Mielke - Mucosal Immunity and Cancer
Dr Lisa Mielke is Head of the Mucosal Immunity and Cancer laboratory at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. She is a Cancer Program Lead for the La Trobe Institute of Molecular Sciences, La Trobe University. Dr Mielke is an expert in immune cell biology, intestinal homeostasis and colorectal cancer. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne and National Institutes of Health USA. She then performed postdoctoral studies at Trinity College Dublin and the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne. During this time, Dr Mielke led numerous studies revealing new interactions between our diet and transcriptional regulation of intestinal immune cells. These studies opened an exciting frontier of research in the field of mucosal immunology that underpin her current interest investigating the role of immune cells in bowel cancer.
Dr Mielke leads the Mucosal Immunity and Cancer Laboratory, which aims to understand the function of immune cells in maintaining homeostasis and cancer progression of the large bowel and stomach.
Research Areas
Function of intestinal immune cells in bowel cancer
Intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) are immune cells which continually survey intestinal epithelial cells for infection or damage. Bowel cancer forms when the epithelial cells become damaged and change, growing in an uncontrolled manner. The role of IELs in this process, and whether or not they play a role in tumour cell growth or killing tumour cells, has not been studied in detail. Our laboratory aims to understand these cells, including the molecules that regulate their function in steady state development and in the development of cancer.
Regulation of cytokines in the gastrointestinal tract
Cytokines, such as IL-17 and IL-22, are secreted by immune cells and are critical in boosting epithelial cell and tumour survival in the intestine. Bowel cancer patients with increased IL-17 and IL-22 levels experience increased tumour growth and have a poorer prognosis. We are dissecting the molecular pathways and cell types involved in regulating IL-17 and IL-22 production to investigate the role these cytokines play in bowel cancer progression. It is crucial that we understand these mechanisms so we can develop new immune cell-mediated therapies to treat gastrointestinal cancers.
Influence of the microbiome on immune health
Each person’s microbiome is unique and is made up of good bacteria, viruses and fungi which live on the body’s surfaces, such as the skin and intestine. Our understanding of these resident microbes and how they affect the body’s immune response to an infectious organism or disease, such as cancer, is limited. We are working to understand the mechanisms which link the microbiome to overall immune cell health, including the activation of transcription factors that guide immune cell development, as well as the cytokines they secrete in order to communicate with the rest of the body’s cells.
Meet the team
Group members
Group Leader
Dr Lisa Mielke
Postdoctoral Researcher
Pavitha Parathan
Research assistant
Kelly Tran
PhD students
Chloe Jackson
Marina Yakou
Katerine Eljammas
Andrew Li
Publications
See a full list of publications at Dr Lisa Mielke's profile.
