Prof. Harshita Pant
Prof. Harshita Pant is a rhinologist, skull base surgeon and research leader at the Adelaide Centre of Epigenetics (ACE), University of Adelaide. She heads the Adelaide University’s Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Clinical Epigenetics Research and has a private practice at Calvariam ENT. After her ORL-HNS fellowship and PhD, she completed advanced training in skull base surgery and rhinology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, USA.
Harshita’s cutting-edge academic program focuses on epigenetic mechanisms driving disease heterogeneity and therapy responses in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and head and neck cancer. She aims to develop precision diagnostics and novel treatments, including epigenetic reprogramming, using innovative multi-omic technology and AI. Her work has led to multidisciplinary, trait-based care-models for CRS, significant industry collaborations and improved access to monoclonal antibody treatments for severe airway diseases. She holds patents for novel steroid-sparing topical therapy for CRS patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery. Her group’s recent discoveries in cancer research highlight the roles of cancer-associated fibroblasts in aggressive disease and have identified eosinophils as new contributors to immune dysfunction in the tumour.
Her laboratory offers undergraduate and post-graduate research opportunities integrating lab-based work and clinical trials with scientists and clinicians at the Centre for Cancer Biology (UniSA/SA Pathology), Royal Adelaide Hospital and University of Adelaide.
| Other GPRWMF awards received by awardee | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Conjoint Grant | Overcoming immune exhaustion in recurrent head and neck cancer | 2025 |