SAiGENCI researcher awarded funding for breast cancer research
Dr Joanna Achinger-Kawecka has been awarded a National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) 2025 Research Project Grant, providing essential support for investigator-initiated research projects which are critical to building Australia's breast cancer research pipeline and addressing critical research questions.
Dr Joanna Achinger-Kawecka
is Group Leader of the 3D Chromatin Organisation Laboratory in SAiGENCI's Resistance Prevention program. She will receive over $1 million in funding across four years to support her project "Directing p53 to transposable elements to promote antitumour immunity in CDK4/6 inhibitors resistant breast cancer".
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Australia, with over 21,000 new cases each year. About 70% of people with breast cancer have Estrogen Receptor Positive (ER+) cancer that responds to endocrine treatment. However, for about 30% of these people, the cancer eventually stops responding to treatment and spreads (metastasizes). Inhibitors of Cyclin-Dependant Kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6i) are now standard of care treatment of metastatic ER+ breast cancer. However, treatment failure can develop and there are no effective second-line treatment strategies.
The work of Dr Achinger-Kawecka and others suggest that resistance to CDK4/6i may be caused by “jumping genes” – also known as Transposable Elements (TEs). These are pieces of ancient viral DNA that currently make up nearly half of our genome. Once thought to be inactive, TEs are now understood to play an important role in cancer by switching on genes that help tumours grow and resist treatment.