ACRF INCITe Centre

Our holistic approach targets both the cancer cell and the extrinsic environment in which it resides. Cancer cells, stromal cells, the extracellular matrix (ECM) and immune cells all interact as part of a dynamic ecosystem. We believe that meaningful insights can only be yielded when this ecosystem is simultaneously examined through the lenses of both cancer and immunology. The benefits of exploring cellular dynamics in cancer cell niches, in vivo and in real time, have driven us to develop new microscopes that make deep tissue imaging possible. 

Our team has pioneered the development of intravital imaging technology – a microscope technique with the ability to look directly into living tissues in real time. This offers the exciting prospect of studying the complex cancer–immune cell ecosystem in toto for the first time. 

Our NICHEscopes are the next generation of intravital two-photon microscopes, explicitly designed to image cancer–immune cell interactions in their native microenvironment. We have built different and complementary types of NICHEscopes to achieve two specific objectives:  (1) a revolutionary Raster Adaptive Optics (RAO) module to image deeper and (2)   fast fluorescence lifetime imaging technology for in vivo molecular interactions. Together, these two bespoke NICHEscopes enable multimodal, multiscale imaging of deep tissues that has not previously been possible.

The NICHEscopes housed at the INCITe Centre at the Garvan Institute are available to cancer researchers across Australia. The Centre includes dedicated image analysis facilities and an innovative shared virtual lab environment, providing investigators at partner organisations with remote access to imaging work stations and training. Workstations loaded with Imaris analysis software licences allow researchers to share data in real time, regardless of where they are located. This allows the Australian research community to crowdsource experiments, access and analyse data, and leverage a wider research network from within their host organisations. In addition to this, we will investigate the use of augmented reality technologies for the remote operation of our microscopes. 

For more information about our technology, or to discuss accessing it to support your research, please email incite@garvan.org.au. 

We leverage the national precision oncology trials platform Omico and the Molecular Screening and Therapeutics trial (MoST), which use genomics and other molecular screening tools to identify patients for therapeutic trials, including immunotherapies. MoST is a key part of a program which will screen more than 8,000 Australians with advanced cancer via 15 cancer centres nationally, and enter more than 600 into promising therapeutic trials. Led by Professor Thomas and Professor John Simes (NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre), a core objective of MoST is accelerating promising wet lab research to clinical translation. Using the ACRF INCITe Centre and our capacity to monitor the tumour microenvironment and fibrosis, we are running two anti-fibrotic clinical trials via MOST-P, to improve outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer. This is coupled with our ongoing industrial collaborations to translate our non-genomic work from bench-to-bedside via Amplia therapeutics, using anti-fibrotic targeting in cancer.