Associate Professor Pilar Blancafort is the team leader and laboratory head for Cancer Epigenetics at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. She completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of Barcelona and her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Montreal, and pursued her postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute, California in the field of genome-engineering. In 2005, Prof Blancafort established her own laboratory at the University of North Carolina and in 2012, she moved her laboratory to the University of Western Australia and joined the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in 2014 as head of the laboratory in Cancer Epigenetics. Prof Blancafort is a specialist in genome engineering and gene targeting. Her laboratory has pioneered the development of engineered DNA binding proteins to modulate the epigenetic state of cancer cells and delivery strategies for tumour targeting in pre-clinical studies. She has received several awards including awards from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Program, American Lung Association, several cancer nanotechnology awards, NCI/NIH awards, a Cancer Council of Western Australia Research Fellowship, ARC Future Fellowship, and a National Breast Cancer Novel Concept award.
