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ACRF Breakthrough Technologies Laboratory

  • 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.

Defining the molecular causes of cancer

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.

Developing new treatments for cancer

‘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

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