Willem Lesterhuis

Dr. Willem (Joost) Lesterhuis is an NHMRC RD Wright Research Fellow with the School of Biomedical Sciences and the National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases at the University of Western Australia. He has a background as a dual-trained medical oncologist and basic researcher in tumour immunology and cancer biology.

His research focuses on identifying new effective treatment combinations in cancer, in particular in mesothelioma, and focusing on immunotherapy. Using network analysis of gene expression data from tumours in mouse models and patient samples, his research aims to identify predictive biomarkers for clinical efficacy of immuno-oncology drugs, as well as new context-specific targets for pharmacological intervention and novel combination treatments.

His research combines several lines of science; systems biology, network science, cancer biology, pharmacology/drug discovery, immunology and translational oncology.

Current research projects include:
1- Combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy to treat cancer, in particular mesothelioma and lung cancer.
2- Unravelling the cellular and molecular processes that govern successful immunotherapy-induced cancer regression, using systems biology approaches.
3- Identification of the molecular processes that drive mesothelioma invasion using network analysis of high-dimensional molecular data from mouse models and patient samples.