National Centre for Inflammation Research at Hudson Institute

National Centre for Inflammation Research World-leading inflammation expertise, safeguarding our health

HUDSON INSTITUTE PROPOSAL

AT A GLANCE

PROPOSAL

Inflammation underpins hundreds of health conditions across the lifespan and is behind more than 50 per cent of deaths worldwide. Acute, destructive inflammation is implicated in deaths from severe COVID-19.

Chronic, persistent inflammation contributes to the growing disease burden from cancer, stroke, IBD, diabetes, infertility and endometriosis, as well as heart, lung, kidney and liver disease

National Centre for Inflammation Research (NCIR) An Australian-first, the NCIR will

Immediate benefits of investing

• Address critical medical need by translating inflammation research discoveries into new therapies and interventions

With funds already invested in the planning and design phase, including $1 million from the Victorian Government to develop the NCIR business case, this project will be ready for tender in mid-2021 once further funding is secured. The project will drive Victoria’s industry and economy by

• Accelerate Victoria’s leadership in inflammation research and commercialisation with Australia’s largest grouping of inflammation researchers • Ensure Victoria is positioned to respond rapidly to current and future health challenges • Build on Hudson Institute’s world-leading research response to the dangerous levels of inflammation in COVID-19 • Stimulate the Victorian economy through creating more than 950 direct jobs.

• Creating more than 300 direct permanent jobs for scientists, technicians and clinician researchers, supported by a rigorous industry training program, national competitive grants, commercial investment and industry partnerships • Generating 650 direct construction-related jobs throughout the design, planning and building delivery phase • Providing state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure and research services to academic, commercial and manufacturing end-users.

Fostering an employment and innovation cluster A fully scaled NCIR will • Build on Hudson Institute’s significant national and international innovation and start-up success • Drive rapid commercialisation by co-locating medical researchers and clinicians with industry • Attract top-tier global health companies to establish Asia-Pacific headquarters in Melbourne • Build and expand the Institute’s commercial partnerships to drive jobs and economic growth in the biotech industry.

Acceleration of critical inflammation research A new purpose-built National Centre for Inflammation Research will be located within the Monash Health Translation Precinct (MHTP) adjacent to the Monash Children’s Hospital and Monash Medical Centre. The Centre will house scientists, clinicians, high-containment laboratories, pre-clinical and clinical trials facilities, and cell and gene therapies manufacturing capability. It will • Provide researchers with world-leading equipment and resources to advance the development of cell therapies, microbiome medicines and immunotherapies to modulate chronic and/or dangerous inflammation during infection, cancer or chronic inflammatory diseases.

• Attract the world’s brightest researchers, clinicians and business development experts to undertake applied and clinical inflammation research, enabling exportable treatments to get to patients faster.

• Provide critical infrastructure, including PC3 laboratories, to safeguard against any future public health crisis by adding a geographically distinct capability to Melbourne’s complement of high-containment laboratories, thereby forming part of an essential diversified network during a pandemic response.

- The PC3 laboratories in the NCIR will be the only PC3 laboratories in the Monash Precinct and the southeast corridor of Melbourne. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted the necessity for on-site capacity to respond to public health emergencies with high containment laboratories. Having PC3 facilities on the Monash Precinct will enable future clinical and research support to safeguard patients during lifethreatening infectious diseases outbreaks.

INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

PRETERM BABIES

Our inflammation research

50%

OF ALL DEATHS WORLDWIDE CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO INFLAMMATION

PANDEMIC VIRUSES COVID-19

DRUGRESISTANT INFECTIONS

CANCER

ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS

ENDOMETRIOSIS

COPD

FLU

MICROBIOME

PROJECT NEED

Why investment in a building is urgently needed Over the past five years, the success of Hudson Institute has led to increased demand for high-quality research space to enable further research and development capacity in the MHTP. In parallel, Monash Medical Centre’s expansion has led to a requirement for significant additional clinical and administration areas to meet healthcare demand.

Under existing plans, Hudson Institute must return all currently leased research space to Monash Health. By 2023, Hudson Institute will lose 50 per cent of existing facilities, including the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases, the Institute’s fastest growing and most commercially successful centre. This major reduction in facilities will put 20 years of accumulated research capability at risk and result in the loss of at least 146 highly skilled jobs.

In addition, ageing non-hospital research buildings currently occupied by Hudson Institute are no longer fit for purpose, with several laboratory areas losing PC2 biosafety and containment accreditation and many more laboratories at risk in the short to medium term. There is also a shortage of specialised highcontainment laboratories (PC3) in Melbourne, most notably in the Monash Precinct and south-east corridor of Melbourne where no such facilities exist. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has highlighted a nationwide shortage of facilities suitable for research on dangerous pathogens that will drive the development of new and repurposed drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

INFERTILITY

ABOUT

Hudson Institute Home to more than 450 biomedical researchers, clinician scientists and support staff, Hudson Institute is recognised internationally for world-leading discovery science and patient-centred translational research programs in inflammation, reproductive health and pregnancy, infant and child health, cancer and hormonal health. Within the Monash Medical Centre campus in Clayton, the MHTP partnership between Hudson Institute, Monash Health and Monash University is delivering world-leading health and medical research outcomes. The Precinct provides care to patients in Melbourne’s south-eastern corridor and out to more than 40 locations in regional Victoria.

With the largest grouping of inflammation researchers in Australia, Hudson Institute has been at the forefront of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic by rapidly undertaking research to address the dangerous levels of inflammation caused by SARS-CoV-2. The number of Hudson Institute researchers in inflammation and infection has doubled in the past three years to more than 100 scientists, a direct result of the Institute’s success in attracting a number of large prestigious, competitive

funding programs and investment from national and international commercial partners.

Hudson Institute has a strong record for research that is highly translational and commercially valuable. In the past three years, the Institute’s business development program has resulted in the spinout of three Biotech companies and a further 40 commercial partnerships with industry worth a total of $15M. In 2019, Hudson Institute generated a total revenue of almost $50M and attracted more than $23M in new nationally competitive funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC). To date, the Institute has received more than $12M for clinical research programs from the Commonwealth Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

Professor Elizabeth Hartland Director and CEO, Hudson Institute e: Elizabeth.Hartland@hudson.org.au t: + 61 03 9594 7416

National Centre for Inflammation Research

>100

450

BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICIAN RESEARCHERS AND SUPPORT STAFF

AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST GROUP OF INFLAMMATION RESEARCHERS

300

NCIR

$50M ANNUAL REVENUE

AUSTRALIA’S POWERHOUSE IN INFLAMMATION RESEARCH AND THERAPIES

STRONG RECORD FOR TRANSLATIONAL AND COMMERCIALLY VALUABLE RESEARCH

950 NEW JOBS

PERMANENT HIGHLY SKILLED JOBS

650

IMMEDIATE CONSTRUCTION JOBS

40

INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS WORTH $15M

$23M NHMRC AND ARC FUNDING IN 2019

3

BIOTECH SPIN-OFF COMPANIES

$12M

MRFF CLINICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS

LIFE-CHANGING DISCOVERIES ADVANCING VICTORIA’S HEALTH, ECONOMY, COMMERCIALISATION AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT

SAFEGUARD VICTORIA FOR FUTURE HEALTH CHALLENGES