Rate My Professor Kim Rice

Dr. Kim Rice is a Lecturer in Medical Genetics in the School of Medical, Molecular and Forensic Sciences at Murdoch University. She obtained her BSc in Molecular Biology from Murdoch University in 1998 and her PhD in Molecular Biology from the same university in 2004. Her primary research interests encompass leukaemia, haematological tumours, and epigenetics, with a particular emphasis on acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL). Dr. Rice investigates precision therapies that target epigenetic regulators and leverage the immune system to eliminate leukaemia cells, aiming to develop more effective and less toxic treatments, especially for childhood AML.

Dr. Rice's professional career bridges academia, biotechnology, and intellectual property sectors. She supervises honours and PhD students and collaborates with institutions including The Kids Research Institute Australia, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Perth Children’s Hospital, and Fiona Stanley Hospital. Notable recent accomplishments include a fellowship funded by The Hospital Research Foundation and Cancer Council WA to advance precision therapies for paediatric AML, and a $139,845 grant from Cancer Council WA in 2026 for her project 'Empowering the immune system to fight acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)'. Key publications feature 'Activation of a promyelocytic leukemia-tumor protein 53 axis underlies acute promyelocytic leukemia cure' (2014, Nature Medicine), 'Comprehensive genomic screens identify a role for PLZF-RARα as a positive regulator of cell proliferation via direct regulation of c-MYC' (2009), 'FLT3-ITD impedes retinoic acid, but not arsenic, responses in murine acute promyelocytic leukemias', and 'The acute promyelocytic leukaemia success story: curing leukaemia through targeted therapies' (2015). Her doctoral work resulted in publications in Blood, Genes & Development, and Blood Cancer Journal, and she has served as a reviewer for PNAS.