Understanding: Brain Cancers

The brain is a vulnerable organ - to trauma, to damage and to degenerative diseases. However, brain cancers have a reputation for being invulnerable, and hence very difficult to treat. 

Join us for our event where Dr Melanie McConnell will discuss her research to understand this dichotomy and find the weaknesses in brain cancers that can be exploited for treatment.

The McConnell lab team work to improve the efficacy of treatment, and hence the odds for people diagnosed with brain cancers. They are particularly focused on glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain cancer, and use a range of tools to understand why brain cancer cells don’t die and what can be done about it.

Dr Melanie McConnell was born in Wellington and grew up on the Kāpiti Coast. She completed her Bachelor of Science with Honours in virology, and her PhD in childhood kidney cancer, both at the University of Otago. Dr McConnell then moved to Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, where her research centred on leukaemia. After returning to New Zealand, she set up a brain cancer research programme at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, supported by the Sir Roy McKenzie Medical Research Fellowship. Since then, her team has focused primarily on how brain cancers resist therapy. Dr McConnell is currently supported by the Neurological Foundation with funds donated by Merrill Holdsworth.