Dr Liam O'Brien
Dr

Liam O'Brien

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Background

Liam O’Brien is a tumor immunologist whose primary focus is the development of new messenger (m)RNA-based immunotherapies applicable to various cancer types. The goal of this work is to develop a new therapy which increases the frequency and length of patient remissions, occurring within Associate Professor Seth Cheetham's laboratory at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN).

Liam has expertise utilizing various preclinical models, multi-color flow cytometry for the functional characterization of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and has developed in vivo systems to assess immunotherapy efficacy along with T cell exhaustion, proliferation, and killing capacity. He has hands-on experience with development of next-generation humanized NSG models and a wide breadth of in vitro immunological assays.

Availability

Dr Liam O'Brien is:
Not available for supervision

Fields of research

Applied immunology (incl. antibody engineering, xenotransplantation and t-cell therapies) Biomedical and Clinical Sciences Cellular immunology Immunology Tumour immunology

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours) of Immunology, The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy of Tumour Immunology, The University of Queensland

Research interests

  • T cell reprogramming through targeted mRNA delivery

    T cell exhaustion through chronic stimulation of the TCR complex leads to failed infection and tumor control. Exhausted T cells (Tex) display a conserved transcriptional and epigenetic phenotype. In contrast to many upcoming therapies targeting surface-expressed molecules, here we seek to profoundly alter Tex function by delivering mRNA-encoded transcription factors.

  • Increasing tumor immunogenicity using mRNA-encoded cytokines

    Many tumors remain unresponsive to immunotherapy due to a lack of infiltrating T cells or the presence of suppressive myeloid populations. In this project we are testing delivery of potent inflammatory cytokines specifically to tumors in order to make poorly immunogenic tumors respond.

Research impacts

During his PhD at Mater Research Institute-UQ in Prof. Kristen Radford's laboratory, Liam established several new in vivo cancer models and used these to evaluate novel vaccination strategies. This work led to multiple conference presentations and first-author publications in Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer, Oncoimmunology and Experimental Hematology, scholarships and travel awards from Tour de Cure and ASI, and attraction of significant funding from UQ ($1.8m) for the creation of a new facility at the Translational Research Institute, QLD (HIMF), in addition to below.

  • OneTRI conference People’s Choice Poster Award 2023
  • Mater Higher Degree Research Biomedical Student prize, 2021
  • Queensland Fresh Science Finalist, 2021
  • 1st Prize; Basic Laboratory Science Poster, Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) Health Symposium 2019
  • 2nd Prize – UniQuest Research Commercialization workshop pitch 2019
  • 3-minute thesis (3MT) University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine Finalist 2019
  • First class Honours with Dean’s commendation for Academic Excellence 2017
  • Mater Research Honours Scholarship 2017
  • Frank Clair Scholarship Recipient 2017

Search Professor Liam O'Brien’s works on UQ eSpace

Enquiries

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