| BSc (Hons), MSc (Human Genetics), PhD (Cancer Genetics)
Group Leader, Cancer Genetics Group
Contact: Dr Vanessa Hayes
Email: vhayes@ccia.org.au
After graduating with a PhD in Cancer Genetics, University of Groningen, Netherlands (1999), heading a Laboratory investigating genetic susceptibility to HIV/AIDS in South Africa, Dr Hayes moved to Australia in 2003. As group leader of Cancer Genetics first at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (2003 to 2008), she was recruited to the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia and the new Lowy Cancer Research Centre (Sydney) in February 2008.
Dr Hayes has a keen interest in utilising state-of-the-art genetic-based technologies (including high-throughput genotyping platforms and next-generation sequencing) to advance her research into both human cancer and more recently a facial cancer threatening the eminent extinction of Australia’s largest carnivorous marsupial, the Tasmanian devil.
She has utilised her expertise in technology development to advance knowledge on the effects of DNA sequence variation in predisposition, rate of development, and prognosis of human cancers. Her major contribution has been in the area of associating DNA variation to prostate cancer risk in Australian men. She is working closely with leading Australian epidemiologists in this area.
Dr Hayes has a specific focus on using ethnic differences and genome-wide associations studies to identify markers of prostate cancer risk. She is an adjunct Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University and a 2009 Australian-American Fulbright Professional Scholar.
Key Publications
1. Tindall EA, Speight G, Petersen DC, Padilla EJD, Hayes VM. Novel PlexorTM SNP Genotyping Technology: Comparisons with TaqMan and Homogenous MassEXTENDTM MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry. Human Mutation (2007), in press.
2. Hayes VM, Severi G, Padilla EJD, Morris HA, Tilley WD, Southey MC, English DR, Sutherland RL, Hopper JL, Boyle P, Giles GG. 5-Alpha reductase type 2 gene variants associations with prostate cancer risk, circulating hormone levels and androgenetic alopecia. International J Cancer (2007) 120:776-780
3. Severi GS, Hayes VM, Padilla EJD, English DR, Southey MC, Sutherland RL, Hopper JL, Giles GG. The common variant rs1447295 on chromosome 8q24 and prostate cancer risk: results from an Australian population-based case-control study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev (2007), 16:610-612
4. Hayes VM, Severi G, Southey MC, Padilla EJD, English DR, Hopper JL, Giles GG, Sutherland RL. Macrophage Inhibitory Cytokine-1 H6D Polymorphism, Prostate Cancer Risk and Survival. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention (2006) 15:1223-1225.
5. Hayes VM. Genetic diversity of the Alpha-1-Antitrypsin gene in Africans identified using a novel genotyping assay. Human Mutation (2003) 22:59-66. |
