Rate My Professor Moira Graves

Dr. Moira Graves is a researcher affiliated with the University of Newcastle's Faculty of Health and Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, and the Hunter Medical Research Institute. She completed her PhD in Medicine at the University of Newcastle in 2015, with a thesis examining DNA methylation patterns—the 'stop' signs on DNA expression—in key genes associated with multiple sclerosis risk within specific T and B cell populations. This work represented the first epigenetic study targeting individual T and B cell populations in multiple sclerosis patients. Prior to her doctorate, Graves earned a Master's degree from the University of Sydney and gained experience in pathology laboratories across Australia. Following her PhD under Laureate Professor Rodney Scott in genetics, she transitioned from multiple sclerosis epigenetics to cancer research, joining Associate Professor Nikola Bowden's team at HMRI around 2015.

Dr. Graves' research focuses on applying her expertise in DNA methylation and immune cell epigenetics to oncology, particularly metastatic melanoma and glioblastoma. In melanoma, she investigates immune cell populations in patients relapsing on immunotherapy, pharmacokinetics of anti-PD-1 therapies, and strategies to re-prime the immune system using off-patent drugs to expose tumor cells to immune attack. Her group developed approaches to make melanoma cells recognizable by inducing abnormal proteins via DNA repair modulation. Extending this to glioblastoma—one of the deadliest brain cancers—she explores drug repurposing, combining DNA repair inhibitors with standard treatments like temozolomide and radiation to enhance cell death in relapsed tumors. Promising preclinical data supported collaborations, including with Merck, and secured funding such as an HMRI grant and $200,000 from the Mark Hughes Foundation for a PhD project. Graves served as a postdoctoral researcher and Lab & Safety Manager for over a decade. Key publications include 'Methylation differences at the HLA-DRB1 locus in CD4+ T-Cells are associated with multiple sclerosis' (Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 2014), 'Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of CD8+ T cells shows a distinct epigenetic signature to CD4+ T cells in multiple sclerosis patients' (Clinical Epigenetics, 2015), 'Low tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte density in primary and recurrent glioblastoma' (Oncotarget, 2021), 'Monitoring patient response to pembrolizumab with peripheral blood exhaustion marker profiles' (Frontiers in Medicine, 2019), and 'Characteristics of vasculogenic mimicry and tumour to endothelial transdifferentiation in human glioblastoma' (BMC Cancer, 2023). She received the HMRI Awards Night recognition in 2019 and a Cancer Summit Travel Grant in 2025.