Speaker Profile
Theresa Hickey

Theresa Hickey PhD

Molecular Biology
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

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Dr Hickey is a Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Research Foundation Career Development Fellow at the Dame Rome Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories (DRMCRL), School of Medicine, University of Adelaide. She was the single recipient of this highly competitive award. Dr Hickey was awarded a PhD in Medicine by the University of Adelaide in December 2006 for research on androgen receptor (AR) signalling in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), receiving the Vice Chancellor’s special commendation for contribution to field of study. Her work in the Research Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Adelaide spanned more than 10 years, evolving through the positions of Senior Research Officer, PhD Student and early Post-Doctoral Scientist. During this time, Dr Hickey performed internationally recognized research on AR signalling in human ovarian tissues, with 4 highly cited (~300) publications arising from her PhD and a land-mark paper as senior author on PCOS published in the Lancet (2007; 410 citations; marked as a Highly Cited paper in Web of Science). Upon receipt of an NHMRC postdoctoral award in 2007, Dr Hickey transferred to the DRMCRL, where she continued work on ovarian biology and began work in human breast tissues.

Dr Hickey’s current research focuses on AR signalling in human breast biology and breast cancer, funded up to 2020 by various awards including a highly competitive fellowship from the US DOD (achieving the highest score that year) and research grants from the NHMRC, Cancer Australia and National Breast Cancer Foundation, with continuous funding as a CI from 2007-2020. Dr Hickey’s innovative work in this area has attracted substantial national and international interest as evidenced by invited lectures, publications, and professional activities. From July 2012-Dec 2014, Dr Hickey was a visiting academic at Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute, performing collaborative work with A/Prof Jason Carroll, a world leader in molecular determinants of estrogen signalling in breast cancer.
During this time, she developed expertise in contemporary techniques for whole genome interrogation of transcription factor chromatin binding (ChIPseq, Chipexo) and novel proteomic techniques to interrogate protein interactions (RIME; SILAC-RIME). To date, Dr Hickey has published 42 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 4 book chapters in her fields of research. Her ongoing collaboration with A/Prof Carroll’s laboratory in Cambridge has resulted in a recent Nature paper (2015), and co-authorship of a paper in Nature Genetics (2016) with another Cambridge colleague, Dr. Kerstin Meyer, both of which received extensive media coverage both nationally and internationally.
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