Vicky Tan

Research interests

I am interested in the electrical properties of melanin, a pigment that is produced in skin cells (melanocytes). The White lab showed that there is electrical activity between skin cancer (melanoma) cells and keratinocytes (Tagore et al., Cancer Discov., 2023). Additionally, cancer cells often display altered ion channel expression and membrane potential dynamics with higher electrical activity and depolarisation compared to untransformed cells. My project focuses on whether melanin modulates electrical behaviour in melanoma cells, and plays a role in cell-cell communication and tumour progression to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities in melanoma.

Background

I completed my PhD in the labs of Associate Professor Andrew Cox and Professor Mark Dawson at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and University of Melbourne. In my PhD, I developed a zebrafish model that allowed us to investigate cell-specific immediate transcriptional responses in hepatocytes (the major regenerating cell in the liver) during liver regeneration. Using this, we identified that the Nrf2 pathway, traditionally known to be important for antioxidant responses, was critical in stimulating the Pentose Phosphate Pathway to stimulate liver regeneration following acetaminophen/paracetamol-induced liver injury (Tan et al., Dev. Cell, 2024).