Huntington Laboratory
Cancer Immunotherapy
Welcome to the Huntington Lab
Our lab aims to decipher the regulatory networks that control Natural Killer (NK) cell function and their role in anti-tumour immunity.
We know cancer is clever. It tricks our immune system into thinking it belongs and so shrewdly evades our its line of defense – usually deployed when foreign cells are detected - and so it is left free to grow and multiply. To add to the challenge, cancer is an evolving disease. Over time, cancer cells undergo a myriad of molecular and genetic changes making it difficult to discover a definitive cure, it is essentially a moving target. Our research focus is aimed at deciphering the regulatory networks that control NK cell development and homeostasis and a drug discovery program using cutting-edge in vivo screens for novel checkpoints in NK cell activation for targeting in cancer immunotherapy.
We're part of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, and a member of the Infection & Immunity Program
and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Professor Nicholas Huntington
My global research connections, partners and funding can be viewed on my Monash Research Profile.
Click the links below to connect with me on Twitter, ORCID, Google Scholar and LinkedIn.
Our research
Our laboratory uses pre-clinical models to understand the transcription factors, growth factors and receptors required for optimal NK cell function. Our goal is to exploit the unique ability of NK cells to spontaneous detect and kill cancer cells in a clinical setting. To achieve this goal, our research is focussed on uncovering the dominant pathways the regulate this detection and killing machinery in NK cells in order to design novel cancer therapies.
Watch Professor Nick Huntington, 2019 Jacques Miller Medal recipient, explain his cancer immunology approach for the Australian Academy of Science.
Lab members
We are committed to excellence in research.
Join Our Lab
We're always interested in collaborating with bright and motivated researchers, clinicians and industry. Whether you want to research, study or partner with us to accelerate our discoveries, find out about the work we do.