Professor Mark Dawson

Professor Mark Dawson is a Physician-Scientist, Program Head, and Associate Director of Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, in addition to leading the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory at the Collaborative Centre for Genomic Cancer Medicine.

He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1999, and subsequently trained as a haematologist in Melbourne, Australia. After his clinical training, he was awarded a prestigious General Sir John Monash Fellowship and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Fellowship, which he used to complete his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Following his PhD, as the top ranked candidate in the UK for a Wellcome Trust Fellowship he was awarded the inaugural Wellcome Beit Prize Fellowship to pursue his research into epigenetic regulation of leukaemia stem cells.

He returned to Melbourne in 2014 where his current research interest is studying chromatin regulation in haematopoiesis and cancer. His research has helped define key molecular mechanisms that underpin the initiation, maintenance, and progression of cancer. These insights have led to the development of several first-in-class epigenetic therapies that have been translated into various clinical trials across the world.

He is a Professor at the University of Melbourne, the Sir Edward Dunlop Fellow for the Cancer Council of Victoria and a HHMI International Scholar. In recognition of his research achievements, he has been awarded several awards and prizes including the Paul Mark’s Prize for Cancer Research, McCulloch & Till Award from the International Society of Experimental Hematology and the Australian Prime Ministers Prize for Science as Life Scientist of the Year 2020.

Professor Dawson has been elected to the Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO).