Rate My Professor Rosemary Balleine

Professor Rosemary Balleine is a Clinical Professor in the School of Medical Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She holds an MBBS and PhD from the University of Sydney and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (FRCPA). A trained pathologist, her academic interests center on translational cancer research, with specializations in gynaecological oncology, molecular profiling of cancer tissues, familial cancer, and pharmacogenomics. Affiliated with the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, she leads research in the Centre for Cancer Research, Gynaecological Oncology Research Group, and is open to supervising PhD and Honours students in this area.

Professor Balleine's distinguished career includes leadership roles such as Group Leader in Cancer Pathology at the Children’s Medical Research Institute from 2016 to 2020 and co-Group Leader of ProCan Oncology from 2020 to 2021. She served as Associate Director of the Sydney West Translational Cancer Research Centre from 2011 to 2016 and co-Deputy Director from 2016 to 2021. As a foundation Chief Investigator of the Australian Breast Cancer Tissue Bank, she has made significant contributions to cancer research resources. She is currently an Investigator on the INOVATe project, focusing on individualised ovarian cancer treatment through genomic pathology integration. Earlier positions include Staff Specialist in Translational Oncology in the Sydney West Cancer Network, where she received two Cancer Institute NSW Clinical Research Fellow awards, and Clinical Director of Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology at Pathology West, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research. She currently serves as Clinical and Strategic Partnerships Lead at Sydney Cancer Partners and maintains long-standing connections to health services and translational initiatives in western Sydney. Her research has produced key publications, including 'Genetic variation in mitotic regulatory pathway genes is associated with breast cancer risk' (2014), 'FANCM missense variants and breast cancer risk: a case-control study' (2023), 'Overcoming intra-tumoral heterogeneity for biomarker discovery in ovarian cancer' (2025), and 'Hormonal Contraception and Breast Cancer Risk for Carriers of Germline Pathogenic Variants' (2024), influencing advancements in cancer pathology and personalized medicine.