Cytoskeleton and Human Disease

Maria Kavallaris, Ph.D. is Head of the Tumour Biology and Targeting Program and a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow at the Children's Cancer Institute Australia. She also holds appointments as Director of the Australian Centre for Nanomedicine and Professor at the University of New South Wales. Maria has made fundamental contributions in identifying mechanisms of action and resistance to anticancer drugs that target tubulin and discovering new cytoskeleton interactions in cell division and tumor formation. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales and undertook her postdoctoral studies as an International Agency for Cancer Research Fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. She has served on numerous grant review panels, scientific advisory committees, pharmaceutical advisory boards and is a past President of the Australian Society for Medical Research. Maria is a Director of the Australian Institute for Policy and Science.

Actin.- Microtubules.- The Kinesin Superfamily.- Myosins.- The Actin Cytoskeleton and Membrane Organisation in T Lymphocytes.- Thin Filament Disease of Stricted Muscle.- Filamin and disease.- LIMK and Cancer Metastasis.- Actin Mutations and Deafness.- Therapeutic Targeting of the Actin Cytoskeleton.- Microtubules as a Target in Cancer Therapy.- Microtubules and drug resistance.- Posttranslational Modifications of Tubulin.- Stathmin and Cancer.- The Biology and Pathobiology of Tau Protein.- Tubulin-Related Malformations of Cortical Development.- Spectrins in Human Diseases.- Laminopathies.- Desmin and Heart Disease.- Neurodegenerative Diseases and Intermediate Filaments.