Professor Marie Ranson received her PhD from the University of Sydney (1990). After a post-doctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD, USA she obtained a Research Fellowship and then a tenured teaching and research academic position in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Marie is also the Illawarra Lead and executive member of the Cancer Institute NSW funded CONCERT Translational Cancer Research Centre. Her main area of expertise is in molecular biomarkers of metastasis and she is recognised internationally for her contributions to the field of the urokinase plasminogen activation system (PAS), particularly in solid tumour biology. Combined with her extensive experience with in vitro, ex vivo and animal tumour models, she has also successfully led and/or contributed IP to several drug development projects related, but not limited, to this field. She has supervised 16 PhD, 4 MSc and 35 Honours students to completion to date and was a past recipient of the University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research Supervision. Key current research areas: The plasminogen activation system in tumour invasion and metastasis. Genomic and expression analyses for the identification of biomarkers to predict cancer progression and responsiveness to single and combinatorial drug treatment using patient derived culture and animal models. Targeted drug development programmes against biomarkers of cancer and inflammation