Monday Lunch Live
Disrupting hepatitis B virus (HBV), using CRISPR-Cas 13 technology - the Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy
25 November 2025.
Primary liver cancer (hepatocellular cancer) is almost invariably preceded by long term liver inflammation resulting from chronic infection with the hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus, or metabolic disturbances such as obesity or type II diabetes.
Clinicians at St Vincent's Health are partnering with laboratory researchers at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The Peter Doherty Institute and University of Melbourne to devise new ways of disrupting hepatitis B virus (HBV), using CRISPR-Cas 13 technology. The Cas13 nuclease can very precisely seek out and destroy mRNA that encodes key proteins used by HBV to replicate, infect new liver cells and, over time, initiate cancerous change. Cas 13 can achieve this outcome but has no impact on the human genome or human mRNAs expressed in liver cells.
In this session, you will hear how this new approach has so far been successful in markedly reducing levels of HBV antigens S and E, and of intact HBV particles both in cell lines and infected primary liver cells in experimental models. Refinement of this patented approach is expected over time to provide clinicians with a new strategy for reducing the impact of chronic HBV infection on liver inflammation and reduce the incidence of HCC, a cancer that continues to have a poor outcome for many in our community, especially for members from disadvantaged backgrounds or who live in remote areas.
Chair
Professor Joe Trapani
Program Head, Cancer Immunology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Director, Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy, VCCC Alliance
Joe Trapani is Head of the Cancer Immunology Program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Melbourne. In 2018, he was appointed Director of the new Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy for Peter Mac and the VCCC Alliance partners. Joe has led the Immunology Program since its inception at Peter Mac in 2000. As Director of the Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy, Professor Joe Trapani leads 60 researchers from six VCCC Alliance institutions, linked with others nationally and working collaboratively to discover and improve cancer immunotherapy. Since commencing the program in 1990, Professor Trapani’s immunology research colleagues, with collaborators across the alliance (initially at Austin Health, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, University of Melbourne, and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research), have made many seminal contributions to cancer immunobiology, including an understanding of cancer immune surveillance in mice and humans, and in devising new cancer therapies.
Speakers
A/Prof Jessica Howell
NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Hepatitis B and Liver Cancer research group in the Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent's Hospital
Jessica is a gastroenterologist and senior research fellow in the Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne/ University of Melbourne and. She also leads the Hepatitis B research group within the Disease Elimination program at Burnet Institute.
Dr Mohamed Fareh
Senior Research Fellow, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Mohamed is a mid-career research leader with a diverse background encompassing RNA biology, CRISPR, and advanced quantitative single-molecule approaches. He completed his Ph.D. training in France, where he investigated the role of non-coding RNAs in regulating tumor heterogeneity and cell plasticity. Following this, he pursued postdoctoral training in single-molecule biophysics in the Netherlands, where he developed advanced single-molecule pulldown and fluorescence assays to study RNA interference and CRISPR dynamics at nanometer and millisecond scales
Dr Laura McCoullough
Post-doctoral Scientist, Melbourne Health, PDI and UoM
Laura is an early-career researcher in the Revill/Littlejohn Lab at the Doherty Institute. Laura completed her PhD studies at the Doherty Institute, researching a novel treatment for chronic hepatitis B infection using CRISPR-Cas13b. She has continued on these studies during her postdoc.
Prof Riccardo Dolcetti
Head, Translational and Clinical Immunotherapy, VCCC Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy
Riccardo is a clinician scientist with more than 20 years research experience in cancer biology and immunology. He is working in the role of Head, Clinical and Translational Immunotherapy as joint appointment among peterMac, University of Melbourne and VCCC. He has been working as Director of the Cancer Bio-Immunotherapy Division at the CRO-National Cancer Institute of Aviano, Italy until 2015 when he took the position of Chair in Cancer Medicine, Frazer Institute, Univ. of Queensland, where he coordinated the Cancer Immunotherapy Program, developed new cancer vaccines and improved combination immunotherapies.
Course Details
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