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Maya Kansara

Dr Maya Kansara

Group Leader
Genomic Cancer Medicine Lab

Dr Maya Kansara undertook her PhD in the laboratory of Professor Michael Berridge at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, affiliated with Otago University, New Zealand. She investigated the regulation of glucose transporters in cancer. Following her PhD she was recruited to the Genomics and Genetics of Sarcoma group headed by Professor David Thomas at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, in Melbourne, Australia.

Maya was responsible for establishing and characterising preclinical models of osteosarcoma in the laboratory. These models have been used to investigate the role of WIF1 and RB1 genes, as well as to identify the components of the immune system, including IL-6, type 1 interferons, IL-23 and NKT cells that sculpt the growth osteosarcoma in vivo.

In mid 2015 she moved to Sydney to work at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research’s Kinghorn Cancer Institute, where she is currently a Group Leader in the Cancer Research Division. Here she has continued her interests in identifying new treatment strategies in osteosarcoma.

Awards

  • 2008NHMRC Project grant - Role of WIF1 in osteosarcoma CIB
  • 2009Best of Best Research Poster
  • 2011NHMRC Project grant - Molecular pathways mediating the anti-tumour activity of WIF1
  • 2013NHMRC Project grant - Translational immunobiology of osteosarcoma
  • 2015NHMRC Project grant -Targeting the PD-1 pathway in osteosarcoma

Selected Publications

See all publications
  • 2023
    Oncogene10.1038/s41388-023-02864-7

    Ligand-dependent hedgehog signaling maintains an undifferentiated, malignant osteosarcoma phenotype.

    Vijesh G Vaghjiani, Catherine R Cochrane, W Samantha N Jayasekara, Wai Chin Chong, Anette Szczepny, Beena Kumar, Luciano G Martelotto, Andrew McCaw, Kirstyn Carey, Maya Kansara, David M Thomas, Carl Walkley, Stuart Mudge, Daniel J Gough, Peter A Downie, Craig D Peacock, William Matsui, D Neil Watkins, Jason E Cain
  • 2023
    British journal of cancer10.1038/s41416-023-02311-0

    A signal-seeking Phase 2 study of olaparib and durvalumab in advanced solid cancers with homologous recombination repair gene alterations.

    Subotheni Thavaneswaran, Maya Kansara, Frank Lin, David Espinoza, John P Grady, Chee Khoon Lee, Mandy L Ballinger, Lucille Sebastian, Theresa Corpuz, Min Ru Qiu, Piyushkumar Mundra, Charles G Bailey, Ulf Schmitz, John Simes, Anthony M Joshua, David M Thomas
  • 2023
    Science (New York, N.Y.)10.1126/science.abj4784

    Heritable defects in telomere and mitotic function selectively predispose to sarcomas.

    Mandy L Ballinger, Swetansu Pattnaik, Piyushkumar A Mundra, Milita Zaheed, Emma Rath, Peter Priestley, Jonathan Baber, Isabelle Ray-Coquard, Nicholas Isambert, Sylvain Causeret, Winette T A van der Graaf, Ajay Puri, Florence Duffaud, Axel Le Cesne, Beatrice Seddon, Coonoor Chandrasekar, Joshua D Schiffman, Andrew S Brohl, Paul A James, Jean-Emmanuel Kurtz, Nicolas Penel, Ola Myklebost, Leonardo A Meza-Zepeda, Hilda Pickett, Maya Kansara, Nicola Waddell, Olga Kondrashova, John V Pearson, Andrew P Barbour, Shuai Li, Tuong L Nguyen, Diane Fatkin, Robert M Graham, Eleni Giannoulatou, Melissa J Green, Warren Kaplan, Shyamsundar Ravishankar, Joseph Copty, Joseph E Powell, Edwin Cuppen, Kristel van Eijk, Jan Veldink, Jin-Hee Ahn, Jeong Eun Kim, R Lor Randall, Kathy Tucker, Ian Judson, Rajiv Sarin, Thomas Ludwig, Emmanuelle Genin, Jean-Francois Deleuze, , Michelle Haber, Glenn Marshall, Murray J Cairns, Jean-Yves Blay, , David M Thomas, Martin Tattersall, Susan Neuhaus, Craig Lewis, Kathy Tucker, Richard Carey-Smith, David Wood, Sandro Porceddu, Ian Dickinson, Heather Thorne, Paul James, Isabelle Ray-Coquard, Jean-Yves Blay, Philippe Cassier, Axel Le Cesne, Florence Duffaud, Nicolas Penel, Nicolas Isambert, Jean-Emmanuel Kurtz, Ajay Puri, Rajiv Sarin, Jin-Hee Ahn, Jeong Eun Kim, Iain Ward, Ian Judson, Winette van der Graaf, Beatrice Seddon, Coonoor Chandrasekar, Rory Rickar, Ivo Hennig, Joshua Schiffman, R Lor Randall, Audrey Silvestri, Anaiis Zaratzian, Michael Tayao, Kelly Walwyn, Eveline Niedermayr, Denia Mang, Richard Clark, Tina Thorpe, Jessica MacDonald, Kim Riddell, Jasmine Mar, Vicki Fennelly, Allison Wicht, Belinda Zielony, Emma Galligan, Genna Glavich, Johanna Stoeckert, Lynda Williams, Lana Djandjgava, Iwona Buettner, Carla Osinki, Sonya Stephens, Muriel Rogasik, Laure Bouclier, Magali Girodet, Amandine Charreton, Yohan Fayet, Saniya Crasto, Bhanupriya Sandupatla, Yeon Yoon, Noda Je, Liz Thompson, Trent Fowler, Bella Johnson, Galina Petrikova, Thomas Hambridge, Angela Hutchins, Diego Bottero, Deborah Scanlon, Jo Stokes-Denson, Emmanuelle Génin, Dominique Campion, Jean-François Dartigues, Jean-François Deleuze, Jean-Charles Lambert, Richard Redon, Thomas Ludwig, Benjamin Grenier-Boley, Sébastien Letort, Pierre Lindenbaum, Vincent Meyer, Olivier Quenez, Christian Dina, Céline Bellenguez, Camille Charbonnier Le Clézio, Joanna Giemza, Stéphanie Chatel, Claude Férec, Hervé Le Marec, Luc Letenneur, Gaël Nicolas, Karen Rouault
  • 2022
    Molecular oncology10.1002/1878-0261.13349

    Early circulating tumor DNA dynamics as a pan-tumor biomarker for long-term clinical outcome in patients treated with durvalumab and tremelimumab.

    Maya Kansara, Neeru Bhardwaj, Subotheni Thavaneswaran, Chang Xu, Jessica K Lee, Lo-Bin Chang, Russell W Madison, Frank Lin, Eugene Hsu, Vipul Kumar Patel, Alexey Aleshin, Geoffrey R Oxnard, John Simes, Halla Nimeiri, David M Thomas
  • 2021
    NPJ precision oncology10.1038/s41698-021-00194-z

    Criteria-based curation of a therapy-focused compendium to support treatment recommendations in precision oncology.

    Frank P Lin, Subotheni Thavaneswaran, John P Grady, Mandy Ballinger, Maya Kansara, Samantha R Oakes, Jayesh Desai, Chee Khoon Lee, John Simes, David M Thomas
See all Garvan publications