Dr Brett Hollier
Faculty of Health,
School of Biomedical Sciences
Biography
Dr Brett Hollier is an early career researcher investigating the mechanisms that mediate cancer metastasis. In particular, his research focuses on the Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF) family and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. Dr Hollier’s research focus is to better define the EMT program operating in cancer and its relevance to metastasis in order to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets of EMT to better prognosticate and treat aggressive forms of cancer.
Dr Hollier was awarded a PhD in April 2008, in which he described for the first time the critical signalling events and transcriptional networks responsible for cancer cell migration induced by novel growth factor complexes. He conducted postdoctoral training at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) investigating the role of embryonic transcription factors in EMT, cancer stem cells and metastasis. During this 2 year training he was awarded a Susan G Komen for the Cure® Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, which resulted in 6 peer reviewed articles in high impact international journals, 1 book chapter and 1 provisional patent application.
He returned to Australia in late 2010 where he initiated an independent research laboratory at QUT. In 2012, he joined the APCRC-Q where he leads the Invasion and Metastasis laboratory. To date he has published 20 peer reviewed articles, including 15 original journal articles, 2 invited reviews, 1 invited commentary and 2 book chapters. He is an author on a further 8 manuscripts currently in final preparation or under review (4 as senior author). He is also an inventor on 3 patent applications and has held supervisory responsibilities for 2 postdoctoral researchers, 10 PhD students (4 Primary and 6 Associate) and 2 International exchange students.
Dr Hollier currently holds a 3 year QLD Smart Futures Fund Fellowship (2012-2015) to design smarter targeted therapies for cancer progression and is excited about the future opportunities to extend his research in these fields. In recognition of his research and his rapidly emerging national and international profile in the fields of Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) biology and mechanisms of cancer metastasis, particularly the EMT program, he has been invited and presented his findings at both national and international conferences as well as external research institutes.
Personal details
Positions
- Senior Research Fellow
Faculty of Health,
School of Biomedical Sciences
Keywords
Cancer, EMT, IGF, Metastasis, Stem cell
Research field
Biochemistry and cell biology, Other biological sciences
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
2011–present
Australia-Canada Prostate Cancer Research Alliance
2010–present
Metastasis Research Society
2009–present
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition International Association (TEMITA)
2005–present
The IGF (insulin-like growth factors) Society
2002–present
Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR)
Publications
- Nouri, M., Massah, S., Caradec, J., Lubik, A., Li, N., Truong, S., Lee, A., Fazli, L., Ramnarine, V., Lovnicki, J., Moore, J., Wang, M., Foo, J., Gleave, M., Hollier, B., Nelson, C., Collins, C., Dong, X. & Buttyan, R. (2020). Transient SOX9 expression facilitates resistance to androgen-targeted therapy in prostate cancer. Clinical Cancer Research, 26(7), 1678–1689. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/197732
- Stylianou, N., Lehman, M., Wang, C., Taherian Fard, A., Rockstroh, A., Fazli, L., Jovanovic, L., Ward, M., Sadowski, M., Kashyap, A., Buttyan, R., Gleave, M., Westbrook, T., Williams, E., Gunter, J., Nelson, C. & Hollier, B. (2019). A molecular portrait of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in prostate cancer associated with clinical outcome. Oncogene, 38(7), 913–934. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121398
- Sarkar, P., Lee, W., Williams, E., Lubik, A., Stylianou, N., Shokoohmand, A., Lehman, M., Hollier, B., Gunter, J. & Nelson, C. (2019). Insulin enhances migration and invasion in prostate cancer cells by up-regulation of FOXC2. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 10, 1–16. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/133371
- Pillman, K., Phillips, C., Roslan, S., Toubia, J., Dredge, B., Bert, A., Lumb, R., Neumann, D., Li, X., Conn, S., Liu, D., Bracken, C., Lawrence, D., Stylianou, N., Schreiber, A., Tilley, W., Hollier, B., Khew-Goodall, Y., Selth, L. & Goodall, G. (2018). miR-200/375 control epithelial plasticity-associated alternative splicing by repressing the RNA-binding protein Quaking. EMBO Journal, 37(13), 1–20. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/122452
- Selth, L., Das, R., Townley, S., Coutinho, I., Hanson, A., Centenera, M., Stylianou, N., Sweeney, K., Jovanovic, L., Nelson, C., Hollier, B. & other, a. (2017). A ZEB1-miR-375-YAP1 pathway regulates epithelial plasticity in prostate cancer. Oncogene, 36(1), 24–34. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/102387
- Tse, B., Volpert, M., Ratther, E., Stylianou, N., Nouri, M., McGowan, K., Lehman, M., McPherson, S., Roshan-Moniri, M., Butler, M., Caradec, J., Gregory-Evans, C., McGovern, J., Williams, E., Gunter, J., Russell, P., Nelson, C., Hollier, B. & other, a. (2017). Neuropilin-1 is upregulated in the adaptive response of prostate tumors to androgen-targeted therapies and is prognostic of metastatic progression and patient mortality. Oncogene, 36(24), 3417–3427. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/107515
- Shah, E., Upadhyaya, A., Philp, L., Tang, T., Skalamera, D., Gunter, J., Nelson, C., Williams, E. & Hollier, B. (2016). Repositioning 'old' drugs for new causes: identifying new inhibitors of prostate cancer cell migration and invasion. Clinical and Experimental Metastasis, 33(4), 385–399. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/98728
- Hollier, B., Tinnirello, A., Werden, S., Evans, K., Taube, J., Sarkar, T., Sphyris, N., Shariati, M., Kumar, S., Battula, V., Herschkowtiz, J., Guerra, R., Chang, J., Miura, N., Rosen, J. & Mani, S. (2013). FOXC2 expression links epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem cell properties in breast cancer. Cancer Research, 73(6), 1981–1992. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56787
- Hollier, B., Ram, P., Lander, E., Rosen, J., Weinberg, R., Mani, S., Taube, J., Herschkowtiz, J., Komurov, K., Zhou, A., Gupta, S., Yang, J., Hartwell, K., Onder, T., Gupta, P. & Evans, K. (2010). Core epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition interactome gene-expression signature is associated with claudin-low and metaplastic breast cancer subtypes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(35), 15449–15454. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56805
- Hollier, B., Evans, K. & Mani, S. (2009). The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells: A coalition against cancer therapies. Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia, 14(1), 29–43. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56806
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Brett, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Supervision
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Characterizing the Role of Insulin Signalling in Advanced Prostate Cancer (2017)
- Investigating the Role of the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity in Prostate Cancer (2017)
- Towards the Development of Novel Bispecific Antibodies to Inhibit Key Cell Surface Receptors Integral for the Growth and Migration of Tumour Cells (2016)
- Identifying the Molecular Mediators of VN and the IGF: VN Complex-Stimulated Breast Cancer Cell Survival (2015)
- In Vitro Functional Characterisation of IGF-I:VN-induced Breast Cancer Progression (2013)
- Prognostic Significance of IGF and ECM Induced Signalling Proteins in Breast Cancer Patients (2012)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
Supervision topics
- Reversing Epithelial Mesenchymal Plasticity with Eribulin to Enhance Therapy Response
- Investigating the role of Neuropilin-1 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer metastasis and chemoresistance
- Testing a promising targeted therapeutic for triple-negative breast cancer
- Characterisation of a novel protein co-amplified with the n-MYC oncogene
- Eribulin effects on epithelial mesenchymal plasticity and therapy response
- A novel molecular targeted therapy for anaplastic prostate cancer
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.