Professor Rhonda Rosengren’s Research Group

Research overview

Toxicological/cancer research in my laboratory involves the identification of both novel treatments for triple negative breast cancer and hormone refractory prostate cancer. In conjunction with Associate Professor Bill Hawkins from the Department of Chemistry, we are synthesizing novel 2nd generation derivatives of curcumin and examining their activity in both in vitro and in vivo models of breast cancer. Collaborations with Greg Kennedy from the University of Wisconsin have expanded our examination of these drugs into colon cancer. Collaborations with Dr Khaled Greish have provided an opportunity to increase the tumor targeting ability of our drugs by utilizing nanomiceller drug delivery. We are also studying mechanisms which drive cancer cells translation with Dr Andrew Cridge (Biochemistry Department). Grants from NZBCF, Otago Medical Research Foundation and University of Otago Research Grant fund our work. Recent PhD graduates have taken up Research Fellow positions at Ludwig Cancer Institute and the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia. Recent MSc graduates have taken up PhD positions in Korea and Europe or have entered Medical School.

Postdoctural Fellow

Dr Rebekah (Beks) Bower

Assistant Research Fellow

Mhairi Nimick

Current students

PhD Students

• Orleans Martey
• Nensi Shrestha
• Risha Singh

MSc Student

• Mayur Azam

Former students

PhD

• Babaji Yadav (2012)
  • Study of New Curcumin Analogs for the Treatment of Erα Negative Breast Cancers
• Marissa Scandlyn (2011)
  • Novel drug therapies for ER- basal-like breast cancer; preclinical evaluation in a xenograft model.
• Tiffany Somers-Edgar (2010)

MSc

• Shuli Chen (2017)
  • Anticancer Potential of novel Curcumin Analogues towards Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer
• Tafadzwa (TJ) Nhemacheana (2017)
  • The Cytotoxic Mechanism of RL112 in Ovarian Cancer Cells
• Yue Wang (2016)
  • Identification of differentially expressed genes in response to treatment with RL71 and SMA-RL71 in triple negative breast cancer cell lines
• Hannah Palmer (2015)
  • Combination of raloxifene and RL91 as a treatment for hormone refractory prostate cancer
• Patrick Gwavava (2015)
  • Heterocyclic Cyclohexanone Curcumin Analogues Inhibit Growth of Ovarian Cancer Cells, in-vitro
• Tara Pritchard (2015)
  • SMA-raloxifene for the management of castrate-resistant prostate cancer
• Vignesh Sundararajan (2014)
  • Evaluation of SMA-RL71, a curcumin analogue nanomicelle as a drug in xenograft models of triple negative breast cancer
• Aloran Mazumder (2013)
  • Raloxifene along with curcumin analogue RL91, a combinational approach against hormone refractory prostate cancer
• Julian Dzeyk (2012)
  • Raloxifene for the Treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer
• Khanh Tran (2011)
  • Synthetic Cannabinoids as a Novel Treatment for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

BBiomedSc (Hons)

• Mayur Azam (2017)
  • The Cytotoxicity and Action of Curcumin Deriviatives Against Fn14+ Triple Negative Breast Cancer Through Repression of NF-kB p65

BSc(Hons)

• Monica Archibald (2014)
  • Use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in cancer via combination therapy within SMA micelles
• Olivia Thame (2014)
  • SMA-RL71 as a nanomedicine for metastatic breast cancer