Expression and functional studies on the novel ovarian-expressed serine protease, Kallikrein 4, in ovarian tumorigenesis [ 2003 - 2005 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Prof Judith Clements (Principal investigator) ,  Dr Ying Dong

Brief description Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynaecologic malignancies. In Australia, it is the most life-threatening of all gynaecological cancers. The major reason why the death rate has improved little in the last two decades is that ovarian cancer is detected too late and the type of treatment is not very effective. In this research, we are looking at a new protein, called the K4 protein, which belongs to the same family as the PSA enzyme that is used in the PSA test for prostate cancer. Our preliminary findings suggest that K4 is increased in the serous type ovarian cancer tumours so we intend to determine if K4 will be a useful bio-marker for this type of ovarian cancer. We also have made some interesting findings of some novel forms of the K4 protein and gene in ovarian cancer tissues and we intend to characterise these further to see if they might also be useful in detection of this disease. We are also studying the function and localisation of these different forms of K4 in cancer cells, to identify the exact role the enzyme performs in cancer development. These latter studies will help us understand the disease process better and may help us design new treatment approaches.

Funding Amount $AUD 410,250.00

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant