Kef Prasit
Kef Prasit received his bachelor’s degree from the University of British Colombia, undergoing further training at the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Pathology.
Kef is currently a PhD student in the Malaghan Institute’s Cancer Immunotherapy Programme led by Professor Ian Hermans, looking at the intratumoural combination of pattern recognition receptor and iNKT cell agonists. His work is sponsored by Victoria University and the Maurice Wilkins Centre.
Research interests
My research interests involve harnessing the innate and adaptive immune systems to eradicate cancers and provide a durable systemic immune response.
The overall goal of our research is to create novel immunotherapeutic strategies against cancer including vaccination. By harnessing the immune system to treat cancer, we hope to cure more patients without the significant side-effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation.
Research group
Cancer Immunotherapy Programme
Cancer Immunotherapy Programme Leader: Professor Ian HermansSenior Research Fellow: Dr Olivier Gasser
Clinical Research Fellow: Dr Robert Weinkove
Team Leader: Dr Rachel Perret
Research Fellows: Dr Regan Fu
Dr Nathaniel Dasyam
Senior Research Officers: Astrid Authier-Hall
Kathryn Farrand
Ching-Wen Tang
Research Officers: Michael Wilson
Olga Palmer
Anna Mooney
Sophia Noble
PhD Students: Yasmin Nouri
Olivia Burn
Ellie-May Jarvis
Joshua Lange
Research projects
My project looks at vaccination strategies both in situ and adjuvant/peptide based. By delivering our therapeutic agents locally, we stimulate innate and adaptive immune cell populations to induce local tumour cell killing which in turn can lead to systemic adaptive immune response that both eradicates the cancer and generates long term memory against it.
The project looks at the intratumoural combination of damage and pathogen associated molecular patterns with a-galactosylceramide a potent iNKT cell agonist isolated from marine sponges. By introducing these agents locally into the tumour, we hope to turn the tumour’s microenvironment from “cold” and immunosuppressive into a “hot” one; whereby we overcome the tumour’s immunosuppressive microenvironment, allowing immune cells to more efficiently/easily infiltrate and eradicate the tumour.