A/Prof Wallington-Gates is a Consultant Clinical Haematologist and Multiple Myeloma Lead at Flinders Medical Centre and Associate Professor at Flinders University. He is the Principal Investigator of clinical trials for patients with the aggressive blood cancer multiple myeloma. Being a cancer biologist and clinical haematologist, A/Prof Wallington-Gates seeks to translate research findings to the clinic, focusing on novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for multiple myeloma.

After completing specialist medical qualifications (FRACP/FRCPA) in the discipline of haematology at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, A/Prof Wallington-Gates undertook PhD studies at The University of Sydney. His work sought to investigate novel therapeutic strategies for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and resulted in several high impact publications and numerous national and international conference presentations. In recognition of this work, A/Prof Wallington-Gates was awarded the 2012 Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand Albert Baikie Memorial Medal and New Investigator Grant. Supported by a NHMRC Peter Doherty Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, he relocated to Adelaide in 2013 to undertake post-doctoral research at the Centre for Cancer Biology, University of South Australia. This period of research elucidated how certain sphingolipid enzymes can be targeted in multiple myeloma to enhance responses to proteasome inhibitors, an important class of drugs for this cancer, resulting in several key publications.

A/Prof Wallington-Gates now heads the Flinders University division of an integrated translational multiple myeloma research program in tandem with the Centre for Cancer Biology, University of South Australia, which aims to maximise clinical and research outcomes for this blood cancer.

Haematological malignancies with a particular focus on multiple myeloma. We have shown that multiple myeloma cells can die from ferroptosis and we are developing an entirely new class of treatments that result in its induction. Our liposome therapeutics seek out, or target, the multiple myeloma cells in the body and induce their death by ferroptosis. In collaboration with the Centre for Cancer Biology (UniSA), we have demonstrated the poor prognostic significance of Desmoglein-2 on myeloma cells from patients at diagnosis and we are developing immunological approaches that target Desmoglein-2 to improve the survival of these patients.

• Multiple myeloma - P-glycoprotein biology (1)
• Multiple myeloma - prognostic biomarkers (1)

• Multiple myeloma - sphingosine kinases (1)