Rate My Professor Kathy Fuller

Associate Professor Kathy Fuller serves as Associate Professor of Translational Oncology in the School of Biomedical Sciences within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at The University of Western Australia. She earned her BSc and PhD in Surgery from UWA, with her doctoral thesis focusing on the effects of post-surgical nutrition on gut immunity. As Head of Discipline in Pathology and Laboratory Science, Fuller has built a distinguished career advancing cancer diagnostics through innovative cytometry techniques. Her research centers on haematological malignancies, breast cancer, and carcinoma of unknown primary, developing precision pathology tools to create unique cancer fingerprints for personalized therapy. Fuller's work bridges flow cytometry and genetic analysis, enabling the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in individual intact cells to improve patient outcomes in oncology.

A key achievement is her co-invention of immuno-flowFISH, a world-first automated imaging flow cytometry method that combines immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, and FISH to provide high-precision chromosomal assessment at single-cell resolution. This technology has transformed traditional pathology limitations, allowing high-throughput analysis of genetic changes in blood cancers such as leukaemia and myeloma. Notable publications include "Chromosomal assessment of haematological malignancies" (2024, Pathology), "Imaging flow cytometric detection of del(17p) in bone marrow and circulating tumour cells" (2024, British Journal of Haematology), "Double Hit Myeloma: Detection By FISH and Flow Cytometry in a Single Tube" (2023, Blood), "PlateletSeq: A novel method for discovery of blood-based biomarkers in myeloproliferative neoplasms" (2023, Cytometry Part B: Clinical Cytometry), and "Analysis of human chromosomes by imaging flow cytometry" (various contributions). Garnering over 3,247 citations on Google Scholar, her influence extends to clinical applications, including a $1,147,284 RPH Research Foundation grant (2024) where she serves as Chief Investigator to enhance early leukaemia detection via immuno-flowFISH in chronic bone marrow disorders. Fuller has been recognized with her team in Cancer Council WA's research excellence awards (2021) and holds positions such as Treasurer of the Australasian Cytometry Society, contributing to seminars, webinars, and NHMRC grant successes.