelman, A., Levovich, I., Cutts, S. M., Phillips, D. R. and Rephaeli, A. (2005) The role of intracellularly released formaldehyde and butyric acid in the anticancer activity of acyloxyalkylesters. J. Med. Chem., 48, 1042-1054. 

Cutts, S.M., Nudelman, A., Pillay, V., Spencer, D.M.S., Levovich, I., Rephaeli, A. and Phillips, D.R. (2005) Formaldehyde-releasing prodrugs in combination with Adriamycin can overcome cellular drug resistance, Oncology Res., 15, 199-213.  

Cutts, S. M., Swift, L.P., Rephaeli, A., Nudelman, A. and Phillips, D. R. (2005) Recent advances in understanding and exploiting the activation of anthracyclines by formaldehyde. Current Medicinal Chemistry – Anti-Cancer Agents, 5, 431-447.  

Rephaeli, A., Entin-Meer, M., Angel, D., Tarasenko, N., Gruss-Fischer, T., Bruachman, I., Phillips, D.R., Cutts, S.M, Haas-Kogan, D. and Nudelman, A. (2006) The selectivity and anti-metastatic activity and selectivity of oral bioavailable butyric acid prodrugs. Investig. New Drugs, 24, 383-392. 

Swift, L.P., Rephaeli, A., Nudelman, A., Phillips, D.R. and Cutts, S.M (2006) Doxorubicin-DNA adducts induce a non-topoisomerase II mediated form of cell death. Cancer Res., 66, 4863-4871. 

Engel, D., Nudelman, A., Levovich, I., Gruss-Fischer, T., Phillips, D.R., Cutts, S.M. and Rephaeli, A. (2006) Mode of interaction between butyroyloxymethyl-diethyl phosphate (AN-7) and doxorubicin in MCF-7 and resistant MCF-7/Dx cell lines. J. Cancer Res. Clin. Oncol., 132, 673-683. 

Cutts SM, Pillay V, Nudelman A, Rephaeli A, Swift L and Phillips DR. (2007) Activation of clinically used anthracyclines by the formaldehyde-releasing prodrug Pivaloyloxymethyl butyrate. Mol. Cancer Therapeutics, 6, 1450-1459. 

Evison BJ, Mansour O, Menta E, Phillips DR and Cutts SM. (2007) Pixantrone can be activated by formaldehyde to generate a potent DNA-adduct forming agent. Nucleic Acids Res., 35, 3581-3589. 

Rephaeli, A, Waks-Yona S, Nudelman, A, Tarasenko I, Tarasenko N, Phillips, DR, Cutts, SM and Kessler-Icekson G. (2007) Anticancer prodrugs of butyric acid formaldehyde protect against doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity. Brit. J. Cancer, 96, 1667-1674. 

Swift, L.P., Rephaeli, A., Nudelman, A., Phillips, D.R. and Cutts, S.M. (2008) The cardio-protecting agent and topoisomerase II inhibitor subuzoxane enhances doxorubicin-DNA mediated cytotoxicity. Cancer Chemoth Pharm, 61, 739-749. 

Spencer, D.M.S., Bilardi, R.A., Koch, T.H., Post, G.C., Nafie, J.W., Kimura, K-I, Cutts, S.M. and Phillips, D.R. (2008) DNA Repair in Response to Anthracycline-DNA adducts: A role for both Homologous Recombination and Nucleotide Excision Repair, Mutation Res., 638, 110-121. 

Levovich I, Nudelman A, Berkovitch G, Swift LP, Cutts SM, Phillips DR and Rephaeli A (2008) Formaldehyde-releasing prodrugs specifically affect cancer cells by depletion of intracellular glutathione and augmentation of reactive oxygen species. Cancer Chemoth Pharm, 62, 471-482. 

Evison BJ, Pezzoni G, Phillips DR and Cutts SM (2008) Formaldehyde-activated pixantrone selectively alkylates DNA at CpG and CpA dinucleotide sequences. Mol. Pharmacol., 74, 184-194. 

Coldwell KE, Cutts SM, Ognibene TJ, Henderson PT and Phillips, DR (2008) Detection of Adriamycin-DNA adducts by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at clinically relevant Adriamycin concentrations. Nucleic Acids Res., 36 (16), e100. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkn439. 

Ugarenko M, Chan CK, Nudelman A, Rephaeli A, Cutts SM and Phillips DR (2009) Development of pluronic micelle-encapsulated doxorubicin and formaldehyde-releasing prodrugs for localized anticancer chemotherapy, Oncology Res., 17, 283-299. 

Evison B, Bilardi R, Chiu F, Pezzoni G, Phillips DR, Cutts SM (2009) CpG methylation potentiates pixantrone and doxorubicin-induced DNA damage and is a marker of drug sensitivity. Nucleic Acids Res., 37, 6355-6370. 

Kimura, K-I, Cutts, SM, Bilardi, R, Spencer, DMS, Swift, LP and Phillips DR (2010) Barminomycin, a model for the development of new anthracyclines. Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, 10, 70-77. 

Ugarenko M, Nudelman A, Rephaeli A, Kimura K-I, Phillips DR and Cutts SM (2009), ABT-737 overcomes Bcl-2 mediated resistance to doxorubicin-DNA adduct forming treatments. Biochem. Pharmacol., 79, 339-349. 

Mansour OC, Evison BJ, Sleebs BE, Watson KG, Nudelman A, Rephaeli A, Buck DP, Collins JG, Bilardi RA, Phillips DR, Cutts SM. (2010) New anthracenedione derivatives with improved biological activity by virtue of stable drug-DNA adduct formation. J. Med. Chem. 53, 6851-6866. 

Tarasenko N, Kessler-Icekson G, Boer P, Inbal A, Schlesinger H, Phillips DR, Cutts SM, Nudelman A, Rephaeli A. (2010) The histone deacetylase inhibitor butyroyloxymethyl diethylphosphate (AN-7) protects normal cells against toxicity of anticancer agents while augmenting their anticancer activity. Invest. New Drugs. Sep 23. [Epub ahead of print] 

Adnan N, Buck DP, Evison BJ, Cutts SM, Phillips DR, Collins JG. (2010) DNA binding by pixantrone. Org. Biomol. Chem. 8, 5359-5366.

 Book Chapters (2002 - 2010)

Phillips, D.R. and Cullinane, C. (2002) Adriamycin. In “Encyclopedia of Molecular Biology On-line”, Creighton, T.E. (Ed), John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Moufarij, M.A., Phillips, D.R. and Cullinane, C. (2002) Inhibition of repair of cisplatin-induced DNA damage by gemcitabine in 2008 ovarian cancer cells. In “Research Trends in Science and Technology”, Kabbani A. and El-Kasser, A. (Eds), Lebanese American University Press, Beirut, pp 161-176. 

Don R Phillips, Lonnie Swift, Kate Coldwell, Damian Spencer, Rebecca Bilardi, Benny Evison, Oula Mansour, Abraham Nudelman, Ada Rephaeli, Tad H Koch and Suzanne M Cutts (2010) Drug-DNA adducts formed by formaldehyde activation of anthracycline and related anti-cancer agents. In “Drug-DNA Adducts: Formation, Detection and Mutagenesis“, Alvarez, E. and Cunha, R (Eds.) Nova Science, NY, ISBN: 978-1-60741-433-9. 

Benny J Evison, Don R Phillips and Suzanne M Cutts (2010) In vitro transcription assay for resolution of drug-DNA interactions at defined sequences. In “Drug-DNA Interaction Protocols”, K Fox (Ed), Humana Press, ISBN: 978-1-60327-417-3, pp 207-222. 

Kate Coldwell, Suzanne M Cutts, Ted J Ognibene, Paul T Henderson and Don R Phillips (2010) Detection of Adriamycin-DNA adducts by accelerator mass spectrometry. In “Drug-DNA Interaction Protocols”, K Fox (Ed), ISBN: 978-1-60327-417-3, Humana Press, pp 103-118.