Dr Dale Garsed is a senior research scientist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, in Melbourne. He leads a program of research studying exceptional responders and long-term survivors of ovarian cancer, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

After graduating with a BSc (Hons I) from The University of Melbourne, Dale was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award, which he used to complete his PhD at the Peter Mac and The University of Melbourne. His PhD research discovered the genomic structure, evolution, and mutational signatures of extrachromosomal circular DNA, which are commonly found in sarcomas.

In 2013, Dale co-led the first whole-genome sequence analysis of high-grade serous ovarian cancer as part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium and discovered multiple new mechanisms which enable the survival of therapy resistant cancer cells.

He is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at The University of Melbourne, and the inaugural Victorian Cancer Agency / Ovarian Cancer Australia Low-Survival Cancer Philanthropic Mid-Career Research Fellow (2023-2026). Dale presented at the 2024 Helene Harris Memorial Trust International Forum on Ovarian Cancer, as one of only seven Travelling Fellowship awardees. 

Dale’s team, along with international collaborators, use multi-omic technologies to characterise molecular alterations and the tumour-immune microenvironment in patients with ovarian cancer who experienced exceptional responses to treatment and/or long-term survival, to understand their unique features that may assist in developing more effective treatment strategies.