Dr Balaji Virassamy is a well-recognised Post-doctoral Research Fellow specialising in breast immune Oncology. He is currently affiliated with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and holds an honorary position with the University of Melbourne. Currently situated in Professor Sherene Loi’s laboratory. His current position is supported by funding from Cancer Council Victoria and the Department of Health Victoria over the next three years. He works on understanding the role of T cells in breast tissue immunity and cancer development, identifying novel biomarkers for prevention, therapy, and prediction of clinical outcomes across species i.e., human and pre-clinical experimental BC models.

Dr Virassamy's academic and professional journey includes a Bachelor of Bioengineering and a Master of Biosciences, following which he conducted research on cellular and molecular pathways driving human neuro-degenerative diseases. Furthermore, he contributed to the development of clinical grade "Off the shelf" adoptive T-cell therapies in Professor David Gottlieb’s laboratory, creating pathogen-cross-reactive T cells for stem cell transplantation at The University of Sydney.

He completed his PhD in Breast Cancer Immunology in investigating the prognostic role and functional significance of TILs and breast-intrinsic memory T cells in breast tumours and explored the role of breast specific T cell responsiveness to T cell checkpoint immunotherapy before commencing his postdoctoral fellowship. His 10 plus years of breast research work at Peter Mac has attracted global recognition, marked by key publications as a first or co-first author in leading scientific journals: Nature Medicine (2018) Cancer Cell (2023) Nature (2025).

Related pages

Sherene Loi lab