ACRF Centre for Therapeutic Target Discovery

The Australian Cancer Research Foundation awarded $5 million to a consortium of leading cancer research institutes to support work that will bring new hope to cancer sufferers. The grant was in honour of Sir Peter Abeles, AC who founded ACRF.

The grant was awarded to an alliance comprising the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Women’s Hospital, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and The University of Melbourne (Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences).

The consortium applied the $5 million grant to establish the ACRF Centre for Therapeutic Target Discovery, potentially forming a scientific cornerstone of the first comprehensive cancer centre established in Australia. The centre created an innovative Australian-first collaborative and integrated cancer research centre, where clinicians, diagnosing and treating cancer patients, work closely with scientists researching the disease.

This initiative signified the beginning of an Australia-first integrated cancer research project which was expected to widen in scope to encompass new research approaches. The consortium, led by A/Prof Geoffrey Lindeman, focused initially on specific diseases including bowel and breast cancer.

The consortium had already made significant progress in drug discovery research and this is expected to result in the development of new experimental therapies for cancer sufferers according to Professor Hilton at WEHI.

This research led to the development of Venetoclax, a treatment that “melts away cancer”.