Research Institute: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research
Amount granted: $2 million
Year granted: 2010
The funding provided new, state of the art facilities that will accelerate research into the origins of cancer and advance cancer drug discovery.
The grant allows WEHI to build on their breakthroughs in breast cancer and extend them to lung and ovarian cancers, by providing facilities that will maximise their chances of using chemistry to generate new cancer medicines.
ACRF funding supports the research of Professors Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman, who focus on the biology of epithelial cancers such as breast cancer and the role of stem cells in the development of these cancers. Epithelial cancers account for 80 per cent of the cancer burden in our society.
Funding will help them build on their recent breast cancer discoveries and expand the research program into other solid tumour types, including ovarian and lung cancers. Much of this work is undertaken in the Chemical Biology division which provides leadership in high-throughput chemical screening, medicinal chemistry and molecular and cell biology.
Chief Investigators: Professor Jerry Adams, Dr Philippe Bouillet, Dr Chris Burns, Professor Peter Colman, Professor Suzanne Cory, Professor David Huang, A/Professor Geoffrey Lindeman, A/Professor Andrew Roberts, Dr Clare Scott, Professor Andreas Strasser, Professor Jane Visvader, Professor Keith Watson
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.