Pamela Russell

Pamela J. Russell (died February 2022) was an Australian academic researcher of immunology, bladder cancer and prostate research. Russell was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) for her research on prostate and bladder cancer in 2003.

Biography

Russell was Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, based at the Translational Research Institute (Australia) and adjunct professor, Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland.

Education and training Russell trained in immunology at Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, where she obtained an MSc with Sir Macfarlane Burnet. Subsequently, Russell completed a PhD with Sir Gustav Nossal, on studies of autoimmune diseases.

Russell's postdoctoral training was at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Canberra, and then she moved to Sydney to take up a postdoctoral position at The Kolling Institute of Medical Research.

Research Russell's early work in Immunology on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) showed that the immunosuppressive drug, cyclophosphamide, could be successfully used to treat animals with this disease, leading to its use in patients with SLE. Early work WEHI showed that T cells could kill cancer cells. Further studies of autoimmunity were performed by Russell's group at the Kolling Institute specifically SLE. but also some related work in rheumatoid arthritis and in ankylosing spondylitis and its association with HLA-B27.

Russell's focus of the work at the Kolling Institute was on autoimmunity, specifically Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), but also some related work in rheumatoid arthritis and in ankylosing spondylitis and its association with HLAB27.

In 1984, Russell changed her research focus to cancer and, with Dr. Derek Raghavan, established the Urological Cancer Research Centre at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital/University of Sydney. Russell then directed the Oncology Research Centre (ORC), Prince of Wales Hospital from 1992 to 2010, as conjoint Professor of Medicine, University of New South Wales (UNSW).

Russell then moved to the Translational Research Institute and the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre in Queensland in 2012.

Awards

2015 Women in Technology Life Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award 2015 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences 2015 University of Canberra Alumni Excellence Award Health Winner 2010 Inaugural Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia Prize and Lecture for Outstanding Excellence Hung TT, Chan J, Russell PJ, Power CA. Zoledronic acid preserves bone structure and increases survival but does not limit tumour incidence in a prostate cancer bone metastasis model. PLoS ONE . 2011, 6(5): e19389, 1-8 Tang C, Russell PJ, Martiniello-Wilks R, Rasko J, Khatri A. Concise Review: Nanoparticles and cellular carriers - allies in imaging and therapy? Stem cells. 2010; 28(9):1686-702-702 Khatri A, Husaini Y, Ow K, Chapman J, Russell PJ. Cytosine Deaminase-Uracil Phosphoribosyl Transferase and Interleukin-12 and -18: a multimodal anticancer interface marked by specific modulation in serum cytokines. Clin Cancer Res.2009; 15(7):2323-2234. Li Y, Song E, Rizvi SMA, Power CA, Beretov J, Raja C, Cozzi PJ, Morgenstern A, Apostolidis C, Allen BJ, Russell PJ. Inhibition of micrometastatic prostate cancer cell spread in animal models by 213Bi-labeled multiple targeted a radioimmunoconjugates. Clin Cancer Res. 2009; 15:865-875