Adam K Walker Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2022

Adam K Walker

Adam is an internationally recognised psychoneuroimmunologist who leads the Laboratory of ImmunoPsychiatry at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and UNSW. He completed his PhD at The University of Newcastle as well as two successful postdoctoral appointments at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA investigating mechanisms and treatments for inflammation-induced depression, and at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences as a National Breast Cancer Fellow in the new field of cancer neuroscience investigating bi-directional tumour-brain communication and mechanisms of cancer-related cognitive impairment using preclinical models. At NeuRA, his research program investigates the role of the immune system on the pathophysiology of psychiatric symptoms, including when these symptoms emerge on the background of inflammatory diseases like cancer. He is dedicated to understanding the neuroinflammatory mechanisms of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric symptoms to identify, biomarkers, therapeutic targets and develop novel treatments. He is a pioneer in repurposing available drugs (ketamine, leucine, aspirin, angiotensin receptor blockers) for novel treatments that target inflammatory symptoms, and his preclinical discoveries have been translated into clinical trials.