Dr Andrew Wei - Researcher Profile

Leukaemia Research Group, ACBD

Address

Australian Centre for Blood Diseases
6th Floor, Burnet Tower, The Alfred Hospital

Contact Details

Email: Andrew.Wei@monash.edu


Biography

Dr Andrew Wei is a Victorian Cancer Agency Research Fellow and Haematologist at the Alfred Hospital. Andrew conducts clinical and translational AML research through dual appointments at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University.

After completing doctoral studies at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in 2005, he joined the Alfred Hospital in 2008 to develop the AML research program. He has been the AML disease group chairperson for Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group since 2009 and has led multiple nationwide cooperative group studies as chief investigator. His doctoral research studies contributed to discoveries elucidating the functional interaction between Bcl-2 family members (Molecular Cell 2005;17(3):393-403), the role of Mcl-1 in cancer susceptibility to ABT-737 (Cancer Cell. 2006;10(5):389-99) and the pro-survival function of the EBV Bcl-2 homologue BHRF-1 (PLoS Pathogens 2010;6[12]).

Dr Wei is an executive member of the ALLG Scientific Advisory Committee, a member of the National Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia and Head of Leukaemia Research at the Alfred hospital. He sits on the International Steering Committee for Celgene providing expert advice on AML. To enhance translational research, Dr Wei has established the Alfred Haematology Tissue Bank, the diagnostic molecular haematology laboratory and a pre-clinical research laboratory to focus on the role of targeting survival pathways in AML.

Related Links:

Research & Supervision Interests

    Dr. Wei’s research focuses on the mechanisms by which cancer cells co-opt and coerce intracellular signalling pathways to promote deregulated cell survival, proliferation and growth. Through the molecular analysis of intracellular signalling pathways, Dr. Wei’s laboratory seeks to identify new therapeutic targets in leukaemia.

    Projects:

    1. Targetting “survival kinases” in leukemic stem and progenitor cells
    2. The role of inositol phosphatases in regulating normal and malignant hemopoiesis
    3. Human models of AML

Keywords

Acute myeloid leukaemia, Azacytidine, BH3, Bcl-2, Lenalidomide, Leukaemia Foundation, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Mcl-1, Relapse and refractory, Research Fellow, Victorian Cancer Agency, clinical AML, leukaemic stem cells, translational AML

Teaching Commitment

2007 - Present : Adjunct senior lecturer

Clinical Activity

Investigator initiated AML trail funding:

  • Phase 1 study of RAD001 and low dose ara-C for elderly AML
  • Phase 1 study of azacitidine and lenalidomide as maintenance therapy in AML
  • Phase 1 study of azacitidine and everolimus in relapsed AML
  • Phase 1 multicentre ALLG study of lenalidomide maintenance therapy in AML
  • Phase 2 randomised controlled multicentre ALLG study of Sorafenib in FLT3-ITD AML
  • Phase 2 randomised multicentre ALLG study of high-dose lenalidomide and azacitidine and depsipeptide in relapsed AML 

Cooperative Group Studies Local Site PI:

  • Phase 3 study: ALLG AML M12 study
  • Phase 2 study: ALLG APML M4 study
  • Phase 2/3: UK MRC16 AML study

Company sponsored studies as local site PI:

  • Phase 2 study: CEP-701 in relapsed AML
  • Phase 2 study: AS1411 in relapsed AML
  • Phase 2 study: Midostaurin in systemic mastocytosis
  • Phase 2/3 study: AZD1152 in older AML
  • Phase 3 study: PKC412 in AML
  • Phase 3 study: Amonafide in secondary AML
  • Phase 3 study: Elacytarabine in relapsed AML
  • Phase 3: Voreloxin in relapsed AML
  • Phase 1: KB004 in advanced haematological malignancies
  • Phase 1: Meisoindigo in AML unfit for chemotherapy