Jane Visvader is a

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

specialising in

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

research who works for the

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research research institute, institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobe ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. She is the joint head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory with Geoff Lindeman.

Education

Visvader holds a PhD in

Biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

having studied structure and function of citrus exocortis viroid

Career and research

After her PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide , she was a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

with

Inder Verma Inder Mohan Verma (born 28 November 1947) is an Indian American molecular biologist, the former Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Califo ...

(

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine; among th ...

, San Diego) and Jerry Adams (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI)). She worked at the Children's Hospital/

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

before returning to Victoria in 1997 to establish a Breast Cancer Laboratory at WEHI. Visvader has published work investigating the role of cells of origin in cancer and in particular focuses on the role of stem cells, which she believes may be a key to understanding breast cancer. She was elected to the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2012 and is currently (January 2022 - December 2027) a member of the International Exchanges Committee. The International Exchanges scheme allows a flexible platform for UK based scientists to interact with scientists around the world. Visvader is a board member of the Cancer Council Victoria, Medical & Scientific Committee.

Patents

Visvader is a named inventor on five

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s relating to cancer research focused on

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

isolation and diagnostics. *Method Of Cell Isolation, Application number: 20080038230 *Differentiation and/or proliferation modulating agents and uses therefor, Application number: 20060166917 *Novel phosphoprotein, Application number: 20060148032 *Method of diagnosis and treatment and agents useful for same, Application number: 20050048528 *Differentiation and/or proliferation modulating agents and uses therefore, Application number: 20030175971

Awards and recognition

*2008 GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (Joint with Geoff Lindeman) * 2012

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

*2014 Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal for Scientific Excellence in Biomedical & Health Sciences. *2016

National Health and Medical Research Council The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded res ...

Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship *2016

Lemberg Medal The Lemberg Medal, named after Max Rudolf Lemberg, the first president of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), is awarded annually to a scientist who has been a member for five or more years and who has "demonstr ...

, Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology *2016 Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences *2017 Victoria Prize for Science & Innovation (Joint with Geoff Lindeman) *2020

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS). *2022 Ziskin Prize, Stand Up to Cancer (joint award) *2022 Fellow of the American Society of Cancer Research (AACR) Academy *2024 Australia Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Outstanding Female Researcher Meda
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/nowiki>*2024 The Buchanan Medal for distinguished contributions to the biomedical sciences (Joint with Geoff Lindeman) *2025 Ruby Payne-Scott Medal and Lecture - for groundbreaking contributions to breast cancer research.

Selected publications

* *Nolan E, Vaillant F, Branstetter D, Pal B, Giner G, Whitehead L, Lok SW, Mann GB, Rohrbach K, Huang LY, Soriano R, Smyth GK, Dougall WC, Visvader JE* and Lindeman GJ*. (2016) ''RANK ligand as a potential target for breast cancer prevention in BRCA1-mutation carriers''. Nat Med. 2016 Jun 20. doi: 10.1038/nm.4118. PMID: 27322743 equal senior author *Fu NY, Rios AC, Pal B, Law C, Jamieson P, Liu R, Vaillant F, Jackling F, Liu KH, Smyth GK, Lindeman GJ, Ritchie ME, and Visvader JE. ''Identification of quiescent and spatially-restricted mammary stem cells that are hormone responsive''. Nature Cell Biol. 2017 19(3):164-176 PMID: 28192422 *Rios AC, Capaldo BD, Vaillant F, Pal B, van Ineveld R, Dawson CA, Chen Y, Nolan E, Fu NY; 3DTCLSM Group, Jackling FC, Devi S, Clouston D, Whitehead L, Smyth GK, Mueller SN, Lindeman GJ, Visvader JE. ''Intraclonal Plasticity in Mammary Tumors Revealed through Large-Scale Single-Cell Resolution 3D Imaging.'' Cancer Cell. 2019 35(4), 618-632 PMID: 31185217 *Dawson CA, Pal B, Vaillant F, Gandolfo LC, Liu Z, Bleriot C, Ginhoux F, Smyth GK, Lindeman GJ, Mueller SN, Rios AC, Visvader JE. ''Tissue-resident ductal macrophages survey the mammary epithelium and facilitate tissue remodelling''. Nature Cell Biol. 2020 22(5), 546-558. PMID: 32341550 *Pal B, Chen Y, Vaillant F, Capaldo BD, Joyce R, Song X, Bryant VL, Penington JS, Di Stephano L, Tubau Ribera N, Wilcox S, Mann, GB, kConFab, Papenfuss AT, Lindeman GJ, Smyth GK*, Visvader JE*. ''A single-cell RNA expression atlas of normal, preneoplastic and tumorigenic states in the human breast.'' EMBO J. 2021 40(11): e107333 PMID: 33950524 *equal senior authors *Nolan E, Lindeman, G, Visvader JE ''Deciphering breast cancer: from biology to the clinic.'' Cell 2023 Volume 186, Issue 8 *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Visvader, Jane Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian women academics Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Australian women scientists Cancer researchers Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Female fellows of the Royal Society WEHI alumni