Rate My Professor Gabi Dachs

Professor Gabi Dachs is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science at the University of Otago, Christchurch, within the Faculty of Medicine. She completed her BSc and PhD at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Following her doctoral studies, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Medical Research Council Harwell in the United Kingdom and served as a senior scientist at the Gray Cancer Institute in London. She joined the University of Otago Christchurch, where she progressed to Research Associate Professor in 2015 and full Professor in 2023. Dachs is a principal investigator in the Mackenzie Cancer Research Group, focusing on mechanisms that render human tumours resistant to treatment and exploring novel therapeutic strategies. Her research investigates the role of vitamin C, or ascorbate, in dampening the activity of the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor HIF-1, assessing whether vitamin C can reduce tumour growth in mouse models, and examining the relationship between ascorbate levels and HIF-1 in kidney cancer patient tumours. Additional interests include obesity-associated molecular factors influencing cancer outcomes and chemotherapy response, as well as human enzymes activating novel anticancer prodrugs in collaboration with the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre. She also studies improvements to gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy for targeting solid tumours and their vasculature.

Dachs has authored numerous publications, including 'Portimine A maintains bioactivity following exposure to liver microsomes and cell lysates: No evidence for significant metabolic inactivation' (2025, Medical Oncology), 'Iron content of glioblastoma tumours and role of ferrous iron in the hypoxic response in vitro' (2025, Frontiers in Oncology), 'Role of sodium-dependent vitamin C transporter-2 and ascorbate in regulating the hypoxic pathway in cultured glioblastoma cells' (2025, Journal of Cellular Biochemistry), 'Blood vitamin C levels of patients receiving immunotherapy and relationship to monocyte subtype and epigenetic modification' (2024, Epigenomes), and 'Impact of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and lysophosphatidic acid on the behavior of ovarian cancer cells in a three-dimensional collagen hydrogel' (2025, Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology Research). Her work has garnered over 5,900 citations. In 2021, she received the University of Otago Christchurch Research Gold Medal. She serves as a guest editor for special issues in cancer gene therapy and contributes to postgraduate supervision in tumour hypoxia and cancer therapy.