2006 - $1 million capital works grant

Feature Outcome: The creation of a dedicated Translational Research Laboratory in Hematological Malignancy. This facility is to be located in the Diagnostic Hematology Department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, which will directly interface with the Cancer and Hematology Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) and the Bone Marrow Research Laboratories (BMRL), which are prominent basic science centres in the fields of hematopoietic gene discovery and analysis.

Research Institution: The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH)

Directors of Research: Associate Professor Surender Juneja (Director, Diagnostic Hematology) and Dr Annabel Tuckfield (Director, Translational Research Laboratory).

Background / Overview: Numerous advances in gene discovery and analysis of gene function have been achieved through the use of mutagenesis in in vivo model systems. These studies have taken the form of gene targeting approaches to specific genes, or more recently, large-scale phenotype driven mutagenesis screens in a wide range of organisms. While both these approaches have yielded invaluable insights into gene function, many of these have yet to be translated into clinical relevance, or have experienced long lag periods before their clinical significance became apparent.

Further Details / Outcomes: The aim of this facility is to examine the output of the gene discovery and characterisation programs in relevant clinical samples to identify new mutations involved in hematological malignancy and other hematopoietic disorders. In addition, it will provide access to relevant clinical samples that can be utilised in the in vitro analysis of novel therapeutics that have emerged as a result of the basic science program. Ultimately, this facility will serve as a template for an expanded translational laboratory that will link gene discovery and characterisation programs in a wide range of tumour types to the relevant clinical samples.

Expected benefits of the Translational Research Laboratory in Hematological Malignancy:

The translational research laboratory will play a unique, but highly synergistic role within the Royal Melbourne Hospital precinct. The laboratory will primarily interface with its basic science partners in a bi-directional fashion, and access tissues in collaboration with existing local (Melbourne Health/Ludwig) and national tissue banks (particularly, Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group [ALLG]). Value-adding experiments and further development along therapeutic pathways will occur in collaboration through our established links with Cancer Trials Australia and Biotech/Pharma. As such it will provide a much needed platform linking gene discovery and disease, and underpinning new pathways to improved clinical outcomes.

The establishment of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation Centre for Translational Research at The Royal Melbourne Hospital will ensure that outcomes for people with cancer will be improved and that leading advances in cancer research can be achieved through collaboration and excellence.

Types of Cancer : Sarcoma