Dr Kristina Warton
Research Institution: UNSW Sydney
OCRF priorities the researcher addresses: Early Detection
Their OCRF-funded research projects: Early detection of ovarian cancer using tumour DNA methylation patterns from blood to develop a PCR-based test
When you work in cancer you realise that everyone is looking for a cure for cancer, but a functioning and effective early detection test would be just as good for patient outcomes — that’s why I’ve pursued early detection research for ovarian cancer.”
About Dr Warton’s research
Dr Kristina Warton leads the UNSW Ovarian Cancer Research Group, which specialises in early detection cancer research, molecular testing, and non-invasive patient monitoring.
Background
From a family of researchers, Dr Warton’s father is an electron microscopist and mother a neurobiologist. Dr Warton grew up in Poland and was always intrigued by science.
“When you’re young thinking about how the world works – science can provide satisfying answers.”
Following a move to Australia, she completed her PhD at the UNSW Sydney before taking up a postdoctoral position at St Vincent’s Hospital where she examined genes that are involved in inflammation. After working in the biotech industry Dr Warton became a cancer researcher. Her lab specialises in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) early detection tests, informing her OCRF-funded project.
Career highlights
In research forums, the team saw questions about PCR testing and realised they could provide answers and help the sector. While designing PCR tests during OCRF-funded research, Dr Warton uncovered insights into a phenomena seen in a type of PCR testing: DNA targets that created a ‘hook effect.' By sharing knowledge with the sector, their publication is highly accessed.
Research takes time and the team have subsequently received funding from the CAMILLA AND MARC campaign: Ovaries. Talk About Them. Seeing their early detection approach progress and determining that it can identify all subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer in preclinical testing, has been a motivating drive for Dr Warton.
Collaborative impact
For Dr Warton the need in the clinic for an ovarian cancer early detection test was highlighted by Professor Neville Hacker who was a gynaecology surgeon at the Royal Hospital for Women. This prompted Dr Warton’s team to consider how their expertise in PCR testing and DNA methylation could be applied to ovarian cancer.
Since then, they’ve collaborated with nurses and gynaecologists to advance their sampling approaches, demonstrating how critical close ties between the lab and the clinic are for research progress.
For every project like this, many more can’t get underway due to a lack of funding. Support research like this to help them move forward.
Share page
Get the latest news, stories & updates.
