ARC Future Fellow, Senior Research Fellow
Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering
School of Molecular SciencesPhysical Science 4 room 365B/365 (L), Melbourne (Bundoora)
BSc Hons, PhD UMELB.
ASBMB, ASMR
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
After completing a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, Chris graduated with Honours in Genetics in 1991. She gained additional experience working as a research assistant for two years, and then commenced a PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, under David Vaux's supervision. Her PhD focussed on the evolutionary conservation of the molecular regulation of apoptosis, or programmed cell death. In 1997 she obtained her PhD and accepted a postdoctoral position in Bruce Hay's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. For the next two years, she investigated Drosophila cell death signalling pathways. During that time she also developed two yeast-based systems for dissecting cell death pathways. In 1999 she returned to Australia, joining David Ashley's Tumour Immunology group at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne as a senior postdoctoral fellow. She established the Apoptosis Laboratory of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Royal Children's Hospital in 2002. Chris moved her laboratory to La Trobe University in 2006. She currently focuses on researching the pathways that regulate cell death, and the ways in which these pathways are altered during viral infection and cancer. Chris has previously held two NHMRC Career Development awards and is currently an ARC Future Fellow. Her research projects are supported by grants from the NH&MRC and Cancer Council Victoria.
- Apoptosis
- Viral pathogenesis
- Targeted therapies
- Oncogenesis
- Caspases
- Cell Death
MED3MSA Advanced Topics in Medical Science A
BCH3BMA Advanced Topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Brand, I.L., Green, M.M., Civciristov, S., Pantaki-Eimany, D., George, C., Gort, T.R., Huang, N., Clem, R.J. and Hawkins, C.J. (2011) Functional and biochemical characterization of the baculovirus caspase inhibitor MaviP35. Cell Death Dis. 2, e242
Lovric, M.M., Hawkins, C.J. (2010). TRAIL treatment provokes mutations in surviving cells. Oncogene 29: 5048-5060.
Kitevska, T., Spencer, D.M., Hawkins, C.J. Caspase-2: controversial killer or checkpoint controller? Apoptosis. 14(7):829-48 (2009).
Fletcher, J.I., Meusburger, S., Hawkins, C.J., Riglar, D.T., Lee, E.F., Fairlie, W.D., Huang, D.C., Adams, J.M., Apoptosis is triggered when prosurvival Bcl-2 proteins cannot restrain Bax. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.. 105(47): 18081-18087 (2008).
Scott FL, Fuchs GJ, Boyd SE, Denault JB, Hawkins CJ, Dequiedt F, Salvesen GS. Caspase-8 cleaves histone deacetylase 7 and abolishes its transcription repressor function. J Biol Chem. 283(28):19499-510 (2008) .
Ashley, D.M., Riffkin, C.D., Lovric, M.M., Mikeska ,T., Dobrovic, A., Maxwell, J.A., Friedman, H.S., Drummond, K.J., Kaye, A.H., Gan, H.K., Johns, T.G., Hawkins, C.J.. In vitro sensitivity testing of minimally passaged and uncultured gliomas with TRAIL and/or chemotherapy drugs. Br. J. Cancer. 99(2):294-304 (2008).
Vince JE, Chau D, Callus B, Wong WW, Hawkins CJ, Schneider P, McKinlay M, Benetatos CA, Condon SM, Chunduru SK, Yeoh G, Brink R, Vaux DL, Silke J. TWEAK-FN14 signaling induces lysosomal degradation of a cIAP1-TRAF2 complex to sensitize tumor cells to TNFalpha. J Cell Biol. 182(1):171-84 (2008).
Westein, S.J., Scott, F.L., Hawkins, C.J. Analysis of the minimal specificity of CED-3 using a yeast transcriptional reporter system. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1783(3):448-54 (2008).