Rate My Professor Martina Paumann-Page

Dr Paumann-Page's research centers on the involvement of mammalian peroxidase oxidants in health and disease, with a focus on peroxidasin, an extracellular peroxidase upregulated in cancers such as metastatic melanoma. Her studies demonstrate that high peroxidasin expression correlates with increased invasiveness, revealing its causative role in promoting mesenchymal-like phenotypes, invasion, and modulation of the tumour microenvironment. She investigates underlying molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic strategies to inhibit peroxidasin and exploit oxidative stress vulnerabilities in cancer cells. Her contributions are supported by grants including a Marsden Fund project (Associate Investigator since 2019), Health Research Council project grant (AI), Cancer Research Trust NZ project grant (PI), and Canterbury Medical Research Foundation project grants (PI). In 2017, she received the Freemasons Carrell-Espiner Research Fellowship and a CMRF Major Project Grant. Key publications include 'Ceruloplasmin is an endogenous inhibitor of myeloperoxidase' (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2013), 'Peroxidasin protein expression and enzymatic activity in metastatic melanoma cell lines are associated with invasive potential' (2021), 'Peroxidasin inhibition by phloroglucinol and other peroxidase inhibitors' (Antioxidants, 2024), 'Melanoma redox biology and the emergence of drug resistance' (Advances in Cancer Research, 2024), and 'Peroxidasin is associated with a mesenchymal-like transcriptional phenotype and promotes invasion in metastatic melanoma' (Free Radical Biology & Medicine, 2025).