Dr Fennell is a cancer biologist and laboratory head in the School of Health at the University of the Sunshine Coast. His laboratory interrogates the mechanisms at the intersection of aging and gastrointestinal malignancies. We use a combination of cutting-edge in vitro models and genomic approaches to decipher the intricacies of this relationship. Dr Fennell completed his doctoral and postdoctoral studies under the supervision of A/Prof Whitehall and Prof Leggett at QIMR Berghofer in Brisbane. Here, he leveraged genomic approaches to evaluate the role of age in serrated colorectal neoplasia, showing that aging predisposes to rapid neoplastic transformation. This work was published in leading gastroenterology journals (ie. Gut, CMGH). Prior to commencing at UniSC, Dr Fennell led the Oncogenic Aging Laboratory at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University, Melbourne.
Dr Fennell has published 16 original research articles over the past five years, including high impact articles in field-leading journals including in Gut, Modern Pathology, Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Cell Death and Differentiation.
Dr Fennell is an active contributor to the Australian Gastroenterology research community, and is a member of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia’s Cancer Faculty, and Research and Grants Committee.
Professional Membership
- Gastroenterological Society of Australia
- American Association for Cancer Research
Awards/Fellowships
- Early Career Investigator Award, Cure Cancer Australia, 2024
- June Halliday Young Investigator Award, Gastroenterological Society of Australia, 2021
- Young Investigator Award, Gastroenterological Society of Queensland, 2017
Potential Research Projects for HDR and Honours Students
- Cellular Reprogramming to Reverse Ageing and Prevent Cancer, Cure Cancer Australia 2024-2025
Research Grants
|
Grant/project name |
Investigators |
Funding body and AUD$ value |
Year(s) |
Focus of research grant |
|
Forever Young – Reversing intestinal ageing to prevent colorectal cancer |
Lochlan Fennell |
Cure Cancer Australia, $100,000 |
2024-2025 |
Cancer Biology |
|
Studying communication between cancer-associated fibroblasts and breast cancer cells to identify druggable vulnerabilities |
Thierry Jarde, Gary Richardson, Roger Daly, Delphine Merino, Dilys Leung, Lochlan Fennell |
National Breast Cancer Foundation, $666,000 |
2024-2027 |
Breast Cancer |
|
The pathobiology of Ageing and Colorectal Cancer risk |
Lochlan Fennell, Rebekah Engel, Sefi Rosenbluh, David Powell |
Tour De Cure, $97,500 |
2023-2025 |
Cancer and Ageing |
|
Spatially-resolved subcellular dissection of the colorectal cancer transcriptome to identify barriers to effective therapy for advanced stage CRC |
Helen Abud, Rebekah Engel, Lochlan Fennell, Paul McMurrick, Thierry Jarde, David Nickless |
Tour De Cure, $50,000 |
2023 |
Cancer therapy and genomics |
|
OPN as an Immune Checkpoint in KRAS mutant colorectal cancer |
Vicki Whitehall, Matthew Burge, Jennifer Borowsky, Jonathan Nowak, Lochlan Fennell, Catherine Bond |
National Health and Medical Research Council, $689,561 |
2022-2024 |
Cancer therapy and Cancer immunology |
|
Microbes and Malignancy: Deciphering the host-microbe interactions of Fusobacterium nucleatum via Spatial Transcriptomics |
Lochlan Fennell |
Gastroenterological Society of Australia |
2021-2022 |
Cancer biology and microbiology |
Research areas
- Cancer biology
- Ageing biology
- Genomics and bioinformatics
- Functional genomics
Teaching areas
- Biochemistry
- Medicinal Biochemistry