The Ashley Dunn Oration is the most prestigious annual keynote speech at the Lorne Cancer conference in recognition of Ashley Dunn’s contribution to cancer research, fostering research excellence within the Australian research community and foundational role in establishing the Lorne Cancer meeting. The oration is presented at the Lorne Cancer conference by an internationally leading cancer researcher who has made major field-shaping contributions, with broad and lasting impact.

Prof. Ashley Dunn

Professor Ashley Dunn, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, is an Australian molecular biologist and cancer researcher whose work fundamentally shaped modern understanding of growth factors, haematopoiesis and oncogenesis.

He is best known for co‑cloning and characterising granulocyte–macrophage colony‑stimulating factor (GM‑CSF) and related cytokines, discoveries that underpinned clinical use of GM‑CSF to restore bone marrow function after chemotherapy and established autocrine growth factor production as a leukaemogenic mechanism.

His laboratory also produced influential insights into hematopoietic tyrosine kinases and translational regulation within the Src family, as well as pioneering use of gene targeting to dissect cytokine and receptor function in blood cell development and cancer.

Beyond his scientific contributions, Dunn built and led a highly productive molecular biology program in Melbourne, in senior roles as Associate Director of the Melbourne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and a Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne until 2003.

He has mentored multiple generations of outstanding cancer researchers and has continued to shape Australian biotechnology and gene technology policy through senior advisory and consultancy roles.

Past Orators

2026 Charles Sawyer - Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute & Chairman, Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre

2025 Luke Gilbert - Associate Professor, University of California San Francisco

2024 Dr Andreas Strasser - Joint Head, Molecular Genetics of Cancer, WEHI

2023 Prof Karen Vousden - Senior Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute, UK

2022 Prof Suzanne Cory - Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (1996-2009) and President of the Australian Academy of Science (2010-2014)

2020 Dr John Dick - UHN Research, Toronto, Canada

2019 Prof Scott Lowe Chair - Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, USA

2018 Prof Douglas Hanahan - Director, Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

2017 Prof Louis Staudt - Centre for Cancer Genomics, National Cancer Institute, USA

2016 Dr Ira Mellman - Vice President, Cancer Immunology, Genentech, USA

2015 Prof Mark Smyth - Senior Scientist and Immunology Coordinator, Immunology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, QLD

2014 Prof Lisa Coussens - Professor, Pathology, University of California, San Francisco

2013 Prof Visha Dixit - Vice President, Physiological Chemistry, Research Genentech, Inc, CA, USA

2010 George Demetri - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA