Background:
A/Prof. Thomas Cox is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow who
currently leads the Matrix and Metastasis Group at the Garvan
Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. His team focuses on how
the extracellular matrix (ECM) regulates resident cell behaviour
and specifically how it contributes to cancer progression,
metastasis and response to therapy. Recent work has focussed on how
discrete subtypes of cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) within
tumours underpin ECM remodelling programs that generate
pro-metastatic and chemoprotective environments (Nature
Communications2019); the development of new techniques to image the
ECM in health and disease (Nature Medicine2017); and the systemic
role of ECM remodelling in pre-metastatic niche formation
(Nature2015). The aim of Thomas' group is to establish targeting of
ECM dynamics as a viable therapeutic approach in the treatment of
solid tumours.