Profile
Professor Ruth Ganss is Head of the Cancer Microenvironment Lab at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, and was the inaugural Woodside Cancer Research Fellow. She obtained her PhD at the University of Heidelberg/Germany in 1994. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Douglas Hanahan at the University of California, San Francisco she gained profound knowledge in the analyses of preclinical mouse models with a main focus on tumour stroma. Her laboratory at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (1997-2006) focused on vascular aspects of tumour immunity.
Since 2006, Prof Ganss has held a professorial appointment at the University of Western Australia and conducts research at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. She leads a research program which integrates cancer, immunology and vascular biology at the highest competitive level. She has more than 20 years of expertise in studying the tumour microenvironment in transgenic and orthotopic tumour models. Her current research activities focus on translational anti-cancer aspects of stromal remodelling and immunotherapy.
Research Overview
- Cancer Microenvironment
- Cancer vascular and stromal remodelling
- Tumour precision targeting
- Inflammation/immunotherapy
- Mouse models of disease
Selected Publications
Zhi-Jie Li, Bo He, Alice Domenichini, Jiulia Satiaputra, Kira H. Wood, Devina D. Lakhiani, Abate A. Bashaw, Lisa M. Nilsson, Ji Li, Edward R. Bastow, Anna Johansson-Percival, Elena Denisenko, Alistair R.R. Forrest, Suraj Sakaram, Rafael Carretero, Günter J. Hämmerling, Jonas A. Nilsson, Gabriel Y.F. Lee, Ruth Ganss. Pericyte phenotype switching alleviates immunosuppression and sensitizes vascularized tumors to immunotherapy in preclinical models. 2024. J Clin Invest. 2024;134(18):e179860. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI179860
Holobotovskyy V, Chong JS, Burchell J, He B, Phillips M, Leader L, Murphy TV, Sandow SL, McKitrick D , Charles A, Tare M, Arnolda L, Ganss R. Regulator of G protein signaling 5 is a determiant of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. 2015. Sci Transl Med 7, 290ra88. [Sci Transl Med]
Holobotovskyy V, Manzur M, Burchell J, Bolitho E, Tare M, Viola H, Hool L, Arnolda L, McKitrick D , Ganss R. Regulator of G protein signaling 5 controls blood pressure homeostasis and vessel wall remodeling. 2013. Circulation Res. 112 (5):781-91. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Johansson A, Hamzah J, Payne CJ, Ganss R. 2012. Tumor-targeted TNFα Stabilizes Tumor Vessels and Enhances Active Immunotherapy. PNAS 109 (20):7841-6. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Hamzah J, Altin JG, Herringson T, Parish CR, Hämmerling GJ, O’Donoghue H, Ganss R. 2009. Targeted delivery of TRL9 ligands activates spontaneous anti-tumor immunity in an autochthonous tumor model. Journal of Immunology 183(2):1091-8. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Manzur M, Hamzah J, Ganss R. 2009. Modulation of G protein Signaling Normalizes Tumor Vessels. Cancer Research 69(2):396-9 [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Hamzah J, Jugold M, Kiessling F, Rigby P, Manzur M, Marti HH, Rabie T, Kaden S, Gröne HJ, Hämmerling GJ, Arnold B, Ganss R. 2008. Vascular normalization in Rgs5-deficient tumours promotes immune destruction. Nature 453(7193):410-4. [NCBI PubMed Entry] [Nature Website]
Hamzah J, Nelson D, Moldenhauer G, Arnold B, Hämmerling GJ, Ganss R. 2008. Vascular targeting of anti-CD40 antibodies and IL-2 into autochthonous tumors enhances immunotherapy in mice. The Journal of Clinical Investigation 118(5):1691-9. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Du R, Lu KV, Petritsch C, Liu P, Ganss R, Passegué E, Song H, Vandenberg S, Johnson RS, Werb Z, Bergers G. 2008. HIF1alpha induces the recruitment of bone marrow-derived vascular modulatory cells to regulate tumor angiogenesis and invasion. Cancer Cell 13(3):206-20. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Spring H, Schüler T, Arnold B, Hämmerling GJ, Ganss R. 2005. Chemokines direct endothelial progenitors into tumor neovessels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 102(50):18111-6. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
Berger M, Bergers G, Arnold B, Hämmerling GJ, Ganss R. 2005. Regulator of G-protein signaling-5 induction in pericytes coincides with active vessel remodeling during neovascularization. Blood 105(3):1094-101. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
