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A/Prof. Laurence Cheung

Associate Professor
Curtin Medical School

Leukaemia Translational Research Laboratory

A/Prof. Laurence Cheung is a pharmacist by training with a passion for finding better treatments for disease. During my time as a community pharmacist, I often met parents whose children were battling leukaemia, and it was heartbreaking to see them suffer from the side effects of treatment. After eight years in practice, I transitioned into medical research to help translate discoveries from bench to bedside and develop therapies that can truly make a difference. As a father of three, I understand the joy of seeing healthy, happy children. This motivates me every day to work towards giving families affected by childhood leukaemia that same hope.  

About

Associate Professor Laurence Cheung is a leading researcher in paediatric leukaemia, with a strong focus on improving outcomes for children with high-risk blood cancers. His work has been supported by several major grants, including the Children’s Leukaemia and Cancer Research Foundation Triennial Block Grant (2022–2024, $2.05M) and competitive project funding from the Cancer Council WA, Tour de Cure, and the Telethon -Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund. His research explores new therapeutic approaches that target the bone marrow microenvironment and leverage drugs such as zoledronic acid to enhance treatment effectiveness in childhood leukaemia.

Associate Professor Cheung’s excellence has been recognised with numerous awards, including Cancer Council WA Early Career Cancer Researcher of the Year (2019), the Curtin University STEM Early Career Researcher Award (2019), and the BrightSpark Research Collaboration Award (2016). He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

He actively contributes to the scientific community as a member of the Cancer Council WA Pre-doctoral Grants Advisory Subcommittee, the American Society of Hematology, the Scientific Advisory Sub-Committee at Perth Children’s Hospital, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Western Australia.

 
  • Member of Cancer Council Western Australia Pre-doctoral Grants Advisory Subcommittee
  • Member of American Society of Hematology
  • Member of Scientific Advisory Sub-Committee, Perth Children's Hospital
  • Member of Pharmaceutical Society of Western Australia
  • BrightSpark Research Collaboration Awards 2016
  • Travel Fund, Children’s Leukaemia and Cancer Research Foundation 2016
  • Travel Fund from Friends of The Kids Research Institute Australia 2016
  • Travel Fund, Children’s Leukaemia and Cancer Research Foundation 2016
  • Travel Fund from Friends of the Institute for Child Health Research 2011
  • Stan and Jean Perron PhD top-up Scholarship, The Kids for Child Health Research 2010
  • PhD top-up Scholarship, Children’s Leukaemia and Cancer Research Foundation 2009
  • Australian Postgraduate Award, The University of Western Australia 2009
  • Improving Outcomes for Children with High-Risk Leukaemia. Children’s Leukaemia and Cancer Research Foundation Triennial Block Grant for 2022-2024, $2,046,137. Rishi S Kotecha and Laurence C Cheung.
  • New therapeutic opportunities by targeting the bone marrow microenvironment of high-risk childhood leukaemias. Tour de Cure Early Career Research Grant 2019-2021, $98,020. Laurence C Cheung.
  • Unveiling the interaction between leukaemia cells and bone cells. Cancer Council Western Australia-Suzanne Cavanagh Early Career Investigator Grant 2019-2020, $34,723. Laurence C Cheung.
  • Exploiting the use of Zoledronic Acid to improve the outcome in childhood leukaemia. Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation Project Grant 2019-2020, $78,554. Laurence C Cheung, Rishi D Kotecha and Jennifer Tickner.
  • Zoledronic Acid to improve outcome of children with high risk leukaemias. Telethon-Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund 2018-2019, $242,470. Laurence C Cheung, Rishi Kotecha, Jennifer Tickner, Ursula Kees.
  • Dissecting the leukaemia microenvironment. Cancer Council WA (CCWA) Collaborative Cancer Grant Scheme 2018-2019$43,395. Laurence C Cheung, Benjamin Mullin, Dave Tang, Rishi Kotecha, Jennifer Tickner.
  • Palatable and chewable tramadol chocolate-based tablets for effective pain management in young paediatric patients. Telethon-Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund 2018-2019, $243,600. Lee Yong Lim, Britta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg, Sam Salman, Laurence C Cheung, David Sommerfielf, Edith Tang.
  • Improving cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of leukaemia. Telethon-Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund 2018-2019, $249,877.10.  Bree Foley, Rishi Kotecha, Jason Waithman, Laurence C Cheung.

 

 

EMAIL: L.Cheung@curtin.edu.au
TEL: +61 (08) 9266 1983
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Research Focus

Associate Professor Laurence Cheung is a pharmacist and medical researcher whose work focuses on improving outcomes for children with leukaemia. As Co-Head of the Leukaemia Translational Research Laboratory at the Kids Research Institute Australia, his research bridges basic science and clinical application to better understand disease mechanisms and develop more effective therapies.

His research has three main themes:

 

Research Team

A/Prof. Rishi Kotecha

Adjunct Associate Professor

Dr Vincent Kuek

Adjunct Research Fellow

Dr Sung Chiu

Adjunct Research Fellow

Abigail Lim

PhD Student

Publications

ABSTRACT

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common childhood cancer. Outcomes have improved significantly over the last 50 years, with 5-year overall survival approaching 90%, but certain subgroups have inferior prognoses, especially those with high-risk genetic alterations in their leukemia cells, such as BCR-ABL1 or relapsed disease [1]. The tumor microenvironment is known to play an integral role in the development and progression of cancer. For hematological malignancies, the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment serves as the site of initiation, progression, and relapse. It consists of different cell types, including hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, immune cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts. Clinical studies in children diagnosed with ALL have demonstrated bone loss and changes in the BM microenvironment during disease development [2, 3], suggesting that restoring the healthy BM microenvironment represents an attractive therapeutic avenue, especially for children with high-risk leukemia where dose-limiting toxicities of conventional chemotherapeutic agents have prevented further improvement.

Kotecha, R. S., S. M. Trinder, A. M. Hughes, B. H. Mullin, S. Rashid, J. Yuan, J. Xu, O. Duncan, P. Skut, G. A. Chua, and 7 more contributors. 2025. Targeting osteoclasts for treatment of high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.Blood Cancer Journal 15 (1)

ABSTRACT

Background/Objectives: Infants with KMT2A-rearranged B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have high rates of relapse and poor survival compared with children. Few new therapies have been identified over the past twenty years. The aim of this study was to identify existing anti-cancer agents that have the potential to be repurposed for the treatment of infant ALL. Methods: Eight extensively characterized infant ALL cell lines were treated with 62 anti-neoplastic drugs in vitro to identify agents that exhibit significant cytotoxicity. From this screen, we selected the most effective and clinically translatable agent for further in vitro and in vivo assessment to determine the potential for use in the clinical setting. Results: Our anti-cancer drug screen revealed significant activity of dactinomycin across all infant ALL cell lines. Further in vitro testing identified low half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) across our infant ALL cell lines in the nanomolar range. Combination testing with the conventional chemotherapeutic agents currently used to treat infants with ALL demonstrated additivity with cytarabine. In vivo assessment of dactinomycin identified 36 μg/kg as the maximum tolerated dose, with unacceptable toxicities at higher dose treatment. Treatment using doses of 18 μg/kg administered either once or twice a week derived a small but significant survival benefit in patient-derived xenografts. Conclusions: Dactinomycin is extensively used for the treatment of solid tumors in children and has an acceptable safety profile when used to treat infants in this context. However, despite being readily translational and exhibiting promising in vitro cytotoxicity, dactinomycin showed limited efficacy in vivo and therefore does not represent a priority candidate for integrating into therapy for infants with ALL.

Chiu, S. K., E. Ferrari, J. Oommen, S. Malinge, L. C. Cheung, and R. S. Kotecha. 2025.Preclinical Assessment of Dactinomycin in KMT2A-Rearranged Infant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.Cancers 17 (3)

High risk childhood leukaemia

A/Prof. Laurence Cheung

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