2005 - $1.13 milion research grant

The ACRF Biomolecular Resource Facility at The John Curtin School of Medical Research at The Australian National University provides much of the resource for investigating the molecular aspects of cancer biology and provides researchers with access to new technologies that are not readily available to individual research groups. 

The cancer research program requires interrogation of cancer processes at levels from genes to proteins and on to whole cells and tissues.

It is imperative to maintain a platform of state of the art equipment and expertise that enables an integrated approach (both at the gene and protein level) to cancer biology. 

Each piece of equipment funded will support multiple cancer research applications and in combination present an extremely powerful analytical engine which will greatly facilitate every aspect of cancer research at ANU.

This facility, officially opening on August 28, 2006,  will provide the means to identify genes that predispose individuals to cancer, identify proteins and genes involved in the formation of a cancerous cell and decipher processes that determine its subsequent proliferation and spread or its rejection by the immune system. It also will allow the analysis of how the body deals with cancer causing agents and with drugs used in cancer therapy.

The equipment that has been funded will allow high throughput genotyping, comparative analysis of gene transcript levels using variously formatted microarrays and quantitative PCR, identification of protein complexes and protein modification in signaling and other cellular events with mass spectrometry, rapid cytometric analysis for cellular phenotyping and the determination of epigenetic events involved in nuclear structure and function.

In summary, the funded equipment will provide immediate access to recent technological advances that will aid in addressing many unanswered questions in cancer biology.

Cllick on the names to view profiles of Professor Judith Whitworth, AC, Director of The John Curtin School of Medical Research, and the ACRF Biomolecular Resource Facility team - Professor Chris Parish, Head of Immunology and Genetics,  Professor M Frances Shannon, Head, Division of Molecular Bioscience and Dr Karen J Edwards, Manager, Biomolecular Resource Facility 

Types of Cancer :  Melanoma, Colon, Ovarian, Breast, Leukaemia, Lymphoma