Research fellowships awarded by Cancer Council SA

University of Adelaide researchers Dr Jacqueline Noll and Dr Chloe Thompson-Peach have been named Cancer Council SA Research Fellows for 2025.

Dr Noll works in the Myeloma Research Laboratory, School of Biomedicine, University of Adelaide based in the Precision Cancer Medicine Theme at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and Dr Thompson-Peach is based in the Myeloid Metabolism Laboratory, also at SAMHRI.

“We congratulate Dr Noll and Dr Thompson-Peach on receiving the support of Cancer Council SA for their research,” said Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, the University of Adelaide.

“Many in our communities are touched by cancer, and the work our researchers are doing contributes to the search for better outcomes for those people and their families.”

Dr Thompson-Peach is researching new treatments for CALR-driven myelofibrosis - a rare blood cancer with limited effective treatment options.

Her research aims to better understand why certain CALR mutations result in more severe symptoms and to create therapies which specifically target mutated cells while preserving the healthy ones.

By tailoring treatments to different CALR mutations, Dr Thompson-Peach hopes to improve care and enhance outcomes for people with myelofibrosis.

Dr Noll’s focus within the Myeloma Research Laboratory is interactions between tumour cells and the bone marrow microenvironment, specifically multiple myeloma’s relationship to an asymptomatic condition known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance.

Her research team has identified an enzyme which is essential for myeloma tumour development in preclinical models of the disease.

Through investigating the function of this enzyme in tumour development, Dr Noll aims to determine if it is a therapeutic target to slow or prevent MGUS transition to myeloma, and to inform which people diagnosed with MGUS will progress to a myeloma diagnosis.