Professor Christopher Hovens

Professor Christopher Hovens is a Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery and a joint group leader of the Prostate Cancer Research group.

His current research focuses on the integrated genomic analysis of lethal prostate cancer phenotypes, comparing disease progression samples within cohorts of patients. He is one of the leaders on the ICGC Pan Prostate Whole Genome Analysis project steering committee, the largest international effort to map genomic changes in prostate cancer.

Professor Hovens is a co-inventor on 22 different patents and patent applications in drug discovery and development ranging across indications from cancer to neurodegenerative disorders. He has served as Chief Scientific Officer and main scientific advisor for two start up drug development companies he co-founded.

Professor Hovens was awarded a PhD at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 1992 and took up a post- doctoral position with Prof Walter Schaffner at the Institute for Molecular Biology in Zurich. He moved to the Institute for Medical Virology in Zurich in 1995 as an independent group leader.

In late 1998 Professor Hovens moved to the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne as a group leader. In 2001 Professor Hovens was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery and then in 2005 as Director of the Prostate Cancer Research centre in the Departments of Urology and Surgery, University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital.

His work has led to the co-discovery of a small, water-soluble activator of the PP2A phosphates pathway and for which a number of international patent applications have been filed and a company founded, Velacor Therapeutics Pty Ltd, to commercialise this discovery. He has also developed a novel inhibitor of androgen signalling which has been commercialised through another start up, CCH Pharma Pty Ltd and which was the subject of multiple patent applications.