Professor Ricky Johnstone is Executive Director Cancer Research, Head of the Gene Regulation Laboratory at Peter Mac and Head of The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at The University of Melbourne.
He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1993 and, after a postdoctorate at Harvard Medical School, returned to Melbourne to establish the Gene Regulation Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2000.
Ricky oversees about 750 research staff and students and plays a key role in strategic decision making across the organisation. He is also an active cancer researcher who has utilised genetic mouse models of hemopoietic malignancies and solid tumors to understand the epigenetic changes that underpin tumor onset and progression and to develop new therapies that target epigenetic and transcriptional regulatory proteins. He and his team have discovered how epigenetic based-agents can engage the host immune system to drive prolonged therapeutic responses. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and in 2023 was awarded an NHMRC Investigator Grant at Leadership Level 3. Ricky is also Chair-elect of VicAAMRI, which represents 14 of Victoria’s world-class independent medical research institutes.
Qualifications of Ricky Johnstone
PhD