Dr Devendra Hiwase

I am a clinician scientist, consultant haematologist and lead the Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Research Group at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. I am also a steering committee member of the National Aplastic Anaemia Registry and MDSLink. I have authored more than 49 publications in prestigious journals including Blood, Leukaemia, Clinical Cancer Research, PNAS and Haematologica. In 2012, I established the South Australian MDS (SA-MDS) Registry which enrolled >1800 patients and ~600 biospecimens. My research work led to change in local transfusion practice and a prospective clinical trial demonstrating the impact of frailty on treatment outcome in MDS. This project led to a PhD candidature and further clinical trial. My seminal findings on refractoriness of leukaemic stem cells to tyrosine kinase inhibitors led to 13 publications, patent and development of a “cytokine signature” to identify poor responders. I was also instrumental in demonstrating the crucial role of caspase-2 in haematopoietic stem cell differentiation and tumorigenesis in a murine model. Furthermore, I led the international effort in identifying “distinct” somatic mutational signature in therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (t-MN). I currently lead an international group identifying genetic predisposition and long-term damage induced by cytotoxic therapy to the bone marrow microenvironment in t-MN. My collaboration with the industry (Novartis, Celgene, BMS and Abbvie Pty Ltd) has enabled patients to participate in clinical trials. Furthermore, I was recently awarded the highly competitive EL1 MRFF Investigator Grant ($620,205). I have also supervised 2 PhD and 1 MPhil students, 4 clinical fellows, 11 speciality registrars, and 9 medical students. I also currenrtly supervise a research assistant, data manager and senior nurse.