Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Associate Professor Curtis is Head of the Division of Blood Cancer Research of the Austraiian Centre for Blood Diseases and member of the Clinical Haematology Service. His research program uses mouse models to dissect the genetic and epigenetic regulation of normal and leukemic stem cells. He is currently an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow B. He has published over 60 papers including articles in Science, Cell Stem Cell, PNAS and Blood.
Associate Professor Curtis completed his training as a Clinical Haematologist and Bone Marrow Transplant Physician through the University of Melbourne in 1994. He was awarded a NHMRC postgraduate scholarship at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research (1994-1997) which used animal models of hematologic malignancy to study oncogene co-operation. A/Professor Curtis was awarded a NHMRC CJ Martin fellowship for post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr David Bodine at the NIH (1998-2001) to study the function of the non-histone DNA binding HMGB3 protein in adult hematopoietic stem cell. In 2001 A/Professor Curtis returned to Royal Melbourne Hospital to establish a research program focused on the molecular mechanisms that control the fate of normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cells. In 2011, he moved to the Department of Haematology, Monash University and Alfred Health as the head of the new Division of Blood Cancer Research of the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases.
The research program of A/Prof Curtis aims to identify improved therapies for acute leukemia and related blood cancers through the use of mouse models to dissect the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that control the fate of normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cells. In addition, A/Prof Curtis uses ENU-mutagenesis for discovery of genes that regulate hematopoiesis. Specific areas of focus include the bHLH transcription factor complex that drives T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the mechanisms of oncogene-induced apoptosis in myelodysplasia, the role of epigenetic changes in acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplasia and the therapeutic potential of small molecule inhibitors of the protein arginine methyltransferase, PRMT5.
A/Professor Curtis has 60 peer reviewed papers including first or senior author publications in Science (2010), Cell Stem Cell (2009), Nature Structural and Molecular Biology (2009) and Blood (2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015). In 2011, A/Professor Curtis was awarded a Charles and Sylvia Viertel Senior Research Fellowship and honorary NHMRC Practitioner and Victorian Cancer Agency Fellowships. A/Prof Curtis has been on the editorial board for the journal Stem Cells since 2007. A/Prof Curtis has been an invited speaker to conferences including the International Society of Experimental Hematology, New Directions in Leukemia Research and Lorne Cancer Conference. A/Prof Curtis has been an external reviewer for numerous NHMRC project grants since 2005 as well as on the scientific advisory panel for review of Leukemia Foundation and the NSW Cancer Council Program grants. In addition to his research program, he is an active clinical haematologist and bone marrow transplant physician at Alfred Health.
Research area keywords
- Blood Diseases
- Epigenetics
- Leukemia
- Stem Cell Biology
- Transplantation biology
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Projects
Improving survival in myelofibrosis
Perkins, A., Ross, D., Lane, S., Forsyth, C., Wei, A., Curtis, D., Shortt, J., Erber, W. N. & Stevenson, W. S.
Australian Government Department of Health
3/01/19 → 31/12/23
Project: Research
Effect of clonal haematopoiesis and aspirin on outcomes in elderly: the ASPREE-HAEM study
McQuilten, Z., Curtis, D., Wood, E., Wolfe, R., Lacaze, P., Sebra, R., Murphy, A. J., Riaz, M., McNeil, J., Woods, R. & Wong, N.
National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
1/01/19 → 31/12/21
Project: Research
Targeted therapies for chemo-resistant leukaemia cells
National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
1/01/19 → 31/12/21
Project: Research
Study of using Cyclophosphamide After Sibling-donor allogenic stem-cell Transplantation (CAST) in patients with acute leukaemia and Myelodysplasia: a randomised study comparing cyclosporin and methotrexate to cyclosporin and post-transplantation cyclophosphamide for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis.
Fleming, S. A., Patil, S., Curtis, D. & Kennedy, N.
23/10/18 → 23/10/23
Project: Research
CAST – A Randomised Phase 3 Trial of Cyclophosphamide after Sibling Allogeneic Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant
Curtis, D., Hill, G. R., Gottlieb, D., Patil, S., Ritchie, D., King, M. & Morrissey, O.
13/06/18 → 31/12/22
Project: Research
Research Output
Author Correction: KCC1 Activation protects Mice from the Development of Experimental Cerebral Malaria (Scientific Reports, (2019), 9, 1, (6356), 10.1038/s41598-019-42782-x)
Hortle, E., Starrs, L., Brown, F. C., Jane, S. M., Curtis, D. J., McMorran, B. J., Foote, S. J. & Burgio, G., 1 Dec 2020, In : Scientific Reports. 10, 1, 1 p., 2303.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment / Debate › Other › peer-review
Open Access
From reads to insight: a hitchhiker's guide to ATAC-seq data analysis
Yan, F., Powell, D. R., Curtis, D. J. & Wong, N. C., 3 Feb 2020, In : Genome Biology. 21, 1, 16 p., 22.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access
File
KCC1 Activation protects Mice from the Development of Experimental Cerebral Malaria
Hortle, E., Starrs, L., Brown, F. C., Jane, S. M., Curtis, D. J., McMorran, B. J., Foote, S. J. & Burgio, G., 1 Dec 2019, In : Scientific Reports. 9, 1, 11 p., 6356.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access
File
Regulation of PRMT5-MDM4 axis is critical in the response to CDK4/6 inhibitors in melanoma
AbuHammad, S., Cullinane, C., Martin, C., Bacolas, Z., Ward, T., Chen, H., Slater, A., Ardley, K., Kirby, L., Chan, K. T., Brajanovski, N., Smith, L. K., Rao, A. D., Lelliott, E. J., Kleinschmidt, M., Vergara, I. A., Papenfuss, A. T., Lau, P., Ghosh, P., Haupt, S. & 12 others, , 3 Sep 2019, In : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 116, 36, p. 17990-18000 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access
File
2
Citations
(Scopus)
Shared roles for Scl and Lyl1 in murine platelet production and function
Chiu, S. K., Orive, S. L., Moon, M. J., Saw, J., Ellis, S., Kile, B. T., Huang, Y., Chacon, D., Pimanda, J. E., Beck, D., Hamilton, J. R., Tremblay, C. S. & Curtis, D. J., 5 Sep 2019, In : Blood. 134, 10, p. 826-835 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1
Citation
(Scopus)