Mitchell Stark
Following graduation from Honours in Life Science in 1998 (QUT) Mitchell worked as a Senior Research Assistant for Professor Nicholas Hayward at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR). For over 10 years he has worked towards understanding the aetiology of melanoma, studied gene dysregulation during tumour progression, as well as the predisposition to melanoma in high risk families. Mitchell has been an author of 41 scientific journal publications which have been cited 2076 times (h-index:19). The most significant highlight was the discovery that the BRAF oncogene was highly mutated (80%) in benign naevi (Pollock et al., Nature Genetics, 2003). Mitchell has extensive experience in the use of high-throughput genomic technologies, including microarrays and SNP chips, used to identify whole genome amplification and deletions in melanoma (Stark and Hayward, Cancer Research, 2007) and next-generation sequencing. The latter included small RNA (including miRNA) sequencing (Stark et al., PLoS One, 2010) and whole-exome and genome sequencing, to identify novel somatic mutations in melanoma as well as germline predisposition genes (Stark et al., Nature Genetics,2011; Yokoyama et al., Nature, 2011). Mitchell’s current project, which forms the basis of his PhD, is the identification of a blood-based biomarker (miRNA) for melanoma detection. The hope is that this biomarker will aid in the early diagnosis of distant metastasis in patients undergoing surveillance for recurrence of disease and possibly as a biomarker for at risk individuals yet to exhibit signs of primary melanoma.
Abstracts this author is presenting: