Dr. Lochlan Fennell

I am a computational cancer biologist and early career researcher with an interest in gastrointestinal malignancies. I completed my PhD at QIMR Berghofer in Brisbane (2021). My thesis used genomic approaches to evaluate the role of age in serrated colorectal neoplasia. This work has been published in leading gastroenterology journals (Gut, CMGH). In 2022, I started my research laboratory as a Level B academic at Monash University before being appointed as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health at UniSC in 2024. I have received several awards (young investigator awards, travelling fellowships), and have obtained ~$5.4M in competitive grant funding as chief investigator, including from leading agencies such as the NHMRC and Cancer Research UK. In 2025, I founded the UniSC-Griffith University Hub for Advanced Spatial Biology Analytics and am the current Director of this Hub. My research is currently funded through a combination of competitive research grants from cancer agencies (Tour De Cure, Cure Cancer Australia, and Cancer Research UK) and clinical societies (GESA). I am a founding member of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia’s Cancer Faculty and sit on the Societies Research and Grant Committee. 

My scholarly contributions over the past several years have significantly advanced our understanding of the epigenetic interplay between ageing and colorectal cancer. I was the first to discover and characterise five novel subtypes of the CpG Island Methylator Phenotype, delineating KRAS and BRAF driven DNA methylation profiles (first author PMID:  30954552), and showing a clear association being age at diagnosis and methylation subtype. This study had wide reaching impact (Altmetric score: 67; top 5%) – with international media attention, has been cited in several patents, and was the subject of commentaries in CMGH and MD Edge. I further clarified the role of epigenetics in BRAF driven neoplasia through in a series of molecular pathology studies, which shed light on the role of DNA methylation in driving lesion formation (PMID: 29235923), genetic polymorphisms in directing DNA methylation patterns (first author PMID: 29304767), and DNA methylation in driving progression of advanced serrated lesions (PMID: 31200767). I was the first to show that the aged colon is significantly more predisposed to spontaneous malignant transformation by oncogenic Braf mutation, a finding that has major implications for colonoscopic screening (First author PMID: 34230216), and was recognised by the Gastroenterological Society of Australia through the June Haliday Award.  Collectively, this research program has major knowledge impact relative to opportunity (FWCI (Serrated polyps and colorectal cancer pathways): 1.67; 10 outputs) and has resulted in several invitations to present at major national and international meetings.