Professor Wayne A. Phillips PhD is an experienced cellular and molecular biologist with broad expertise and a strong track record in innovative research. He is a fulltime Laboratory-based Researcher with over 40 years research experience studying signal transduction and mammalian cell function. Professor Phillips obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1983. Following postdoctoral positions in Germany and the United States, he returned to Australia as the DW Keir Research Fellow at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and subsequently established his own lab in the Department of Surgery at Western Hospital. In 2000, he moved his group to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre where he is currently Head of the Cancer Biology and Surgical Oncology Research Laboratory and a Professorial Fellow in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at the University of Melbourne. Professor Phillips has a long-standing interest in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling pathway and is internationally recognised for his pioneering work identifying PI3-kinase mutations in human cancers and his subsequent studies on the biological consequences and clinical significance of these mutations. More recently his work has focused on the biology of oesophageal cancer with current studies addressing fundamental biological and preclinical questions around the cellular origin, pathogenesis, and treatment of Barrett’s oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma.