Researchers who have developed a new research method that reduces the use of animals in the laboratory have been awarded this year's esteemed Voiceless Eureka Prize.
Maria Kavallaris and colleagues at Sydney's Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research (CCIA) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) used molecular biology and cell culture techniques to develop a method for identifying mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer cells, without the need for animal testing.
Drug resistance in cancer is a major clinical problem. Kavallaris and her team dissected protein pathways involved in response to chemotherapy by developing and using cancer cells lines in culture. This work led to the identification of a new protein involved in drug resistance in leukemia.
