Melissa Pitman

Dr. Melissa Pitman is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, and leads the Ovarian Cancer and Drug Discovery Laboratory. Her research focuses on sphingolipid pathway regulation in ovarian cancer and development of small-molecule inhibitors for therapeutic intervention.

• PhD in enzymology and protein biochemistry from Flinders University
• Postdoctoral work at Centre for Cancer Biology
• Co-founder of Cincera Therapeutics for anti-fibrotic agent development

Her recent work spans sphingolipid metabolism, cancer signaling, and preclinical model development. Publications highlight Sphingosine Kinase inhibition, lipid gradient formation, and stress response modulation in cancer cells.

Dr. Pitman actively supervises Masters and PhD students as a Co-Supervisor and integrates computational and experimental approaches in drug discovery. Her research bridges biochemical mechanisms with translational applications in oncology.