2023 ANZSA Sarcoma Research Grant Recipient - Dr. Ian Parish

Introducing Dr. Ian Parish, one of the four ANZSA sarcoma research grant recipients of 2023! Dr. Parish has received funding from ANZSA for his project, Investigating the role of CD8+ T cell tolerance within the tumour-draining lymph node in immune evasion by retroperitoneal sarcoma.

For the first time, the project seeks to molecularly analyse the tumour and surrounding lymph nodes (which are removed routinely at the time of surgery) and demonstrate the presence of tolerant immune cells in the lymph nodes. This will enable his team to assess if future immunotherapies targeting peripheral tolerance would have utility in treating sarcoma.

Dr. Parish is a fundamental immunologist with expertise in the negative regulation of T-cell function. He completed his PhD at the WEHI, where he studied the cellular and molecular regulation of peripheral T-cell tolerance.

His research group studies the fundamental biology of T cell negative regulation in a range of contexts, intending to apply this knowledge to guide innovative immunotherapy approaches for cancer treatment. He will apply this expertise to study immune biomarkers associated with sarcoma, with the long-term goal of identifying new immunotherapy approaches for sarcoma treatment.

ANZSA support his research and we look forward to seeing the results in the future.