Jean Winter
Research Fellow
College of Medicine and Public Health
Dr Jean Winter, PhD
Bowel Health Services, Biomarker Discovery & Application Lead
https://www.flinders.edu.au/cancer/research-groups/bowel-health-service
Dr Jean M. Winter completed her PhD (2015) at Flinders University of South Australia, and was an integral part of a randomised clinical trial establishing the first evidence in humans that pro-mutagenic DNA adducts form within colorectal cells after consumption of a high red meat diet (PMID:26084032; PMID: 25092886). This pivotal work was referenced in The Lancet by the World Health Organization (PMID: 26514947) as being evidence for a mechanistic link between consumption of red meat and risk of developing colorectal cancer, and steered international policy for prevention of colorectal cancer. At the completion of her PhD in 2015 Dr Winter obtained a competitive traineeship position at the leading international research establishment The National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. Her work at the NIH, in collaboration with The Mayo Clinic and National Cancer Institute, established a new conceptual framework that identified genetic variants affecting a patient’s risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer (PMID:29983878, PMID: 29890952, PMID: 27916600). On her return to Australia in 2017 at The University of Adelaide she was awarded a 3-year Early Career Fellowship through the Beat Cancer Project, Cancer Council SA, where she developed a novel, high-content imaging and bioinformatics pipeline for discovery of anti-cancer drugs to treat breast and prostate cancer, in collaboration with the Victorian centre for Functional Genomics at the Peter Mac Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Dr Winter currently coordinates four clinical trials in gastrointestinal cancer screening and biomarkers in her role as Lead of the Biomarker Discovery and Application program within the Bowel Health Service. Dr Winter is also developing novel treatments for gastroinestinal cancers in collaboration with the Flinders University Marine Bioproducts Centre of Research Excellence.
EDUCATION
2015
Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) – Flinders University of South Australia
2009
Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) - Flinders University of South Australia.
2005
Bachelor of Medical Science (Undergraduate) - Flinders University of South Australia.
MEDALS AND AWARDS
2023 Best Oral Presentation by a Mid-Career Academic, Emerging Leaders Showcase, Flinders University.
2022 Travel award,GESA Research Workshop, Australian Gastroenterology Week.
2019 AWE outstanding abstract award – Endocrine Society of Australia.
2019 Travel Award, FHTTA Conference 2019.
2017 NIH Summer Research Mentor Award – National Institutes of Health, USA.
2016 International Mammalian Genome Society Travel Award to the Allied Genetics Conference.
2015 Vice Chancellors Best Student Paper Award – FlindersUniversity.
2014 Executive Dean PhD Research Student Publication Award – Flinders University.
2014 Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Student Conference Grant - FlindersUniversity.
2013 Student Paper Awards – Flinders University.
2012 Best Student Paper Award – Flinders University.
2012 Early Career Investigator Award – Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis SocietyMeeting, Seattle,USA.
2010 Best Student Oral Presentation – ASMR SA AnnualScientificMeeting, Adelaide.
2009 Flinders University Medal for Outstanding Achievement (Hons) – Flinders University.
2009 Recipient of the “Chancellor’s Letter of Commendation” (Hons) – Flinders University
Dr Jean Winter is a Research Associate and Clinical Trial Coordinator within The Bowel Health Services Team at Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer. She coordinates a prospective clinical trial funded by the MRFF to investigate applicaiton of a blood biomarker test to diagnose and monitor gastrointestinal cancers, and an NHMRC study to develop novel biomarkers for colorectal cancers in patients presenting with symptoms. She also leads an NHMRC funded randomised controlled trial to assess the benefits of extending colonoscopy surveillance intervals in patients at increased risk of developing colorectal cancer.
2021-2022 Primary Supervisor - FHMRI Summer Research Award
2021-2022 Mentor for the FHMRI group mentoring scheme for HDR students
2021
Conducted a Flilnders University Bioinformatics workshop on colorectal cancer screening.
Apr 2014-Dec 2014
Tutor and Marking Assistant – School of Medicine, Flinders University
Running tutorials in Molecular Genetics for students in the Medicine program.
COMMITTEES and ADVISORY BOARDS
2022-Current FHMRI Cancer Executive Committee, Flinders University
2021-Current Consumer Advisory Board member (Research Scientist representative), FHMRI
2021-current FHMRI Biomarker Collective, Flinders University
MEMBERSHIPS (2017 onwards)
2022-current
American Society of Clinical Oncology (Society) and the Association for Clinical Oncology (Association)
2014-current
American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)
American Association of Cancer Research Women in Cancer Research
Australian Society for Medical Research
2017-2020
Endocrine Society of Australia (ESA)
2017-2020
South Australian Breast cancer Study Group
2016-2018
International Mammalian Genome Society (IMGS)
2017
Steering Committee for the NIH Career Symposium
2016-2017
GU Malignancies Center of Excellence Translational Journal Club
VOLUNTEER AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (2017 onwards)
2021-current
College of Medicine and Public Health – Junior mentor in the HDR group mentoring program.
2021-current
Cancer Voices SA: Volunteer liaison officer for the consumer group “Cancer Voices SA”.
2020
Cancer Council SA: “Daffodil Day Thankathon”
2019
Cancer Council SA: “Daffodil Day” engaging with the community and highlighting the importance of Cancer Councils contributions to medical research in South Australia.
Cancer Council SA: “Interview with Keith”
National Breast Cancer Foundation: “Mother’s Day Classic”
2018
Cancer Council SA: “Australia Biggest Morning Tea”
Cancer Council SA: “How Cancer Council is helping me conduct life-saving research” a blog/interview about my breast cancer research for publication on the Cancer Council SA website.
Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health: Speaking role at the Men’s Health lunch time seminar
National Breast Cancer Foundation: “Mother’s Day Classic”
2017
Movember Foundation raising funds and awareness for men’s health
NIH Postbac Poster Day Volunteer judge
Project Lead the Way Teaching high school students about genetics of prostate cancer
Translation into policy/practice
2015 Public health policy: Carcinogenicity of consumption of red meat. Dr Winter's PhD research on DNA adduct accumulation in humans with high red meat consumption (Le Leu RK, Winter JM et al 2015) was cited in "The Lancet Oncology" by the IACR/WHO as being evidence for a mechanistic link to increasing colorectal cancer risk among humans. Recommendations made by WHO state that red meat acts as a carcinogen, guiding practice and policy in health of humans globally.
Peer Review Service
2020: Honour’s student assessor and examiner for University of Adelaide.
2020-2021: PhD examiner for University of Melbourne and University of Tasmania.
2019: National Breast Cancer Foundation PRC panel, review and scoring grant applications.
2013-current: Dr Winter provides peer review service for medical journals on a regular basis, including the following: BMC Gastroenterology, The World Journal of Gastroenterology, GUT Clinical Epigenetics, Molecular Biology Reports, Scientific Reports, Nucleic Acids Research, “G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics”, Journal of Endocrinology, British Journal of Nutrition, Drug Design, Development and Therapy, Oncotarget, Clinical Epidemiology, Cancer Biomarkers.
Research Datasets
2021 Gene Expression Omnibus: GSE137072Expression profiling by high throughput sequencingGenome binding/occupancy profiling by high throughput sequencing
2018 Gene Expression Omnibus: GSE101982 HIST1H1A is a member of the linker histone family that is involved in correct folding and compaction of chromatin. We used lentival transduction to stably express HIST1H1A in human prostate cancer LNCaP cells and examined the changes in gene expression.
2017 Gene Expression Omnibus: GSE108131RNA-seq analysis of 115 randomly selected (TRAMP x WSB/EiJ) F2 prostates harvested at experimental termination was performed to identify metastasis associated transcriptomic changes
2016 Gene Expression Omnibus: GSE87491Expression profiling by microarray and high throughput sequencing of TRAMP x DO F1 mouse tumors and genomic DNA, and microarray profiling of human prostate cancer cell (PC-3) clonal isolates over-expressing the genes CENPU and RWDD4.
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