Professor Stacker is a Group Leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Previously he worked for two decades at the Melbourne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research where he was Associate Director and Joint-Head of the Angiogenesis Program. He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne on work characterising mucins associated with breast cancer and subsequently developing serum markers for the diagnosis of breast cancer. He undertook postdoctoral training with Professor Timothy Springer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Centre for Blood Research, Harvard Medical School, Boston from 1988-1991. He has published more than150 articles (over 27,000 citations) and over 30 granted patents in the area of vascular biology, cell adhesion and tumour detection. He is recognised internationally for his work on identifying new members of the VEGF family and characterising receptor signalling systems. He demonstrated that the tumour lymphangiogenic properties of VEGF-D result in lymphatic metastasis and their inhibition blocks tumour metastasis. His work has contributed to the formation of three companies, which focused on developing therapeutics and biomarkers for vascular disease and cancer.

Professor Stacker has led three National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Program Grants in vascular biology, cancer and metastasis. He is currently supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant. He has developed and mentored many post-graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who are currently working in laboratories worldwide and leading major institutes and biotechnology companies. His current work tries to understand the unique signalling pathways in endothelial cells and cancer cells and identify new targets for therapeutics in cancer.