Dr Stephen Blake

Academic Status

Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute

place SA Health & Medical Research Institute
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Dr. Stephen Blake is an academic status holder in the College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University.

Stephen has worked in the cancer immunotherapy field with successive post-doctoral positions, such as at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (UQDI) and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute with leading Australian experts, Professor Nigel McMillan and Associate Professor Raymond Steptoe etc He worked to develop novel cancer therapies to enhance host immune responses against cancer cells, these included dual functional siRNA that could both inhibit oncogene expression in cancer cells and activate host immune responses through TLR7 signalling. He also evaluated the role of the T-cell checkpoint PD-1 in mediating T-cell tolerance and how blockade can enhance adoptive immunotherapy in tumor bearing mice. This interest in immunotherapy was continued to his research at the QIMR Berghofer in Brisbane. His researches helped identify new members of the nectin interacting receptors as potential targets to enhance natural killer cell control of metastases.

In 2016, Stephen started his senior postdoctoral fellowship career, at the Precision Cancer Medicine Theme, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), also became group member in the Lynn Group, EMBL Australia, which led by Professor David Lynn in order to pursue his developing interest in the gut microbiota and host immune function. A key focus of his group which was recently demonstrated by a high impact paper in Cell Reports Medicine. Stephen has jointly developed a research program within Prof. Lynn’s group, to study how the microbiota can influence the efficacy, toxicity and patient recovery from immunotherapy and conventional cancer therapies.

Qualifications

Ph. D., The University of Adelaide, 2009.

Bachelor of Science (Honours), The University of Adelaide, 2004.

Bachelor of Science, The University of Adelaide, 2003.