Jane Visvader


Jane Visvader is a scientist specialising in breast cancer research who works for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is the joint head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory with Geoff Lindeman. In 2008, Visvader was a joint recipient of the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence for outstanding contribution to Breast Cancer research. Visvader was made a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2012. Her most recent award is the 2014 Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal for Scientific Excellence in Biomedical & Health Sciences.

Education

Visvader holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Adelaide having studied structure and function of citrus exocortis viroid

Career and research

After her PhD, she was a postdoctoral researcher the Verma Laboratory and Adams Laboratory. She worked at the Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston before returning to Victoria in 1997 to establish a Breast Cancer Laboratory at WEHI. She was awarded a fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in October 2016.
Visvader has published work investigating the role of cells of origin in cancer and in particular focuses on the role of stem cells, which she believes may be a key to understanding breast cancer.

Patents

Visvader is a named inventor on five patents relating to cancer research focused on stem cell isolation and diagnostics.