Dr Anja Rockstroh

Biography

With a background in biochemistry/molecular biology, > 15 years web-lab experience in cancer research and well-founded skills in bioinformatics, Dr Rockstroh’s strength lies in bridging the gap between biology and informatics, enabling translation of ‘big data’ into biological meaning. As a Research Fellow with the APCRC-Q for the last 10 years, she has been involved in numerous projects investigating cellular adaptive response pathways leading to castrate and chemo resistance in advanced prostate cancer. Being part of the Transcriptomics team within the MRTA project, Dr Rockstroh has contributed towards the development and execution of analysis pipelines for RNAseq and microarray data, which have been used to profile >600 prostate cancer samples to date. Comprising data derived from cell line based in-vitro experiments as well as organoid, xenograft and patient studies, this work has given rise to a large, comprehensive data repository of the prostate cancer transcriptome, which facilitates the discovery and characterisation of novel treatment resistance pathways. Dr Rockstroh completed her doctorate in biochemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, in early 2007, studying cell death mechanisms in human cancer cells. Moving to Australia, she gained postdoctoral research experience at the Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies / Griffith University in Brisbane, investigating the role of RNA-binding proteins in breast cancer development and progression. Joining Prof Nelson’s team in 2010 enabled her to build and expand her bioinformatics skills with a focus on prostate cancer transcriptomics. During her time at the APCRC-Q, she has contributed towards 17 peer-reviewed publications, driving the analysis of transcriptomics data and their biological interpretation. She has been a co-investigator and lead researcher on a 2-year $250,000 grant awarded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA-PG 4410) and has driven a 2-year $200,000 project grant funded by the Cancer Council Queensland (APP1080379).