Rate My Professor Michael Eccles

Professor Michael Eccles is the New Zealand Institute for Cancer Research Trust Chair in Cancer Pathology and Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago. He earned his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Otago in 1986. Following postdoctoral research at Princeton University’s Department of Molecular Biology from 1987 to 1988, he returned to the University of Otago in 1989. He held positions as Visiting Scientist and Adjunct Professor at McGill University’s Department of Pediatrics from 1999 to 2006. Appointed to the Chair in Cancer Pathology in June 2001, he heads the Developmental Genetics and Pathology Laboratory, which pioneered reduced representation bisulphite sequencing to study genome-wide epigenetic changes.

His research focuses on cancer genetics, epigenetics, onco-developmental biology, PAX genes in development and disease, imprinting abnormalities in cancer, and genetic diseases of the kidney, including melanoma and polycystic kidney disease. As a Principal Investigator and leader of the ‘Genomic Approaches to Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment’ flagship programme at the Maurice Wilkins Centre, he advises ANZNET and the Neuroendocrine Tumour Research Group. Key publications include “Epigenetic Deregulation of Transposable Elements Links Developmental Processes and Tumorigenesis” (2026), “PAX gene expression in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease contributes to cyst expansion and regulates a gene network associated with cyst growth” (2026), “Pre-treatment DNA methylome and transcriptome profiles correlate with melanoma response to anti-PD1 immunotherapy” (2025), “Peroxidasin is associated with a mesenchymal-like transcriptional phenotype and promotes invasion in metastatic melanoma” (2025), and “Jackson-Weiss and Crouzon syndromes are allelic with mutations in fibroblast growth factor receptor 2” (1994, Nature Genetics). His Google Scholar profile shows over 12,900 citations. Professor Eccles has received Health Research Council funding, including an Explorer Grant in 2013 for a project on circular polarised light to evaluate cell differentiation status in vivo, and a 2021 Partnership Programme grant for molecular profiling for precision cancer therapies in breast and ovarian cancer.