Professor Mark Polizzotto

MB BS BMedSc PhD FRACP FRCPA
Group Leader
Head, Clinical Hub for Interventional Research

Mark is Professor of Medicine in the College of Health and Medicine, Group Leader in Cancer and Genome Science at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, and leads the newly-established ANU Clinical Hub for Interventional Research (CHOIR).

He is a clinical triallist whose work sits the intersection of immunity, infection and cancer. He has a focus on developing new therapies to prevent and treat malignancy, particularly infection-related cancers. Mark's work on viral and HIV-associated cancers has influenced guidelines globally, including co-leading development of an oral immunomodulator for Kaposi sarcoma which led to the first new drug approval for KS in over 20 years.

Mark's work in clinical trials and therapeutic development has led to new therapy registrations and influenced treatment guidelines in Australia and internationally, while his contributions to translational science have led to paradigmatic shifts in our understanding of the pathogenesis of key viral malignancies and complications of HIV infection. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, at the invitation of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, he led international randomised trials of immunotherapies for COVID-19.

He has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion in clinical trials, and to clinical research capacity development in resource-limited settings. He has a particular focus on inclusion of people with HIV and other chronic viral infections in clinical trials of novel cancer therapies, and has advised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on this topic. He has led trial capacity building efforts in West Africa and Indonesia for the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Mark has published in the most influential journals in his areas of interest, including Blood, Clinical Infectious Diseases, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet journals, Nature Medicine, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Research interests

Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer Target Therapies

Infectious Disease Immunotherapy

HIV/HIV-related malignancies

Human Herpesvirus-8

Epstein Barr Virus

Human Papillomavirus

Global Oncology

 

Areas of Expertise

Haematology

Infectious Diseases

Cancer Therapy (Excl. Chemotherapy And Radiation Therapy)

Haematological Tumours

Solid Tumours

Tumour Immunology

  1. Dharan NJ†, Yeh P†, Bloch B, Yeung M, Baker D, Guinto J, Roth N, Ftouni S, Ognenovska K, Smith D, Hoy JF, Woolley I, Pell C, Templeton DJ, Fraser N, Rose N, Hutchinson J, Petoumenos K*, Dawson SJ*, Polizzotto MN*, Dawson MA*, for the ARCHIVE Study Group (†co first; *co-senior). HIV is associated with an increased risk of age-related clonal haematopoiesis among older adults: the ARCHIVE study. Nature Medicine, 2021,.doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01357-y.
  2. Lundgren JD*, Grund B, Barkauskas CE, Holland TL, Gottlieb RL, Sandkovsky U, Brown SM, Knowlton KU, Self WH, Files DC, Jain MK, Benfield T, Bowdish ME, Leshnower BG, Baker JV, Jensen JU, Gardner EM, Ginde AA, Harris ES, Johansen IS, Markowitz N, Matthay MA, Østergaard L, Chang CC, Davey VJ, Goodman A, Higgs ES, Murray DD, Murray TA, Paredes R, Parmar MKB, Phillips AN, Reilly C, Sharma S, Dewar RL, Teitelbaum M, Wentworth D, Cao H, Klekotka P, Babiker AG*, Gelijns AC*, Kan VL*, Polizzotto MN*, Thompson BT*, Lane HC*, Neaton JD* (*co-senior), for the ACTIV-3/TICO LY-CoV555 Study Group. A Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibody for Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19. New England Journal of Medicine. 2021 Mar 11;384(10):905-914
  3. Wong IKJ, Grulich AE, Poynten IM, Polizzotto MN, van Leeuwen MT, Amin J, McGregor S, Law M, Templeton DJ, Vadjic CM, Jin FJ. Time trends in cancer incidence in Australian people living with HIV between 1982 and 2012. HIV Medicine, 2021.
  4. Murray DD, Zaunders J, Milliken ST, Munier CML, Ford C, Morrissey CO, Visweswaran M, Avery S, Sasadeusz J, Kwan J, Desai S, Law M, Koelsch KK, Lewin SR, Moore J, Kelleher AD, Polizzotto MN. Altered immune reconstitution in HIV positive allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2020 Jun 10:ciaa748. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa748.
  5. Davey RT, Fernández-Cruz E, Markowitz N, Pett S, Babiker AG, Wentworth D, Khurana S, Engen N, Gordin F, Jain MK, Kan V, Polizzotto MN, Riska P, Ruxrungtham K, Temesgen Z, Lundgren J, Beigel JH, Lane HC, Neaton JD.  Anti-influenza hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin for adults with influenza A or B infection (FLU-IVIG): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2019 Nov;7(11):951-963. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(19)30253-X.
  6. Lurain K, Uldrick TS, Ramaswami R, Polizzotto MN, Goncalves PH, Widell A, Steinberg SM, Jaffe ES, Pittaluga S, Wang HW, Yuan CM, Tamula MA, Martin S, Wolters PL, George J, Little RF, Yarchoan R. Treatment of HIV-associated primary CNS lymphoma with antiretroviral therapy, rituximab, and high-dose methotrexate. Blood. 2020 Nov 5;136(19):2229-2232.
  7. Lurain K, Polizzotto MN, Aleman K, Bhutani M, Wyvill KM, Gonçalves PH, Ramaswami R, Marshall VA, Miley W, Steinberg SM, Little RF, Wilson W, Filie AC, Pittaluga S, Jaffe ES, Whitby D, Yarchoan R, Uldrick TS. Viral, immunologic, and clinical features of primary effusion lymphoma. Blood. 2019 Apr 18;133(16):1753-1761.
  8. Sanchez-Martin D, Uldrick TS, Kwak H, Ohnuki H, Polizzotto MN, Annunziata CM, Raffeld M, Wyvill KM, Aleman K, Wang V, Marshall VA, Whitby D, Yarchoan R, Tosato G. Evidence for a Mesothelial Origin of Body Cavity Effusion Lymphomas. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2017 Sep 1;109(9). doi: 10.1093/jnci/djx016.
  9. Polizzotto MN, Uldrick TS, Wyvill KM, Aleman K, Peer CJ, Bevans M, Sereti I, Maldarelli F, Whitby D, Marshall V, Goncalves PH, Khetani V, Figg WD, Steinberg SM, Zeldis JB, Yarchoan R. Pomalidomide for symptomatic Kaposi sarcoma in people with and without HIV: a phase I/II study. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2016;34(34):4125-4131.
  10. Polizzotto MN, Uldrick TS, Wyvill KM, Aleman K, Marshall V, Wang V, Whitby D, Pittaluga S, Jaffe E, Millo C, Tosato G, Little RF, Steinberg SM, Sereti I, Yarchoan R. Clinical features and outcomes of patients with symptomatic Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) associated inflammation: prospective characterization of the KSHV inflammatory cytokine syndrome (KICS). Clinical Infectious Diseases 2016;62(6):730-8