Research Institute: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research
Amount granted: $2.5 million
Year granted: 2014
With support from ACRF, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute established the ACRF Breakthrough Technologies Laboratory to advance new treatments for many of Australia’s most common, and most deadly cancers.
The laboratory enhances and accelerates the research of more than 1000 cancer researchers through the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, a collaborative network of Victorian hospitals and research centres improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The ACRF Breakthrough Technologies Laboratory provides cancer researchers with access to first-in-Australia technology providing new insights into how cancer develops, and how it can be more effectively treated.
Molecular technologies that modify specific genes within cancer cells have provided immense insights into how cancers develop, progress and respond to treatments.
The ACRF Breakthrough Technologies Laboratory is the first facility in Australia to offer new state of the art technology to target specific genes in cancer. This will provide researchers with the opportunity to make important new insights into how cancer develops, and how cancer cells respond to treatment.
‘Targeted therapies’ have shown considerable promise for treating certain cancers. These medicines interfere with specific proteins crucial for the function of cancer cells. The ACRF Laboratory gives Australia’s cancer researchers unprecedented capabilities to discover and develop new targeted therapies for cancer.
Lead Investigators: Professor A Strasser MSc PhD, Professor A Roberts MB BS PhD FRACP FRCPA, Professor J Visvader BSc (Hons) PhD
What your donations have achieved
Cervical cancer vaccine
We gave initial seed funding to Professor Ian Frazer’s research into the cervical cancer (HPV). Over 150 million doses of vaccine have been delivered worldwide to date.
The pill that melts away cancer
Our long term support of cancer research at WEHI has led to a treatment that melts away certain advanced forms of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. It has been approved for clinical use in the US, European Union and Australia and is being trialed for other types of cancer.
Personalised cancer diagnosis
In 2015, we awarded $10 million seed funding to an ambitious cancer proteome project that aims to provide each cancer patient a personalised treatment plan within 36 hours. This will improve treatment outcomes and help avoid unnecessary treatments.
Zero childhood cancer
We are one of the founding partners of the initiative that will tackle the most serious cases of infant, childhood and adolescent cancer in Australia. It is a key step towards the program vision of one day helping to cure 100% of children with cancer.