Meet Senior Fellow Dr Kendrick Koo

When speaking of the highlights of his honorary position at the Melbourne Dental School, Senior Fellow Kendrick Koo is quick to emphasise the opportunities to collaborate with excellent clinicians and researchers in Oral Medicine.

“Currently I am collaborating with the Oral Medicine specialists (Dr Tami Yap) on a project to improve risk stratification in oral pre-malignant disorders by combining clinical photographs, microscopy and molecular features, using both traditional statistics as well as machine learning techniques.”

Dr. Koo completed his PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 2019.

Since then, his work has included identifying unique molecular characteristics in head and neck cancer patients without tobacco and alcohol risk factors.

When asked about his clinical and research interests, Dr. Koo mentions that he has a special interest in head and neck cancers. He is currently undertaking clinical work as a radiation oncology registrar.

“I believe that there has not been enough of a research focus on patients with these cancers given the poor survival and functional outcomes they can experience from both the disease and its treatment, especially when contrasted with the development of tumours in other body regions.”

“With my collaborators across Parkville, we hope to gain insights into the oncogenesis of head and neck cancers and identify strategies to personalise and improve treatments for these patients.”

If you are interested in collaborating with Dr. Kendrick Koo or have any questions about genomics or bioinformatics in general, please visit the welcome profile to get in contact.