Speaker: Dr Tina Bianco-Miotto, Senior Lecturer, School of Agriculture Food & Wine; Member, Pregnancy and Birth Theme, Robinson Research Institute, & Placental Development Laboratory, The University of Adelaide
Title: Maternal high fat diet exposure and prostate cancer risk in offspring
Chair: Associate Professor Joanne Young, Chief Medical Scientist, Colorectal Cancer Research Group, The University of Adelaide. Level 1 BHI, TQEH. [email protected]
Speaker Biography: Dr Bianco-Miotto was appointed as a lecturer within the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine in March 2013 and is a member of the Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide. Previous to this, Dr Bianco-Miotto was the W Bruce Hall Cancer Council SA Research Fellow (2009-2012) and a NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow (2005-2009). Dr Bianco-Miotto was a Director of the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR; Nov 2012- Nov 2014) and Convenor of the 2014 Australian Health and Medical Research Congress.
As of June 2015 she is the Chairperson and Co-founder of the Epigenetics Consortium of South Australia (EpiCSA) Incorporated. Dr Bianco-Miotto has worked extensively with epigenetic mechanisms and methodologies and has contributed to the understanding of the role of DNA methylation in several different cancers. More recently, she has focused on how environmental factors, such as diet, may perturb epigenetic modifications which may result in an increased susceptibility to diseases later in life. Dr Bianco-Miotto has utilised numerous models in her research from rodent models including transgenic models, to human cells, tissue explants and clinical specimens. Dr Bianco-Miotto is currently working on identifying DNA methylation biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, as well as for predicting pregnancy complications. Her expertise in genetics, epigenetics and molecular biology have been applied to research projects ranging from pregnancy to cancer. Her focus is on environmental perturbations and how they contribute to future disease risk.
