EXEMPLAR GRANTS
Funding innovation for future cure Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research The Ian Potter Centre for Genomics and Personalised Medicine $3 million over 4 years (2012–2016) Personalising treatment Since 1965, the Foundation has awarded 19 grants totalling almost $5 million to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical research (WEHI). The largest of these was in 2012 towards The Ian Potter Centre for Genomics and Personalised Medicine, a partnership between WEHI and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). This world-class Australian research centre is devoted to matching disease treatments to a person’s genetic makeup. WEHI and MCRI stated in their final report in 2016 that ‘the genomics equipment purchased through the Potter Centre was the catalyst that sparked a new era of collaborative research in genomics and enabled Victorian institutions to take a lead role in integrating genomics into routine health care and to become a world leader in the use of genomics in patient care.’ This grant was also significant in terms of it leverage. As a result of this initial investment by the Foundation, the Victorian Government has since invested $25 million to expand the Melbourne Genomics Alliance which also includes a further eight research centres. The National Health and Medical Research Council has also committed $25 million to establishing the Australian Genomics Health Alliance which will draw on the learnings of the Melbourne Alliance and the early work facilitated by the Foundation’s initial grant.
Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute
St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne
The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) $15 million over six years (2012–2018) Benchtop to bedside and back
The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (AMCD) Major grant awarded 2017 $2.5m over 3 years (2021–2023) Engineering future care
In early 2012, the Foundation made its equal largest grant ever of $15 million to the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre project. The VCCC was formally opened by the Hon Jill Hennessey, State Minister for Health in July 2016. The VCCC is a collaboration between four cancer research institutes and one of the most important in the Southern Hemisphere. The unique aspect of the VCCC is the co-location of researchers, educators, clinicians and patients designed to facilitate translation of research to treatment. The Ian Potter Centre for New Cancer Treatments on Level 13 of the VCCC, provides a home for the Peter Mac led Immunotherapy Research Program, the Australian Genome Research Facility, the Cooperative Research Centre for Cancer Therapeutics and the Innovative Clinical Trials Centre.
‘Immunotherapy is the first totally new treatment modality for cancer in over 50 years, and is already revolutionising cancer care as we know it.’ — PROFESSOR JOE TRAPANI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CANCER RESEARCH, PETER MACCALLUM CANCER INSTITUTE
The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD) will be Australia’s first hospital-based bio-engineering research and education hub. It will bring together clinicians, scientists, engineers from hospitals, academia and industry to solve clinical problems. The grant made in 2017 has been awarded under the Major Grants stream. A prior grant from the Foundation in 2016, contributed funding to the development of an Advanced Bio-fabrication Centre at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne to enable multi-disciplinary research into rebuilding damaged or diseased limbs. This project proved to be an incubator for the ACMD which has been formed with the support of major universities, research institutes, St Vincent’s Hospital and the bio-tech industry. ACMD will also facilitate delivery of tertiary education through a translational research lens with strong multidisciplinary partnerships. Medical staff and students within ACMD will learn and work alongside teams of biomedical engineers. This will facilitate cross-discipline research and implementation of new technologies with the help of industry partners. Breakthrough patentable discoveries can also generate significant revenues. It is, therefore, expected that ACMD will yield powerful economic benefits, as well as improved patient and healthcare outcomes.
‘Over the next four years, the [Melbourne] Alliance will be able to offer diagnosis and treatment to up to 2500 patients for conditions including epilepsy, leukaemia, cancers, childhood diseases and inherited neuropathies.’
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