Eric Alves

Eric has a strong background in cellular and molecular immunology, completing his BSc(Hons) in 2019 on the mechanisms used by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to evade the host immune response. During his time working on HIV, Eric came to appreciate that viruses and tumours share similar mechanisms of immune evasion. Many of these mechanisms involve the cancer/virus “turning-off” important genes, which help the immune system “see” the cancer/virally-infected cell. As such, “turning-on” the genes that viruses/tumours have “turned-off” is likely to augment anti-cancer/viral therapies, thereby improving patient outcomes. However, given the intricacies of the immune system and limited technologies suited for specific gene manipulation, successful therapy development in this space has remained difficult. Eric’s PhD aims to use state-of-the-art technology to design and test a new targeted treatment that can “turn-on” the important immune-related genes that tumours/viruses “turn-off”. If successful, this treatment may help make hard-to-treat cancers, such as triple negative breast cancer, or viral infections, such as HIV, more visible to the immune system for elimination.