Angel Lopez

Angel Lopez

Adelaide Medical School

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Professor Angel F Lopez AO, MBBS, PhD, FRCPA, FAHMS, FAA
Head, Human Immunology, SA Pathology
Centre for Cancer Biology, an alliance of SA Pathology and University of South Australia

Qualifications: MB BS School of Medicine (Argentina), PhD (London), Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.

My major interest is understanding how growth factors or hormones produced by the immune system regulate inflammation and some cancers. I have authored more than 250 research publications and my work has led to significant insights and breakthrough discoveries in understanding how growth factors and their receptors work in health and in diseases such as allergic inflammation and some cancers. This has led to new paradigms of cell signalling and has underpinned the development of novel antibodies as diagnostic tools as well as potential therapeutics. My group has been supported continuously by the NHMRC since 1987 and also receives support from the pharmaceutical industry.

Cytokines are protein hormones that regulate survival, proliferation and differentiation of many cell types including haematopoietic cells and also control a range of immune functions and inflammatory responses. Cytokine receptors transmit signals between the extracellular environment and the cell’s internal machinery and cause cells to respond in a variety of ways such as maintenance of viability, proliferation, differentiation or activation of functional responses. Abnormalities of cytokine receptor signalling may lead to enhanced cell viability or survival, and increased cell proliferation, hallmarks of cancer while prolonged or inappropriate cell activation is a feature of inflammatory disease. The main focus of my research is to understand the mechanism of cytokine receptor activation and the impact of these cytokines in health and disease. This work reveals universal biological rules and enables the development of new drugs for diseases such as leukaemia, asthma and arthritis.

My laboratory studies a family of cytokines known as the beta common (Bc) family, so named because they share a receptor subunit, Bc. The Bc family includes granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3) and interleukin-5 (IL-5). The research programs in my laboratory include structural biology approaches to elucidate structural and functional properties of the Bc receptor complexes. To date we have solved structures for the GM-CSF and IL-3 receptor complexes, identifying novel mechanisms of receptor assembly, activation and signalling. We are using this knowledge to develop novel ligands that can selectively activate Bc receptors to promote cell differentiation but not cell activation and have developed antibodies that block c cytokine function or target leukaemic cells for destruction as part of a long-term collaboration with CSL Limited.

Recently we have developed a novel strategy of patient treatment with Primary myelofibrosis initiated by mutations in Calreticulin. This work was published (Tvorogov et al, Embo Rports 2022) this year and has initiated some collaboration with pharmaceutical industry. Primary myelofibrosis is severe myeloproliferative neoplasm that affects both young and older adults, and is characterised by marrow fibrosis and chronic inflammatory symptoms with a 5-year survival of less than 50%. Our translational application of research is helping to develop new therapeutic agents for use in a range of disease settings.

Area of Research
Cytokine Receptors, Cell Signalling, Cancer, Structural Biology, Allergic Inflammation, New Therapeutics

Project Title
Cytokine Receptor Laboratory

Overall Project Descriptions
Cytokines are soluble factors that regulate the production and function of haematopoietic and other cells, play a role in leukaemia and solid cancers, and modulate inflammatory responses. Their receptors transmit signals between the extracellular environment and the cell’s internal machinery and cause cells to respond in a variety of ways such as adherence to substrates, proliferation, differentiation and migrate through blood and lymphatic vessels to other parts of the body. Abnormalities of cytokine receptor signalling may lead to enhanced cell survival and increased cell proliferation, hallmarks of cancer, while prolonged or inappropriate cell activation is a feature of inflammatory diseases. The focus of my research is to understand how cytokines and their receptors regulate cellular signalling and how their signalling impacts on health and disease.

My laboratory studies a family of cytokines that includes granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3) and interleukin-5 (IL-5), as well as certain cancer-derived soluble factors that influence their immediate microenvironment. The research programs in my laboratory are designed to decipher how these cytokines and other soluble factors interact with their cell surface receptors, and how they signal normally and in cancer and in inflammatory conditions using multiple approaches and biological systems. To date we have solved structures for the GM-CSF and IL-3 receptor complexes, and have identified novel mechanisms of receptor assembly and activation that shed light into how these receptors signal normally and when they are dysregulated in disease. We are using this knowledge to understand the basis for disease initiation and progression, and to develop novel therapeutics that can block undesirable functions or that by promoting biased signalling reveal a new biology.

For available projects please see Professor Lopez’s Researcher Profile under “My Research”

Projects available for Third Year; Honours; HDR; Masters; Mphil
Maximum Number of Students: 3
Category: Wet Laboratory
Research Areas: Cytokine Receptors, Cell Signalling, Cancer, Structural Biology, Allergic Inflammation, New Therapeutics

Research Project 1 – Dr Tim Hercus
Title: Development of novel ligands that selectively activate Bc receptor signalling

Description: We have recently solved the structure of the IL-3 receptor signalling complex and with collaborators have developed novel peptide scaffolds that generate subtly altered receptor arrangements. This project will study the function of novel ligands of the IL-3 receptor to characterise molecules that selectively activate the receptor and act as biased agonists. This will involve expression and purification of peptide ligands and assessment of their function on cell lines and primary cells using a range of techniques including flow cytometry, phosphoprotein quantitation and transcriptomic analysis.

Projects available for: Honours and HDR
Location: Centre for Cancer Biology
Research Project Start: Semester 1 and 2
Email: angel.lopez@sa.gov.au

Research Project 2 – Dr Tim Hercus
Title: Characterisation of the structural and functional mechanisms of IL-5 receptor activation.

Description: We have solved structures for the ternary GM-CSF and IL-3 receptor signalling complexes and characterised their novel mechanism of activation however it remains unclear the extent to which IL-5, which uniquely exists as a dimer, follows this paradigm. To understand the conserved and cytokine-specific features of cytokine signalling in this family, we will study the structure and function of the IL-5 receptor complex in collaboration with colleagues at Bio21 in Melbourne. This will involve expression and purification of receptor subunits and cytokine, structure determination of protein complexes and assessment of conserved or unique structural interactions through in silico methods such as molecular dynamics and functional studies of mutant components in cell lines in bioassays and FRET experiments as well as phosphoprotein and transcriptomic analysis.

Projects available for: Honours and HDR
Location: Centre for Cancer Biology
Research Project Start: Semester 1 and 2
Email: angel.lopez@sa.gov.au

Research Project 3 – Dr Winnie Kan
Title: Establishing the transcriptional programs that determine stem cell fate in haemopoiesis and leukaemia

Description: Although cytokines stimulate multiple functions of haematopoietic cells such as cell survival, proliferation and differentiation, the mechanisms governing these cell fate decisions are not understood. We have recently discovered that the IL-3 receptor assembles into two forms upon IL-3 binding, activating distinct signalling and gene expression programs to direct different biological outcomes: the hexameric form of the receptor promotes stemness while the dodecameric form induces cell differentiation. Importantly, we found that leukaemia stem cells (which are responsible for the initiation of acute myeloid leukaemia and its relapse) preferentially activate hexamer signalling to maintain their stemness and self-renewal properties. In this project, we will: i) dissect the signalling and gene expression programs induced by different IL-3 receptor assemblies that drive cell fate decisions in normal haemopoiesis and leukaemia and ii) determine the regulation of these transcriptional programs by a critical network of small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs. This project will involve a variety of biological and cell signalling assays by flow cytometry to study stemness and cell differentiation and transcriptomic analyses using our unique haematopoietic stem and progenitor cell models.

Projects available for: Honours and HDR
Location: Centre for Cancer Biology
Research Project Start: Semester 1 and 2

Research Project 4 – Dr Denis Tvorogov
Title: Neoepitope-directed strategy to selectively eliminate pathogenic clones in young adults with myelofibrosis

Description: We have developed a novel immunotherapeutic approach (a blocking monoclonal anti-neoepitope antibody, 4D7) that has high potential to change the treatment course for patients with myelofibrosis expressing a highly recurrent mutation (CALR, the 2nd most common genetic driver and more common in younger adults < 50 years) that was previously considered “undruggable”. This study will involve haemopoietic assays, cell signalling analysis and sophisticated biochemical approaches.

Projects available for: Honours and HDR
Location: Centre for Cancer Biology
Research Project Start: Semester 1 and 2
Email: angel.lopez@sa.gov.au

Research Project 5 – Dr Marina Kochetkova
Title: How can we target tumour microenvironment to treat breast cancer?

Description: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Finding effective drugs for metastatic breast cancer, preventing disease recurrence, and reversing chemotherapy resistance are the current challenges that must be solved to reduce mortality. Recent discoveries by us and others have led to an appreciation that cancers, including breast tumours, must be considered not just as a collection of cells but as complex systems, components of which interact with each other via multifaceted and plastic signalling networks. Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a major cellular component of the tumour stroma and they have been attributed multiple tumour-promoting roles in breast and other malignancies. However, origin, specific functions, and molecular regulators of CAFs are still, to the large degree undiscovered and will be the subject of this research project. We have established a variety of in vitro and in vivo breast cancer models that will enable cutting edge research into unravelling the role of CAFs in the generating cancer-enabling tumour midcontinent.

Projects available for: Honours and HDR
Location: Centre for Cancer Biology
Research Project Start: Semester 1 and 2
Email: angel.lopez@sa.gov.au

Research Project 6 – Dr Damon Tumes and A/Prof Harshita Pant
Title: Defining novel inflammatory cell types in asthma and other chronic airway diseases

Description: Many people with asthma have elevated numbers of eosinophils in their airway tissue that are thought to cause airway damage and in severe cases remodelling. Our new data shows that eosinophils in the airways are transcriptionally and functionally diverse and indicates that targeting all eosinophils may not be the best way to manage eosinophilic disease. In this project, enabled by our close collaborations with Adelaide ENT and respiratory specialists, single cell transcriptomics will be used to define previously unrecognised heterogeneity within human airway eosinophils and spatial transcriptomics will be used to map how these cells interact with other inflammatory and structural cells in the airway.

Projects available for: Honours and HDR
Location: Centre for Cancer Biology
E: angel.lopez@sa.gov.au
Research Project Start: Semester 1 and 2

  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    1981 National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, University of London United Kingdom PhD
    1975 University of Rosario (School of Medicine) Argentina MB BS
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 Co-Supervisor Immunological determinants of head and neck cancer progression and metastasis, in particular the role of cancer associated fibroblasts Master of Philosophy (Surgery) Master Full Time Miss Laura Kenyon
    2020 Principal Supervisor Transforming growth factor beta as a differential regulator of Beta common receptor and Interleukin 3 receptor alpha expression. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Sepideh Azizi Taramsary
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2007 - 2012 Principal Supervisor Regulation of Cell Survival in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Daniel Thomas
    2006 - 2011 Principal Supervisor Regulation of the BH3-only protein PUMA by growth factor signalling Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jarrod Sandow
    2002 - 2006 Principal Supervisor The Role of 14-3-3X in Cytokine Receptor Signalling Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Fernando Felquer
    1998 - 2008 Principal Supervisor The Role of ?c Subunit Phosphorylation in the Functioning of the GM-CSF/IL-3/ IL-5 Receptors Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Wendy Winnall
    1996 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Molecular Assembly of the Activated Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor Receptor Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Barbara Jean McClure

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