The Kids' Cancer Project Annual Report 2010/2011

when i grow up i want to be...

Giving all kids the opportunity to grow up and live their dreams.

Annual Report 2010/11

CONTENTS Our vision and mission

4

A word from our Chairman

6

A word from our CEO

8

Highlights of the year

10

Our Board

12

Our People

16

Research Advisory Committee

18

Anti-Skelton Drug Discovery Program

22

Childhood Cancer Anti-Cytoskeleton Consortium ((OCF-C4)

24

Cancer Gene Therapy Program

26

Muscle Stem Cell Program

28

Tumour Bank

30

Col Reynolds Postgraduate Scholarship

32

Research Publications 2010-2011

34

Financial Highlights

36

Thanks

38

Our Research Contributions

40

Our Future

44

OUR MISSION OUR VISION Our vision is to give all kids with cancer the opportunity to grow up and live their dreams.

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We are striving towards the day where we can say that childhood cancer is a curable disease. It is nothing short of miraculous that survival rates for childhood cancer have risen from two per cent 50 years ago, to 80 per cent overall today. It is a testament to the value of medical research. The Oncology Children’s Foundation understands that medical research is the only way to cure childhood cancer. We won’t settle for anything

less than 100 per cent survival because we believe in giving every kid the opportunity to grow up and live their dreams.

The Oncology Children’s Foundation is Australia’s pre-eminent children’s cancer charity. We are committed to finding cures for childhood cancer by supporting the brightest and most accomplished researchers Australiawide.

The Oncology Children’s Foundation understands that medical research is the only way to cure childhood cancer.

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I wanted to be a doctor

Over the years I’ve made the same promise again and again to countless parents of children with cancer: I’ve vowed with my heart that I will never give up on my mission until a cure is found.

I start my report by sharing this with you because that promise has taken the Oncology Children’s Foundation to where it is now. Today, I am overwhelmingly proud to say that the Oncology Children’s Foundation, which began as a humble organisation 18 years ago, is Australia’s pre-eminent children’s cancer research charity.

In fact, as at 30 June 2011 a staggering 1,000,000 Australians have supported our work – that’s 5% of this nation’s population. This figure alone is testament to the importance of what we’re doing. I know that the Oncology Children’s Foundation isn’t alone in believing that the lives of children are precious, and that everything should be done to save them from insidious cancers. We have the public on side, and this fact not only strengthens our capacity to kick goals against childhood cancers, it also strengthens our conviction.

Prior to founding the Oncology Children’s Foundation, my focus was on putting smiles on the faces of kids with cancer. Well before any Australian charity existed to brighten the lives of sick kids, I used to volunteer to take young cancer patients out on excursions. What I was doing back

COL REYNOLDS OAM CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER

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then was pioneering – I still remember the hospital staff looking at me like I was nuts when I first proposed the idea.

After about a decade of giving kids with cancer uplifting experiences outside the hospital and fundraising for medical equipment, Dr Luciano Dalla-Pozza (current Head of Oncology at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead) suggested that I raise funds for research.

By that time I’d become involved in the lives of a number of kids with cancer – far too many of them kids who never lived past seven or eight or nine, or sometimes even younger. My heart honestly broke every time one of these little kids died. Seeing what it did to the parents’ marriages, and to whole families, tore me up further still.

So the idea that I should dedicate my efforts to finding a cure, so that no child or family should ever have to go through that unbelievable trauma again, made a whole lot of sense.

Funding research became my sole focus and my purpose in founding the Oncology Children’s Foundation.

Today, the Oncology Children’s Foundation is the only charity in Australia dedicated entirely to funding research into childhood cancers. We have an annual commitment of $3 million to research programs across Australia to find cures for childhood cancers with low survival rates.

A WORD FROM OUR CHAIRMAN Over the last 12 months, the Oncology Children’s Foundation has made exciting progress in the area of research. Just as when I first became involved in helping kids with cancer, I am proud to say I am continuing to break new ground as Chairman of this exciting organisation.

Our OCF-C4 research program, which really got off the ground last financial year, is the only one of its kind in Australia and holds real potential for a lifesaving breakthrough. The program is working towards earlier diagnosis and developing more targeted drugs, with fewer harmful side effects by attacking the very architecture of cancer cells.

Whereas most research projects operate within one lab, the Oncology Children’s Foundation has taken a different approach with OCF-C4.

We have selected the very best and brightest researchers from different labs around Australia – researchers who are extremely accomplished and talented in their field – to form a consortium. Collaboratively, these researchers are making exciting headway towards what we are confident will result in cures.

Another development of the last 12 months about which I’m particularly pleased involves our partnership with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Having funded the development of a new drug here in Australia, at the University of New South Wales,

Professor Peter Gunning took it over to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for follow up research. It was discovered that as well as assisting children with Neuroblastoma, a positive spin off of this particular drug is that it has shown potential to have similar effects in a wide variety of child and adult cancers, in particular Melanoma.

We are incredibly excited about this development, and look forward to the first stage of clinical trials next year.

The work that has been undertaken at the Children’s Cancer Research Unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead as part of the Cancer Gene Therapy Program is yet another advancement that gives us genuine cause for excitement. After many years of research into a gene that can protect children’s bone marrow and thereby decrease the risk of infection for children exposed to chemotherapy, the team are now ready to begin clinical trials. For children with highly malignant Brain Tumours, this trial may allow for higher doses of chemotherapy to be given to better target the tumour, with fewer side effects.

When I think about the many kids with cancer I’ve had the privilege of getting to know over the years, and the heartfelt promise I’ve made to so many of their parents, it makes me proud to look back over what we’ve achieved – especially in the last 12 months.

I’m extremely excited about next year, and what it will bring for the

Foundation and tomorrow’s kids with cancer. In the coming year, we’ll become even bigger and brighter and stronger. I am confident of this, on account of our wonderful and dedicated employees. The Oncology Children’s Foundation is honoured to have the very best people on board, who share the same vision in their hearts and minds, doing a terrific job every day. I take my hat off to them in gratitude of their work.

Of course, I would also like to sincerely thank all of our supporters and volunteers. Every single one makes a difference to our ability to fund medical research. And medical research really is the answer, if we care about saving children’s lives.

Owing solely to medical research, mortality rates across all childhood cancers have declined by 50 per cent over the last thirty years. I am determined that the Oncology Children’s Foundation is singly committed, to reduce the mortality rate as far as conceivably possible.

I’ve made this my life’s mission. I can affirm that I’m not going to renig on my promise.

Because the most important asset we have – whether in the context of a family, a community or a whole society – is children. Our future is riding on them. And every single child deserves the opportunity to grow up and live their dreams.

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A WORD FROM OUR CEO I commenced my appointment as new CEO of the Oncology Children’s Foundation in March 2011 with a sense of privilege, to be heading up this organisation which was already achieving terrific things to address such an imminent and important cause. Accompanying this sense of privilege was excitement at the prospect of adding value to the Foundation and driving it to new levels of success. Coming from an extensive background of executive management with a focus on achieving revenue growth, I immediately recognised a number of opportunities to enhance the organisation’s operations with the aim to ultimately improve survival rates for children with cancer.

Strategy for a Cure A review of the existing strategic direction of the Oncology Children’s Foundation gave rise to the question: Are the propositions which have underpinned Foundation’s research funding program to date still accurate and correct? For example, do Neuroblastoma and Brain Tumours still have high mortality rates? This led to the Foundation conducting extensive research into the very latest findings around childhood cancers with high mortality rates, finding cures for which is the primary mission of the Oncology Children’s Foundation.

PETER NEILSON CEO wanted to be an accountant 8 | Page

Having precisely defined the imperative in terms of types of childhood cancer most in need of research funding, our next task was to ascertain exactly how our support should be channelled. Consultation with oncology clinicians revealed that in order for them to improve things at the bedside, more investment needs to be made into fundamental research.

It was also determined that funds

should be directed into three areas: 1.

Fundamental science, 2. Capacity for research, and 3. Translational research.

This investigatory work has armed the Oncology Children’s Foundation with clear facts and hard evidence of the need and the gap, providing us with a scientifically sound basis for future research investment. It has also formed the cornerstone of the Strategy for a Cure Business Plan.

A focus on governance and accountability As part of our focus on increased accountability and more rigorous governance, the Oncology Children’s Foundation’s Research Advisory Committee – made up of five eminent researchers and clinicians – has over this last financial year taken on a greater role in forming the direction of funding.

Another key development has been the implementation of Supporter Agreements with researchers that articulate our respective expectations.

The upshot of both of these developments, whereby the Foundation is thoroughly scrutinising the projects it invests in, is that we can confidently say to the public and our donors that the Oncology Children’s Foundation is paving the way in finding cures for the most deadly types of childhood cancer. We have the data to verify that the research projects we make possible are, according the world’s most expert minds, those that hold the greatest prospect for cures.

Improving awareness and donor communication Our focus has also been to improve the way we communicate with the public and stakeholders about the cause. Our strategy for achieving this is twofold: making the public aware of the plight

of children with cancer while at the same time being proactive in keeping donors informed about the progress of the research projects they have helped fund.

Our rationale for the first strategy is that by making people aware of the plight of children with cancer, we are able to solicit their support. In receiving the public’s support we are then resourced to fund vital research.

We have taken steps to ensure our donors remain well informed and top of mind, including regularly updating the website with news stories and

Gunning to ascertain the impact of our funding to date has also shown the Oncology Children’s Foundation has been instrumental in enabling him and his team to make a major contribution to the international research world’s understanding of childhood cancer.

Our financial investment has assisted the group to produce in the vicinity of 50 peer reviewed research papers as well to support research in Europe and the US. The Children’s Cancer Research Unit at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead has also made exciting headway with

We have the data to verify that the research projects we make possible are, those that hold the greatest prospect for cures. issuing monthly newsletters, with the focus of our communications being on delivering the type of information our donors want to see.

Research highlights A significant development in the research field has been the activation of the OCF-C4 cancer network, which Col speaks about at length in his report. Another relates to work undertaken by Professor Peter Gunning, Head of the Oncology Research Unit at the University of New South Wales. On account of funding from the Foundation, over the last financial year Professor Gunning has been able to develop a drug that targets the skeleton of cancer cells in a number of types of adult and childhood cancers, which will soon be taken to Phase I clinical trials.

Recent consultation with Professor

the Cancer Gene Therapy Program, which the Oncology Children’s Foundation has been funding since its inception. The unit is now beginning clinical trials of a gene that can protect a child’s bone marrow from the toxic effects of chemotherapy.

This development has the potential to significantly improve survival rates by enabling doctors to deliver higher doses of chemotherapy without increasing adverse side effects as a result.

The year ahead...

The year ahead holds a number of exciting prospects, both at an operational and research level. A new initiative to take place next year is an Oncology Children’s Foundation conference, at which our Research Advisory Committee will meet face to face with the principal investigators

of the research programs we currently support.

Overall, the coming year will see us working harder towards the cause through broadening our research reach, engaging more with our current supporters and enlisting new supporters through increasing awareness of the plight of children with cancer. The Oncology Children’s Foundation maintains that in this day and age it is simply not good enough that the survival rate for children with cancer is less than 100 per cent, and we believe that getting this message out will elicit a positive and passionate response.

In closing, I would like to extend my gratitude to every single one of our supporters. From the mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas who purchased a raffle ticket, through to the businesses and sporting organisations (namely Netball NSW and NSW Swifts) who avidly support us – every single dollar raised has been pivotal in our ability to fund important research.

I also wish to thank everyone who purchased an Oncology Children’s Foundation Teddy Bear, sales of which reached a record-breaking $1million in 2010/11. We released four new bears this year; Olivia Cate Fairy, Orlando Clegg Fitz Pirate, Omega Cameron Farley Sleepy and a limited edition Easter Bear. They have been a wonderful addition to our teddy bear family and have proven to be extremely popular.

On account of the generosity of the public, the Oncology Children’s Foundation has been able to maintain a strong financial position, in spite of the challenging operating environment surrounding us – and we begin the new financial year with a due sense of optimism.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Board, the Research Advisory Committee, the Foundation’s ambassadors and our dedicated employees and volunteers.

Each person on our team is a vital part of the puzzle that we know will one day reveal a cure.

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International Childhood Cancer Day Junior Masterchef Finalist and Winner, twins Sofia and Isabella baked cupcakes on Channel 10’s The Circle to promote International Childhood Cancer Day. Our Founder and Chairman also appeared on the Circle to promote our teddy bears, resulting in our offices being inundated with requests for teddy bears.

Provided $2.5 million to childhood cancer research

Sydney

Patrice Six and Ran Pirate bear on the when he joined Sydney t

HIGHLIGHTS

City to Surf

Bear S

8Th 100 runners donned our red t-shirts in support of Oncology Children’s Foundation in the City to F Surf, raising $30,000.

530K Last yea Golden Harold Awards Founder and Chairman, Col Reynolds OAM was recognised with a Golden Harold Award for his contribution to the healthy development of children thorough supporting medical research.

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$830,000 bear s $18,000 be

Cupcakes for a Cure

to Hobart

n took Orlando Clegg Fitz e adventure of a lifetime their crew in the 2010 to Hobart race.

Our ambassadors and generous families supported us with our Ring a Bell for Ben event at St Andrews Cathedral to mark International Childhood Cancer Day. Schools and businesses pulled together, holding cupcake days to support this vital awareness day.

Netball NSW Charity Day Netball NSW/NSW Swifts Charity Day was held on the 25th of June. Nineteen Netball Associations across New South Wales held their own fundraisers to show their support. Together they raised over $18,000.

OF THE YEAR Regular Giving

Sales

830K his year

Kar

profit in sales ears sold

Growing Bear Family We have expanded our bear family, having added four new teddy bears; Omega Cameron Farley Sleepy Bear, Orlando Clegg Fitz Pirate Bear, Olivia Cate Fairy Bear and a Limited Edition Easter Bear.

Bear sales reached a record high. Over 18,000 bears were sold, raising over $1 million for childhood cancer research.

We launched our first Regular Giving campaign. Committing to a monthly donation provides us with guaranteed long term funding, which in turn, allows us to , guarantee more funding to more researchers across Australia to find cures for childhood cancers with the lowest survival rates. .

& Thank you to all of our raffle supporters Page | 11

OUR BOARD Col Reynolds OAM JP As the founder of the Oncology Children’s Foundation, Col Reynolds’ outstanding contribution to the lives of children with cancer was officially recognised when he was honoured with an Order of Australia award in 2000. In 2010, Col was again recognised for his contribution to the lives of children with a Golden Harold Award. It was from unlikely beginnings that Col’s passion for helping children with cancer was first kindled.

Col had worked as a Tour Coach operator for more than 30 years.

During this time he had looked after many high profile clients, managing the Secret Service convoy for both George Bush and Bill Clinton, and the Papal visit of Pope John Paul.

One day, driving his empty coach past the old Camperdown Children’s Hospital, Col stopped to let two young children with bald heads cross the road. In that instant, Col resolved to do everything in his power to assist children with cancer. This single event changed the trajectory of his life, and planted the seeds for what in 1993 was to become the Oncology Children’s Foundation.

COL REYNOLDS OAM CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER wanted to be a doctor

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Scott Blakeman Scott has been the National General Manager, Human Resources for Australia and New Zealand at Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Ltd since 2009.

Prior to this, Scott has held senior HR positions with Telstra corporation (2005 – 2008) and The Seven Network (1991 – 2005). Previous employers include Thomas Cook, Century Yuasa Batteries and National Australia Bank.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Business, is a certified professional of the Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) and a member of the Professional Divers Association (PADI). A previous Director of the Oncology Children’s Foundation between (2003 and 2007), Scott rejoined as a Director in 2009.

Scott has previously held a position as the Seven Network management representative on the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) fundraising committee for Jeans for Genes.

Originally from Queensland, Scott now resides in Sydney and has two children, Chynna and James.

SCOTT BLAKEMAN DIRECTOR wanted to be a basketball player

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OUR BOARD

Lyndall Stoyles Lyndall is the Senior Legal Counsel for Patrick Container Ports, with particular experience in corporation and competition law. She is presently completing her Masters in Law.

LYNDALL STOYLES DIRECTOR wanted to be a movie maker

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PHILLIP BELFORD DIRECTOR wanted to be a fire fighter

Peter Neilson CPA

Phillip Belford As a founding member of the Board of the Oncology Children’s Foundation, Philip Belford has a long standing history with the charity.

When the doors of the Oncology Children’s Foundation first opened, he held the position of CEO and worked closely with Col Reynolds selling personally fundraising to build and develop the charity to where it stands today.

Philip has extensive experience in the not-forprofit sector at the committee level, having worked closely with sporting associations in cricket, rugby league and soccer. These ties later assisted him in building successful relationships between the Oncology Children’s Foundation and particular sporting bodies.

Holding qualifications in business management and communications, Philip applies his extensive sales and operations management experience to maintain organisational governance and business growth.

Peter Neilson’s acumen spans more than 15 years in executive management for non-profit, government-owned and commercial organisations. With a strong focus on business growth, his expertise lies in finance, analysis, planning, strategy, quality and adding value.

Peter’s career accomplishments include achieving revenue growth of 125% and surplus growth of 300% for INSEARCH, as the company’s CFO; managing the restructuring of UNSW Global agent and on seller commissions which resulted in +50% growth; and growing UNSW Global corporate training sales pipeline in excess of $1.5 million in 6 months from a zero base. As a certified practicing accountant, Peter has worked extensively across the globe in countries including Peoples’ Republic of China, United States, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and Sweden.

In his post as CEO, Peter Neilson applies his astute business practices to fast track the Oncology Children’s Foundation towards realising its vision to give all kids with cancer the opportunity to grow up and live their dreams.

PETER NEILSON CEO wanted to be an accountant be an accountant Page | 15

OUR PEOPLE

PETER NEILSON CEO wanted to be an accountant

KIM BABBAGE Events & Challenges Coordinator wanted to be a vet 16 | Page

LINDA WHITE COO wanted to own a chocolate factory

ALISON BELLEVRET Finance Manager wanted to be a tennis player

LEANNE DIB Donor Relations Manager wanted to be a princess

TEGAN COX Consultant wanted to be an airport ground control marshall

PIP AITKEN Events & Challenges Fundraising Coordinator wanted to be a nurse

ROBERT WYNN Marketing Manager wanted to be a architect

KIRI AMBALAVANAR Accounts Support Officer wanted to be a cricket player

HELEN KIRKMAN Research Programs Coordinator wanted to be a vet

MIRIAM POLLAK Communications Manager wanted to be a doctor

CLAIR HELMRICH Graphic Designer wanted to be a photographer

DEE SCHOUTEN Merchandise Manager wanted to be a teacher

NATALIE COWLED Personal Assistant wanted to be a poet

ANNA GULASI Accounts & Admin Officer wanted to be a princess Page | 17

RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE Professor Peter J Smith RFD MD FRACP FRCPA FAICD Chairman, Research Advisory Committee Professor Peter Smith brings to his post as Chairman of the Oncology Children’s Foundation’s Research Advisory Committee considerable experience across both cancer research and governance. After graduating from the University of Queensland in Medicine and undertaking specialist clinical and research training in Paediatric Haematology/Oncology in Australia, the USA and Germany, he worked for over three decades as a clinician and researcher in the field of childhood cancer. He has held senior academic and clinical leadership positions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Auckland and has also served in a consulting role to government, including as Chair of the recent Inquiry into Vietnam Veterans Cancer Incidence and Mortality.

Currently Professor Peter Smith is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at The University of New South Wales. He is also a Director of St Vincent’s Health Australia and chairs the Board’s Safety and Quality Committee. In addition, he serves on the Boards of the Garvan Institute for Medical Research, Neuroscience Research Australia, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research and a number of other prominent medical research organisations.

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Professor Timothy Peter Cripe MD PhD With an eminent career spanning over 25 years, Ohiobased Timothy Cripe has made and continues to make a significant contribution to our global understanding of paediatric oncology. He has participated in numerous clinical trials, as Principal Investigator for the majority; written over 100 published works; sat on the editorial board for five paediatric oncology and related journals; and served as a grant reviewer for several prestigious research organisations. Throughout his career he has been assigned more than 10 awards, including the O’Dell Research Award.

Timothy’s detailed and ever-evolving knowledge of paediatric oncology is transferred through his teaching commitments. He has served as a guest lecturer and presenter at universities throughout the US, mentored research fellows and PhD candidates, served as a faculty coordinator and is the founder and host of the Podcast, “This Week in Pediatric Oncology”. Currently, Timothy is a Professor of Paediatrics and the Course Director of Disease-Specific Translational Research at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, among other appointments.

The Oncology Children’s Foundation is committed to supporting Australia’s best researchers to find cures for childhood cancer.

To ensure that this is the case, we have appointed a Research Advisory Committee comprised of some of the world’s most experienced researchers whose responsibility it is to oversee the allocation of our research funding.

Professor Jonathan G Izant PhD

Professor John P Perentesis, MD, FAAP

Professor Izant’s experience and expertise extends across a number of fields pertinent to the fight against childhood cancer. Currently, he is the Vice President and COO of Sage Bionetworks. Prior to this he held positions as Deputy Director Global Health Operations at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology.

Since 1990, John Perentesis has been committed to advancing the medical research community’s knowledge in the field of childhood cancer, with an emphasis on paediatric leukaemia and adolescent and young adult oncology. He has had significant involvement in over a dozen clinical trials, contributed to peer reviewed publications and served as Director of the Pediatric Oncology Phase I Program at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, among his many achievements. John holds several honours and awards including the William Branstrom Freshman Prize.

Professor Izant has extensive Australian and international experience in academic research, pharmaceutical corporation product development, as well as public sector technology transfer including building and leading biotech spin-off companies. He has held senior positions at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, National Health and Medical Research Council Human Gene Advisory, Queensland Biotechnology Advisory Council’s Head, Health & Medical Working Group, and e-Health Research Centre Advisory Committee. Professor Izant has also held positions on the NH&MRC Development Grant Assessment Panel and New South Wales Health BioFirst Awards Committee.

Currently he is the Director of the Division of Oncology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and holds the Deb Kleisinger Endowed Chair. John also serves in leadership positions and on numerous clinical research protocol committees in the United States’ major paediatric cancer research consortia, including the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Pediatric Phase I Consortium, and the Department of Defense Neurofibromatosis Clinical Therapeutics.

The Committee meets annually to review the research programs we are supporting and provide recommendations.

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FINDING CURES FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER

We select the brig accomplished resear all around Austra ```cures tofind FIND

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ghtest minds and the most rchers from the best centres alia and empower them for childhood cancer.

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ANTI-CYTOSKELETON DRUG DISCOVERY PROGRAM Finding cures for childhood cancer extends beyond the immediate face of a child’s disease. Childhood cancer survivors are at a significant risk of developing at least one medical disability as a direct result of their cancer treatment or the disease itself.

The Oncology Children’s Foundation is supporting the Anti-Cytoskeleton Drug Discovery Program at the University of New South Wales to develop more targeted cures for childhood cancer that are more effective and result in fewer side effects.

The implications of this research are significant and have the potential to change the face of cancer medicine as a whole.

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Professor Peter Gunning has identified a compound, which he has shown to be very effective against childhood solid tumours. Specifically, this compound targets the cytoskeleton, or cell skeleton, of cancer cells. The implications of this research are significant and have the potential to change the face of cancer medicine as a whole – their cytoskeleton research can be applied to other cancers, creating an unprecedented model for more specifically targeted treatments, having identified a specific target in the cytoskeleton which causes the cancer cell to commit suicide.

Five derivatives of this compound are being tested by collaborators in Cincinnati for the most ‘druglike’ characteristics, which include assessing the effects of the drug on healthy cells within the human body and the ability for the correct cells to take in the drug, which will allow them to move towards setting up Phase 1 clinical trials within the next two years.

Additionally, there has been an unexpected and exciting outcome from Professor Gunning’s research.

The same compound has shown to be similarly effective against a range of other childhood and adult cancers including the adult cancer, Melanoma.

The University of New South Wales

Key achievements and highlights: Identified five compounds with the potential to treat the childhood cancer, Neuroblastoma.

Demonstrated that these compounds are also effective against Melanoma.

Identified a second type of compound that will allow development of a separate set of anti-cancer drugs.

Goals for 2012: Establish the efficacy of these compounds to treat Neuroblastoma and Melanoma.

Identify the compound best suited to take forward into a Phase 1 trial.

Begin preparation to conduct a Phase 1 trial.

Develop a second type of drug based on the recent discovery of a new separate type of anti-cancer compound.

PROFESSOR PETER GUNNING UNSW wanted to be a scientist

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We have selected nine of Australia’s most experienced researchers to collaborate to advance our understanding in a field of research that has been identified as the next frontier in cancer medicine

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The Childhood Cancer Cytoskeleton Consortium (OCF-C4) is the initiative of the Oncology Children’s Foundation.

We have selected nine of Australia’s most experienced researchers to collaborate to advance our understanding in a field of research that has been identified as the next frontier in cancer medicine – the cytoskeleton, or cancer cell skeleton.

The cytoskeleton of a cancer cell is different to that of a normal, healthy cell and research suggests that aspects of these differences provide the opportunity for developing more effective, targeted therapies for childhood cancer.

Each principal investigator is an expert in their area and brings a complementary knowledge of the cytoskeleton to the consortium. The Oncology Children’s Foundation provides each researcher with funding to support a research Fellow to focus on applying their unique knowledge to childhood cancer.

This initiative and the potential therein has drawn interest from the New South Wales peak Government research funding body, the Office of Science and Medical Research (OSMR).

As such, the OSMR has provided support for a Senior Project Officer to facilitate the consortium.

CHILDHOOD CANCER CYTOSKELETON CONSORTIUM OCF-C4) Key achievements and highlights: Each laboratory has appointed a research Fellow.

The laboratory leaders and Fellows have met twice to explore collaborative initiatives.

Goals for 2012: Establish a research register for the consortium.

Initiate first collaborative projects.

Develop a five year research plan with the goal to impact childhood cancer.

OCF-C4 Researchers: Dr Ora Bernard The role of LIMK1 and LIMK2 in childhood cancers St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, VIC Dr Dan Catchpoole Translational Research at the Biospecimens Research Group and Tumour Bank The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW Professor Gregory Goodall Control of the actin cytoskeleton by miR200 family of microRNAs in Neuroblastoma and neural crest-derived cells Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Professor Peter Gunning Determining the mechanisms by which anti-tropomyosin drugs induce cell death in Neuroblastoma tumour cells The University of New South Wales, NSW Professor Edna Hardeman Evaluating the potential side effects of targeting tropomyosins for the treatment of childhood cancer The University of New South Wales, NSW Professor Maria Kavallaris Targeting the cytoskeleton in leukaemia Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, NSW Dr Helena Richardson Analysis of cytoskeletal regulators in models of paediatric Brain Tumours Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC Associate Professor Geraldine O’Neill Cytoskeletal regulation of adhesion dynamics in metastatic Neuroblastoma The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW Associate Professor Alpha Yap Junctional actin regulation in contact recognition and control of Neuroblastoma cell migration University of Queensland – Institute for Molecular Bioscience, QLD

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CANCER GENE THERAPY PROGRAM C4)

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Brain Tumours are the second most common childhood cancer, with about 115 new children diagnosed in Australia each year. These tumours can be extremely difficult to treat, with present 5-year survival rates being a dismal 20%, a figure that has not improved over the last twenty five years.

Clearly, current treatments do not have a great enough impact on these types of tumours. However, the Cancer Gene Therapy Program at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead is initiating a Phase I clinical trial to test the safety and feasibility of a gene therapy strategy to better treat these children.

The Trial will be the first in Australia to target bone marrow with gene therapy for chemo protection

Key achievements and highlights: Received Human Research Ethics approval for the trial.

Completed key formulation testing for the production of the small molecule drug in March and April 2011. It is expected that delivery of the small molecule drug (which is critical for trial initiation) will occur in October 2011. The trial will then be opened for recruitment.

The MGMT program team established a framework for trial initiation and process which is compliant with requirements of the Federal regulators overseeing the conduct of gene-therapy trials in Australia. In practical terms this entails detailed documentation of the trial protocol and methodologies and the institution of procedures that ensure traceability of all reagents and consumables used in the gene therapy protocol.

Trial runs of the gene therapy protocol have been successfully completed in a dedicated cleanroom facility at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

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The program approach relies on pursuing innovation in treatment with the aim of translating these into better patient outcomes.

In this trial, bone marrow stem cells will be genetically modified with a DNA repair protein (called MGMT) to make them drug resistant. This strategy may then allow for increased doses of chemotherapy to be delivered to a child to better target the brain tumour, having eliminated the harmful side effects (for the bone marrow) which limit the dose a child is typically able to receive.

The Cancer Gene Therapy Program at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead has entered an extremely exciting

phase of Australian firsts as it approaches trial initiation. The MGMT Cancer Gene Therapy Trial will be the first in Australia to target bone marrow with gene therapy in an attempt to protect the cells to allow for an increase in chemotherapy dosage. This trial will only be the second in Australia to target this cell type for gene modification in children, with the first trial also having been conducted at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

This trial will also be the first in Australia, targeting the bone marrow, in which all of the critical reagents, including the gene therapy vector and the small molecule drug being used to enhance the chemotherapy, have been manufactured in Australia.

Goals for 2012:

Since most of the patients who will be eligible for the trial will have relapsed with their Brain Tumour following conventional treatment, their prognosis is poor. With the trial open, we will be able to offer this experimental gene therapy strategy to them. In the laboratory, we will be working on developing better gene therapy reagents for the trial, as there is constant progress in the area of reagent design and manufacture within the gene therapy field.

PROFESSOR JENNIFER BYRNE wanted to be an ornithologist

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MUSCLETheSTEM University Muscle wasting (cachexia) is a common side effect, not only of childhood cancer, but also experienced by adults with cancer. Cachexia is also one of the mechanisms that contributes to the fatigue experienced by a cancer patient and has a significant impact on quality of life.

It is believed that cachexia involves a failure of stem cells to activate and regrow muscle. Professor Edna Hardeman has identified a mechanism which may activate these stem cells.

She has identified that injured muscle sends out an SOS signal throughout the body that recruits stem cells to repair the damage. She found this when muscles killed by chemotherapy were rescued by having an injured muscle regrowing elsewhere in the body. This research has shown that the ‘activating’ signal for muscle to regrow is carried through the blood. Identification of the signal may provide a treatment strategy for cachexia.

The nature of the signal isn’t known, therefore next steps include identification of the signal and determining whether it is a protein made by the muscle or cells travelling through the body.

PROFESSOR EDNA HARDEMAN wanted to be a scientist and loved collecting 28 | Page

)

CELL PROGRAM of New South Wales ) It is believed that cachexia involves a failure of stem cells to activate and regrow muscle.

Professor Edna Hardeman has identified a mechanism which may activate these stem cells.

Key achievements and highlights:

Keynote talk at the Queenstown (NZ) Muscle Meeting (Sept 2010).

Keynote talk at the 21st Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Meeting (May 2011).

Invited seminar at the Institut de Myologie, L’Hôpital Pitié-Salpétrière, Paris (May 2011).

Goals for 2012:

Test whether cells are travelling through the blood to deliver a regenerative signal to damaged muscle.

Identify which types of cells are delivering the signal.

Identify the time at which the rescuing signal can best be recognised by the damaged muscle.

Page | 29

TUMOUR BANK The Tumour Bank is an enabling resource that sits at the heart of childhood cancer research.

The Oncology Children’s Foundation brings together the best researchers, the best infrastructure and resources to support an increase in collaboration and research activity.

The Tumour Bank is an enabling resource that sits at the heart of childhood cancer research. This vital piece of the puzzle stores thousands of tumour samples allowing researchers to study the behaviour of cancer cells in real-life samples. Underpinning its core functions is its inherent collaborative nature. The Tumour Bank collects and stores tumour samples and confidential clinical data relating to the patient’s disease, the treatment given and the ultimate outcome for the patient. In effect, the Tumour Bank is a central source of knowledge that can be drawn upon by researchers and enables the comparison of disease across a larger population sample and the isolation of genetic differences between tumours which has the potential to affect patient outcome.

DR DAN CATCHPOOLE wanted to be a jazz guitarist 30 | Page

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Key achievements and highlights:

I wanted to be a jazz guitarist

The Tumour Bank has supported over 20 different research centres including three clinical trials world- wide.

In 2010 tumour samples were provided to five major research studies into childhood cancer being conducted in leading international research institutions including St Jude Children’s Hospital (Memphis) and The National Cancer Institute (Washington).

Four manuscripts and 15 conference abstracts were published during the year.

The Tumour Bank is a leading player in the establishment of the Australasian Biospecimens Network Association (ABNA). Dr Catchpoole was elected first President of ABNA in 2010.

During 2010 the Tumour Bank recruited its first Clinical Research Associate (Ms Amanda Rush) to undertake all patient consent, education and interaction within the oncology clinics, further strengthening the ability of our team to facilitate research into childhood cancer.

The tumour bank has a core alliance with OCF-C4, providing tumour samples for cytoskeleton research.

Goals for 2012: Commence a new study into Tumour Bank consenting practice and development.

Establish the Australasian Paediatric Tumour Bank Network as a working group into translational research within and between all children’s hospitals within Australia and New Zealand.

Page | 31

COL REYNOLDS POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP ) The Col Reynolds scholar award is allowing Nancy to conduct gene profiling experiments using tumours diagnosed at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

32 | Page

The Oncology Children’s Foundation is investing in the next generation of childhood cancer researchers by supporting a PhD student within the Children’s Cancer Research Unit, Mrs Nancy Martin La Rotta. Nancy was awarded a prestigious PhD scholarship by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, but like most PhD scholarships, Nancy’s does not provide enough funds to pay for all her experiments.

The Col Reynolds scholar award is allowing Nancy to conduct gene profiling experiments using tumours diagnosed at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Specifically, Nancy is studying the genetic changes that occur in particular solid tumours which carry a poor prognosis for young patients. Over the past year, Nancy has helped design a genetic chip that she will use in experiments to examine the detailed genetic changes occurring in cancers such as Neuroblastoma, Osteosarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma. Nancy has also conducted experiments focussing on particular genes found on human chromosome 8. This region of the

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead In paediatric cancer research

genome is frequently changed in adult cancers, but has been less commonly investigated in childhood cancers.

So far, Nancy’s results show that childhood cancers also carry changes on chromosome 8, and that different genes are affected in different cancer types. This new information is showing similarities and also some unexpected differences between adult and childhood cancers.

Key achievements and highlights: Poster accepted for presentation at the 12th International Congress of Human Genetics, to be held in October 2011 in Montreal, Canada. This conference is held only once every 5 years.

Goals for 2012: To complete high resolution genetic analysis of all tumours, and identify genes of interest for further study.

NANCY MARTIN LA ROTTA wanted to be a doctor Page | 33

Catchpoole D., Mackie, N., McIver, S., Chetcuti, A., Henwood, A., Graf, .N, Arbuckle, S. (2011) Tape transfer sectioning of tissue microarrays introduces nonspecific immunohistochemical staining artifacts. Biotech Histochem. In press.

Chetcuti, A., Aktas, S., Mackie, N., Ulger, C., Toruner, G., Alkan, M., Catchpoole, D. (2011) Expression profiling reveals MSX1 and EphB2 expression correlates with the invasion capacity of Wilms tumors. Pediatr Blood Cancer. In press.

Martin, C., Schevzov, G., and Gunning, P. (2010) Alternatively spliced N-terminal exons in tropomyosin isoforms do not act as autonomous targeting signals, J Struct Biol 170, 286-293.

RESEARCH )

Creed, S. J., Desouza, M., Bamburg, J. R., Gunning, P., and Stehn, J. (2011) Tropomyosin isoform 3 promotes the formation of filopodia by regulating the recruitment of actin-binding proteins to actin filaments, Experimental Cell Research 317, 249-261.

Hook, J., Lemckert, F., Schevzov, G., Fath, T., and Gunning, P. (2011) Functional identity of the gamma tropomyosin gene, BioArchitecture 1, 1-11.

34 | Page

Lees, J.G., Bach, C.T., Bradbury, P., Paul, A., Gunning, P.W., O’Neill, G.M. The actin-associating protein Tm5NM1 blocks mesenchymal motility without transition to amoeboid motility. Oncogene 2011; 30(10): 1241-51.

PUBLICATIONS Tojkander, S., Gateva, G., Schevzov, G., Hotulainen, P., Naumanen, P., Martin, C., Gunning, P., and Lappalainen, P. (2011) A molecular pathway for myosin II recruitment to stress fibres, Current Biology 21(7), 539-550.

Hill, V.K., Dunwell, T.L., Catchpoole, D., Krex, D., Brini, A.T., Griffiths, M., Craddock, C., Maher, E.R., Latif, F. (2011)Frequent epigenetic inactivation of KIBRA, an upstream member of the Salvador/Warts/Hippo (SWH) tumor suppressor network, is associated with specific genetic event in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Epigenetics 6(3), 326-32.

Page | 35

FINANCIAL Balance Sheet as at year ended 30 June 2011

2011

2010

$

$

Current Assets

2,180,407

2,563,148

Non-Current Assets

97,261

128,168

Total Assets

2,277,668

2,691,316

Current Liabilities

1,231,425

1,616,186

Non-Current Liabilities

2,595

14,802

Total Liabilities

1,234,020

1,630,988

Net Assets

1,043,648

1,060,328

Accumulated Funds

1,043,648

1,060,328

Profit and loss Statement as at year ended 30 June 2011 $

$ 2011

Fundraising Income

10,708,856

9,754,951

Other Income

237,981

109,364

Total Income

10,946,837

9,864,315

Fundraising Expenses

(6,691,065)

Research Donations

(2,445,000)

(2,109,816)

Other Expenses

(1,827,452)

(1,453,057)

Total Expenses

(10,963,517)

(9,252,463)

(Deficit) / Surplus for the Year

((16,680)

611,852

Full financials can be downloaded from our website www.thekidscancerproject.org.au

36 | Page

2010

HIGHLIGHTS Research / Charitable Performance Expenditure

Benevolent Activities

516,389

Research

2,737,590

Awareness Raising

984,671

Research

4,238,650

Awareness Raising

Benevolent Activities

2011 Donation per $ Contribution to Research Raffles - 26c in every $ received was donated to research Merchandise (Bears) - 73c in every $ received was donated to research Donations - 88c in every $ received was donated to research

Page | 37

Volunteers

Anja Bollhof Sue Bush Jake Cakarnis Vivienne Charlupski Patrick Chen Jeanette Godfrey Sandy Lumbrick Czarina Manahan Elizabeth Murphy Ben Stephens

Ambassadors

Susan Pratley, NSW Swifts Anthony Minichiello, Sydney Roosters Sofia, Junior Masterchef Australia Isabella, Junior Masterchef Australia Justine Schofield, Masterchef Australia

Charity Partners

Netball NSW/NSW Swifts

Vietnam Cycling Challenge Trek Nepal Man on a Mission Netball NSW/NSW Swifts Charity Day Write a Book in a Day

38 | Page

Beneficiary Events Fitz’s Challenge Audax Alpine Classic Les Dix Alpes La Bella Italia

Corporate Supporters Coles East Side Crew Divisible by Zero Double Elle Edifer Australia Greater Union Huffy Bikes Lego Little Dance Invitations Mama Ka’z Manhattan Super Bowl Naturally Gifted Paddy Meats Pages Equipment Hire Pete’s Meats Quay Grand Raine & Horne Ritz Cinema Ticketek Toby’s Estate Woolworths

We could not possibly continue to support researchers Australia-wide and ultimately cure childhood cancer without the generous support of individuals, businesses and charity partners.

Advansys Pty Ltd

Mr Cyril Golding

Mr Peter McPherson

Mr Rowley Alexander

Mr Brian Greig

AMCA Australia

Mr Matthew Grounds

Mediterranean Shipping Company (Aust) Pty Ltd

AMCA NSW

Mr Nick Hambly

Mr Andrew Micos

AMCA VIC

Mr Ron Harris

Mr Paul Millican

Mr Stephen Harris

Mr David Moran

Mr Michael Heine

Nege Enterprises Pty Ltd

Ms Hazel Holden

NSW Netball Association Ltd

Mr Peter Howell

Mr Andrew Peden

Intelsat Asia Pty Ltd

Mr Lindsay Pelletier

Ironbark Ridge Public School

Raine & Horne Ashfield

Mr Gynes Isherwood

Raine & Horne Summer Hill

Mr Paul Isherwood

Randwick Netball Association

J A Hordern Pty Ltd

Mr Robert Reynolds

Mrs Melissa Jess

Rotary Club of Brookvale Inc

Ms Shelley Jiang

Peter Rowe

Anitha Karunairajah

Seaforth Public School

Mr Sean Katz

Sensis

Mr Anthony Kirby

Mr Lloyd Shanks

Mr David Knox

Silver Blue

Mr Ian Knox

Mrs June Smith

Mrs Nicole Kornhauser

Spectrum Fire Spiral Media & Digital

Hermann Amstad Mrs Val Appleroth Mr Ange Augello Mr Graham Baillie Miss Santa Battaglia BBM Ltd Mr Brian Benari Bert Pty Ltd Mr Daniel Buckley Mr David Byrne Mr Michael Callaghan Cormac Carey Carlingford West Public School Mr Phillip Charlton Christie Systems Services Pty Ltd C-Logic Holdings Pty Ltd Mr Caine Connor Mrs Thelma Constantinou Mr Richard Cranmer Mr Kevin Cronin Crossmart Pty Ltd Mr Damian Crowe Mr Andrew Cummins Mr Paul Denny Mr Neil Douglas

KSP Write A Book In A Day

St Bernadette’s Primary School

Mr Peter Layton

Ms Louise Stanley

Mrs Michelle Letton

Mr Dominic Stevens

Dr Victor Lim

Ms Monica Stewart

Mr Mark Lim

Ms Jan Swinhoe

Liverpool City Netball Association

Sydney Water Corporation

Mr Bernard & Desma Livy

Mr W N Taylor

Logan Family Foundation

Ms Jane Taylor

Mr Andrew Lombe Miss Emma Lowry

The Estate of The Late Mrs Jessie Laurence

Mr Tom Lyons

Mrs Glen Thomas

Merri Mack

Mr Neni Tiwary

Macquarie Group Foundation Limited

Mr Peter Trent

Madison Financial Group

True Colours Group

Stephen Maher

Mr Jason Whitaker

Mr Craig Malouf

Mr Iain Fraser

Mr David Williamson

Mr Paul Mansfield

Mr John Freeman

Woolooware High School

Giancarlo Mattiuzzo

Mr Hugh Gallagher

Wyong District Netball Association

Mayberry Meldrum & Anderson Pty Ltd

Mr Ian Galloway

Mr Jack Zagorski

Mr Gregory McAlary

Mrs Neilma Gantner

Mr Curt Zuber

Mr Stephen McCann

Mr Darren Gocher

Mr Simon McCarroll

Mr Alan Doyle Mrs Rosslyn Duncan Mr Hanna Elias Mr Darren Evans Mr Gary Fallon Mr Adrian Fisk Forest Accounting & Taxation Services Pt

Page | 39

OUR RESEARCH CONTRIBUT ) BY, Slamon DJ, Harnett P, Defazio A. Tumor protein D52 (TPD52) is overexpressed and a gene amplification target in ovarian cancer.

Int J Cancer. 2005;117(6):1049-54.

Alagaratnam S, Hardy JR, Lothe RA, Skotheim RI, Byrne JA. TPD52, a candidate gene from genomic studies, is overexpressed in testicular germ cell tumours. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2009;306(1-2):75-80.

Barbaric D, Byth K, Dalla-Pozza L, Byrne JA. Expression of tumor protein D52-like genes in childhood leukemia at diagnosis: clinical and sample considerations. Leuk Res. 2006;30(11): 1355-63.

Al-Oqaily A, Kennedy PJ, Catchpoole DR, Simoff SJ. Comparison of Visualization Methods of Genomewide SNP Profiles in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. In Proc.

Seventh Australasian Data Mining Conference (AusDM 2008), Glenelg, South Australia. Conference in Research and Practice in Information Technology, 87. Roddick JF, Li J, Christen P, Kennedy PJ, Eds ACS. 111-121. [ERA B ranked conference, acceptance rate 0.45].

Barbaric D, Dalla-Pozza L, Byrne JA. A reliable method for total RNA extraction from frozen human bone marrow samples taken at diagnosis of acute leukaemia. J Clin Pathol.

2002;55(11):865-7.

Catchpoole D, Mackie N, McIver S, Chetcuti A, Henwood A, Graf N, Arbuckle S. Tape transfer sectioning of tissue microarrays introduces nonspecific immunohistochemical staining artifacts. Biotech Histochem.

2011. In press.

Bargon SD, Gunning PW, O'Neill GM. The Cas family docking protein, HEF1, promotes the formation of neuritelike membrane extensions. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2005;1746(2):143-54.

Catchpoole DR, Kennedy P, Skillicorn DB, Simoff S. The curse of dimensionality: a blessing to personalized medicine. J Clin Oncol.

2010;28(34):e723-4.

Bilke S, Chen QR, Westerman F, Schwab M, Catchpoole D, Khan J. Inferring a tumor progression model for neuroblastoma from genomic data. J Clin Oncol. 2005;23(29): 7322-31.

Catchpoole D, Guo D, Jiang H, Biesheuvel C. Predicting outcome in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia using gene expression profiling: prognostication or protocol selection? Blood. 2008;111(4):2486-7; author reply 7-8.

Ashworth SL, Wean SE, Campos SB, Temm-Grove CJ, Southgate EL, Vrhovski B, Gunning P, Weinberger RP, Molitoris BA. Renal ischemia induces tropomyosin dissociationdestabilizing microvilli microfilaments. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2004;286(5):F988-96.

Astuti D, Latif F, Wagner K, Gentle D, Cooper WN, Catchpoole D, Grundy R, Ferguson-Smith AC, Maher ER. Epigenetic alteration at the DLK1GTL2 imprinted domain in human neoplasia: analysis of neuroblastoma, phaeochromocytoma and Wilms' tumour. Br J Cancer. 2005;92(8): 1574-80.

Bach CTT, Schevzov G, Bryce NS, Gunning PW, O'Neill GM. Tropomyosin isoform modulation of focal adhesion structure and cell migration. Cell Adhesion and Migration. 2010;4(2):226-34.

Bach, C. T., Schevzov, G., Bryce, N. S., Gunning, P. W., and O'Neill, G. M. (2010) Tropomyosin isoform modulation of focal adhesion structure and cell migration, Cell Adh Migr 4, 2, 1-9.

Bach CTT, Creed S, Zhong J, Mahmassani M, Schevzov G, Stehn J, Cowell LN, Naumanen P, Lappalainen P, Gunning PW, O'Neill GM. Tropomyosin isoform expression regulates the transition of adhesions to determine cell speed and direction.

Molecular and Cellular Biology.

2009;29(6):1506-14.

40 | Page

Bonello, T. T., Stehn, J., and Gunning, P. W. (2009) New approaches to targeting the actin cytoskeleton for chemotherapy., Future Medicinal Chemistry, 1311-1331.

Boutros R, Byrne JA. D53 (TPD52L1) is a cell cycle-regulated protein maximally expressed at the G2-M transition in breast cancer cells. Exp Cell Res. 2005;310(1):152-65.

Boutros R, Fanayan S, Shehata M, and Byrne JA. The Tumor Protein D52 family: many pieces, many puzzles.

BiochemBiophys Res Comm. 2004; 325: 1115-1121. Impact Factor: 2.836.

Boutros R, Bailey AM, Wilson SH, Byrne JA. Alternative splicing as a mechanism for regulating 14-3-3 binding: interactions between hD53 (TPD52L1) and 14-3-3 proteins. J Mol Biol. 2003;332(3):675-87.

Bryce NS, Schevzov G, Ferguson V, Percival JM, Lin JJ, Matsumura F, Bamburg JR, Jeffrey PL, Hardeman EC, Gunning P, Weinberger RP. Specification of actin filament function and molecular composition by tropomyosin isoforms. Mol Biol Cell. 2003;14(3):1002-16.

Byrne JA, Balleine RL, Schoenberg Fejzo M, Mercieca J, Chiew YE, Livnat Y, St Heaps L, Peters GB, Byth K, Karlan

Catchpoole D, Defazio A, Devereux L, Fleming M, Hof M, Schmidt C, Thorne H, Zeps N. The importance of biorepository networks: The Australian Biospecimen Network Oncology. Australian Journal for Medical Science. 2007;28(1):16-20.

Catchpoole D, Lail A, Guo D, Chen QR, Khan J. Gene expression profiles that segregate patients with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: an independent validation study identifies that endoglin associates with patient outcome. Leuk Res. 2007;31(12):1741-7.

Chang AC, Hook J, Lemckert FA, McDonald MM, Nguyen MA, Hardeman EC, Little DG, Gunning PW, Reddel RR. The murine stanniocalcin 2 gene is a negative regulator of postnatal growth. Endocrinology.

2008;149(5):2403-10.

Chetcuti A, Aktas S, Mackie N, Ulger C, Toruner G, Alkan M, Catchpoole D. Expression profiling reveals MSX1 and EphB2 expression correlates with the invasion capacity of Wilms tumors.

Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2011 Mar 8. In press.

Corbett MA, Akkari PA, Domazetovska A, Cooper ST, North KN, Laing NG, Gunning PW, Hardeman EC. An

TIONS alphaTropomyosin mutation alters dimer preference in nemaline myopathy. Ann Neurol. 2005;57(1): 42-9.

Creed, S. J., Desouza, M., Bamburg, J. R., Gunning, P., and Stehn, J. (2011) Tropomyosin isoform 3 promotes the formation of filopodia by regulating the recruitment of actin-binding proteins to actin filaments, Experimental Cell Research 317, 249-261.

Creed SJ, Bryce N, Naumanen P, Weinberger R, Lappalainen P, Stehn J, Gunning P. Tropomyosin isoforms define distinct microfilament populations with different drug susceptibility. Eur J Cell Biol. 2008;87 (8-9):709-20.

Dalby-Payne JR, O'Loughlin EV, Gunning P. Polarization of specific tropomyosin isoforms in gastrointestinal epithelial cells and their impact on CFTR at the apical surface. Mol Biol Cell. 2003;14(11): 4365-75.

Dallas PB, Gottardo NG, Firth MJ, Beesley AH, Hoffmann K, Terry PA, Freitas JR, Boag JM, Cummings AJ, Kees UR. Gene expression levels assessed by oligonucleotide microarray analysis and quantitative real-time RT-PCR -- how well do they correlate? BMC Genomics. 2005;6:59.

Domazetovska A, Ilkovski B, Cooper ST, Ghoddusi M, Hardeman EC, Minamide LS, Gunning PW, Bamburg JR, North KN. Mechanisms underlying intranuclear rod formation. Brain.

2007;130(Pt 12):3275-84.

Dunwell T, Hesson L, Rauch TA, Wang L, Clark RE, Dallol A, Gentle D, Catchpoole D, Maher ER, Pfeifer GP, Latif F. A genome-wide screen identifies frequently methylated genes in haematological and epithelial cancers. Mol Cancer.

2010;9:44.

Dunwell TL, Dickinson RE, Stankovic T, Dallol A, Weston V, Austen B, Catchpoole D, Maher ER, Latif F. Frequent epigenetic inactivation of the SLIT2 gene in chronic and acute lymphocytic leukemia. Epigenetics.

2009;4(4):265-9.

Dunwell TL, Hesson LB, Pavlova T, Zabarovska V, Kashuba V, Catchpoole D, Chiaramonte R, Brini AT, Griffiths M,

Maher ER, Zabarovsky E, Latif F. Epigenetic analysis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Epigenetics. 2009;4(3):185-93.

in tumors shows the significance of alternative lengthening of telomeres in sarcomas and astrocytomas. Clin Cancer Res. 2005;11(1):217-25.

Fanayan S, Shehata M, Agterof AP, McGuckin MA, Alonso MA, Byrne JA. Mucin 1 (MUC1) is a novel partner for MAL2 in breast carcinoma cells. BMC Cell Biol. 2009;10:7.

Hesson LB, Dunwell TL, Cooper WN, Catchpoole D, Brini AT, Chiaramonte R, Griffiths M, Chalmers AD, Maher ER, Latif F. The novel RASSF6 and RASSF10 candidate tumour suppressor genes are frequently epigenetically inactivated in childhood leukaemias. Mol Cancer.

2009;8:42.

Ghous H, Ho N, Catchpoole DR, Kennedy PJ. Comparing functional visualizations of genes. ECML-PKDD 5th Workshop on Data Mining in Functional Genomics and Proteomics: Current Trends and Future Directions, Athens Greece. 2011; Accepted.

Ghous H, Kennedy PJ, Catchpoole DR, Simoff SJ. Kernel-based Visualisation of Genes with the Gene Ontology. In Proc. Seventh Australasian Data Mining Conference (AusDM 2008), Glenelg, South Australia. Conference in Research and Practice in Information Technology, 87. Roddick JF, Li J, Christen P, Kennedy PJ, Eds ACS. 133-140. [ERA B ranked conference, acceptance rate 0.45] 2008.

Ginn SL, Liao SH, Dane AP, Hu M, Hyman J, Finnie JW, Zheng M, Cavazzana-Calvo M, Alexander SI, Thrasher AJ, Alexander IE. Lymphomagenesis in SCID-X1 mice following lentivirus-mediated phenotype correction independent of insertional mutagenesis and gammac overexpression. Mol Ther. 2010;18(5): 965-76 Gomes L, Mackie N, Catchpoole D, Henwood T. Teach and Teach - In a fix about immunohistochemistry on 60 year old tissue blocks? Journal of Histotechnology. 2008;(31):183-4.

Gunning P. Emerging issues for tropomyosin structure, regulation, function and pathology. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2008;644:293-8.

Gunning P. Introduction and historical perspective. Adv Exp Med Biol.

2008;644:1-5.

Gunning P, O'Neill G, Hardeman E. Tropomyosin-based regulation of the actin cytoskeleton in time and space.

Physiol Rev. 2008;88(1):1-35.

Gunning PW, Schevzov G, Kee AJ, Hardeman EC. Tropomyosin isoforms: divining rods for actin cytoskeleton function. Trends Cell Biol. 2005;15(6): 333-41.

Henson JD, Hannay JA, McCarthy SW, Royds JA, Yeager TR, Robinson RA, Wharton SB, Jellinek DA, Arbuckle SM, Yoo J, Robinson BG, Learoyd DL, Stalley PD, Bonar SF, Yu D, Pollock RE, Reddel RR. A robust assay for alternative lengthening of telomeres

Hill VK, Dunwell TL, Catchpoole D, Krex D, Brini AT, Griffiths M, Craddock C, Maher ER, Latif F. Frequent epigenetic inactivation of KIBRA, an upstream member of the Salvador/ Warts/Hippo (SWH) tumor suppressor network, is associated with specific genetic event in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia. Epigenetics.

2011;6(3):326-32.

Hook, J., Lemckert, F., Schevzov, G., Fath, T., and Gunning, P. (2011) Functional identity of the gamma tropomyosin gene, BioArchitecture 1, 1-11.

Hughes JA, Cooke-Yarborough CM, Chadwick NC, Schevzov G, Arbuckle SM, Gunning P, Weinberger RP. Highmolecular-weight tropomyosins localize to the contractile rings of dividing CNS cells but are absent from malignant pediatric and adult CNS tumors. Glia. 2003;42(1):25-35.

Kadupitige SR, Leung KC, Sellmeier J, Sivieng J, Catchpoole DR, Bain ME, Gaeta BA. MINER: exploratory analysis of gene interaction networks by machine learning from expression data. BMC Genomics. 2009;10 Suppl 3:S17.

Kennedy PJ, Simoff SJ, Catchpoole DR, Skillicorn DB, Ubaudi F, Al Oqaily A. Integrative visual data mining to biomedical data: Investigating cases in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

(Eds: Simoff SJ, Böhlen M, Mazeika A), in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 4404, Visual Data Mining: Theory, Techniques and Tools for Visual Analytics., 367-388, Springer, Heidelberg, 2008.

Kennedy PJ, Simoff SJ, Catchpoole DR, Ubaudi F, Al-Oquaily A, Yildiz S, Du Y, Skillicorn DB. Does CFS have a biological basis? – A constructionist approach. Critical Assessment of Microarray Data Analysis, Duke University, North Carolina, USA, 2006. (http://www.camda.duke.edu/ camda06/papers/days/posters/ catchpoole/paper.doc) Kennedy PJ, Simoff SJ, Skillicorn D, Catchpoole DR. Extracting and explaining biological knowledge in

Page | 41

microarray data. In Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Volume 3056 Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining: 8th Pacific-Asia Conference, PAKDD 2004.Proceedings.(Eds: Dai, Srikant, Zhang), 699-703, Springer 2004, (ISBN 3-540-22064-X).

Kramer BA, Lemckert FA, Alexander IE, Gunning PW, McCowage GB. Characterisation of a P140K mutant O6-methylguanine-DNAmethyltransferase (MGMT)expressing transgenic mouse line with drug-selectable bone marrow. J Gene Med. 2006;8(9):1071-85.

Lee AS, Kahatapitiya P, Kramer B, Joya JE, Hook J, Liu R, Schevzov G, Alexander IE, McCowage G, Montarras D, Gunning PW, Hardeman EC. Methylguanine DNA methyltransferase-mediated drug resistance-based selective enrichment and engraftment of transplanted stem cells in skeletal muscle. Stem Cells. 2009;27(5): 1098-1108.

Catchpoole D, Robledo M, Neumann HP, Latif F, Maher ER. Evaluation of a functional epigenetic approach to identify promoter region methylation in phaeochromocytoma and neuroblastoma. Endocr Relat Cancer.

2008;15(3):777-86.

Margetts CD, Astuti D, Gentle DC, Cooper WN, Cascon A, Catchpoole D, Robledo M, Neumann HP, Latif F, Maher ER. Epigenetic analysis of HIC1, CASP8, FLIP, TSP1, DCR1, DCR2, DR4, DR5, KvDMR1, H19 and preferential 11p15.5 maternal-allele loss in von Hippel-Lindau and sporadic phaeochromocytomas. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2005;12(1):161-72.

Martin, C., Schevzov, G., and Gunning, P. (2010) Alternatively spliced Nterminal exons in tropomyosin isoforms do not act as autonomous targeting signals, J Struct Biol 170, 286-293.

Martin C, Gunning P. Isoform sorting of tropomyosins. Adv Exp Med Biol.

2008;644:187-200.

Lees JG, Bach CT, Bradbury P, Paul A, Gunning PW, O'Neill GM. The actinassociating protein Tm5NM1 blocks mesenchymal motility without transition to amoeboid motility.

Oncogene. 2011; 30(10):1241-51.

Mitchell SA, Brown KM, Henry MM, Mintz M, Catchpoole D, LaFleur B, Stephan DA. Inter-platform comparability of microarrays in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. BMC Genomics. 2004;5:71.

Lindblom A, Bhadri V, Soderhall S, Ohrmalm L, Wong M, Norbeck O, Lindau C, Rotzen-Ostlund M, Allander T, Catchpoole D, Dalla-Pozza L, Broliden K, Tolfvenstam T. Respiratory viruses, a common microbiological finding in neutropenic children with fever. J Clin Virol. 2010;47(3):234-7.

Natrajan R, Little SE, Sodha N, ReisFilho JS, Mackay A, Fenwick K, Ashworth A, Perlman EJ, Dome JS, Grundy PE, Pritchard-Jones K, Jones C. Analysis by array CGH of genomic changes associated with the progression or relapse of Wilms' tumour. J Pathol. 2007;211(1):52-9.

Lloyd C, Gunning P. beta- and gamma-actin genes differ in their mechanisms of down-regulation during myogenesis. J Cell Biochem.

2002;84(2):335-42.

Natrajan R, Little SE, Reis-Filho JS, Hing L, Messahel B, Grundy PE, Dome JS, Schneider T, Vujanic GM, PritchardJones K, Jones C. Amplification and overexpression of CACNA1E correlates with relapse in favorable histology Wilms' tumors. Clin Cancer Res. 2006;12(24):7284-93.

MacArthur DG, Seto JT, Chan S, Quinlan KG, Raftery JM, Turner N, Nicholson MD, Kee AJ, Hardeman EC, Gunning PW, Cooney GJ, Head SI, Yang N, North KN. An Actn3 knockout mouse provides mechanistic insights into the association between alphaactinin-3 deficiency and human athletic performance. Hum Mol Genet.

2008;17(8):1076-86.

MacArthur DG, Seto JT, Raftery JM, Quinlan KG, Huttley GA, Hook JW, Lemckert FA, Kee AJ, Edwards MR, Berman Y, Hardeman EC, Gunning PW, Easteal S, Yang N, North KN. Loss of ACTN3 gene function alters mouse muscle metabolism and shows evidence of positive selection in humans. Nat Genet. 2007;39(10): 1261-5.

Margetts CD, Morris M, Astuti D, Gentle DC, Cascon A, McRonald FE,

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Natrajan R, Reis-Filho JS, Little SE, Messahel B, Brundler MA, Dome JS, Grundy PE, Vujanic GM, PritchardJones K, Jones C. Blastemal expression of type I insulin-like growth factor receptor in Wilms' tumors is driven by increased copy number and correlates with relapse.

Cancer Res. 2006;66(23):11148-55.

Natrajan R, Williams RD, Hing SN, Mackay A, Reis-Filho JS, Fenwick K, Iravani M, Valgeirsson H, Grigoriadis A, Langford CF, Dovey O, Gregory SG, Weber BL, Ashworth A, Grundy PE, Pritchard-Jones K, Jones C. Array CGH profiling of favourable histology Wilms tumours reveals novel gains and losses associated with relapse. J Pathol. 2006;210(1):49-58.

Nguyen QV, Simoff S, Catchpoole DR. Interactive visualization with user perspective for biological data analysis. Health Informatics Society of Australia. 2011; in press.

O'Neill GM, Zhong J, Paul A, Kellie SJ. Mesenchymal migration as a therapeutic target in glioblastoma.

Journal of Oncology. 2010.

O'Neill GM, Stehn J, Gunning PW. Tropomyosins as interpreters of the signalling environment to regulate the local cytoskeleton. Seminars in Cancer Biology. 2008;18(1):35-44.

O’Sullivan M, Stone G, Catchpoole D, Wood G. Comparison of cDNA and Affymetrix microarray data for paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. International Workshop on Statistics Modelling, Bondi, Australia, 2005.

Percival JM, Hughes JA, Brown DL, Schevzov G, Heimann K, Vrhovski B, Bryce N, Stow JL, Gunning PW. Targeting of a tropomyosin isoform to short microfilaments associated with the Golgi complex. Mol Biol Cell.

2004;15(1):268-80.

Sarmah CK, Samarasinghe S, Kulasari D, Catchpoole D. A Simple Affymetrix ratio-transformation methods yields comparable expression level quantifications with cDNA data. World Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Technology. 2010;(61):78-83.

Sathasivam P, Bailey AM, Crossley M, Byrne JA. The role of the coiled-coil motif in interactions mediated by TPD52. Biochem Biophys Res Commun.

2001;288(1):56-61.

Schevzov G, Fath T, Vrhovski B, Vlahovich N, Rajan S, Hook J, Joya JE, Lemckert F, Puttur F, Lin JJ, Hardeman EC, Wieczorek DF, O'Neill GM, Gunning PW. Divergent regulation of the sarcomere and the cytoskeleton. J Biol Chem. 2008;283(1):275-83.

Schevzov, G., and O’Neill, G. (2008) Tropomyosin Gene Expression in Vivo and in Vitro, In Tropomyosin (Gunning, P., Ed.), pp 43-59, Springer New York.

Schevzov G, Vrhovski B, Bryce NS, Elmir S, Qiu MR, O'Neill GM, Yang N, Verrills NM, Kavallaris M, Gunning PW. Tissue-specific tropomyosin isoform composition. Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry. 2005;53(5):557-70.

Schevzov G, Bryce NS, AlmonteBaldonado R, Joya J, Lin JJ, Hardeman E, Weinberger R, Gunning P. Specific features of neuronal size and shape are regulated by tropomyosin isoforms. Mol Biol Cell. 2005;16(7): 3425-37.

Shehata M, Bieche I, Boutros R, Weidenhofer J, Fanayan S, Spalding L, Zeps N, Byth K, Bright RK, Lidereau R, Byrne JA. Nonredundant functions for tumor protein D52-like proteins support specific targeting of TPD52.

Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14(16):5050-60.

Shehata M, Weidenhofer J, Thamotharampillai K, Hardy JR, and Byrne JA.Tumor protein D52 overexpression and gene amplification in cancer- from a mosaic of microarrays. Crit. Rev. Oncogenesis.

2008; 14: 33-55. Journal not indexed

by ISI. Skillicorn DB, Simoff S, Kennedy P, Catchpoole DR. Strategies for winnowing microarray data.

Proceedings of the Workshop on Scientific Data Mining at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Data Mining Conference, 2004.

Stallings RL, Nair P, Maris JM, Catchpoole D, McDermott M, O'Meara A, Breatnach F. High-resolution analysis of chromosomal breakpoints and genomic instability identifies PTPRD as a candidate tumor suppressor gene in neuroblastoma.

Cancer Res. 2006;66(7):3673-80.

Stehn JR, Schevzov G, O'Neill GM, Gunning PW. Specialisation of the tropomyosin composition of actin filaments provides new potential targets for chemotherapy. Current Cancer Drug Targets. 2006;6(3):245-56.

Tay ES, Guven KL, Subramaniam N, Polly P, Issa LL, Gunning PW, Hardeman EC. Regulation of alternative splicing of Gtf2ird1 and its impact on slow muscle promoter activity. Biochem J. 2003;374(Pt 2): 359-67.

Taylor JGt, Cheuk AT, Tsang PS, Chung JY, Song YK, Desai K, Yu Y, Chen QR, Shah K, Youngblood V, Fang J, Kim SY, Yeung C, Helman LJ, Mendoza A, Ngo V, Staudt LM, Wei JS, Khanna C, Catchpoole D, Qualman SJ, Hewitt SM, Merlino G, Chanock SJ, Khan J. Identification of FGFR4-activating mutations in human rhabdomyosarcomas that promote metastasis in xenotransplanted models. J Clin Invest. 2009;119(11): 3395-407.

Tojkander, S., Gateva, G., Schevzov, G., Hotulainen, P., Naumanen, P., Martin, C., Gunning, P., and Lappalainen, P. (2011) A molecular pathway for myosin II recruitment to stress fibres, Current Biology 21(7), 539-550.

Ubaudi F, Catchpoole DR, Guo D, Simoff SJ, Kennedy PJ. Microarray data mining: selecting trustworthy genes with Gene Feature Ranking. In Data Mining For Business

Applications (Eds: Longbing Cao, Philip S. Yu, Chengqi Zhang, Huaifeng Zhang), Springer. 2009; 11:159–168.

Verrills NM, Po'uha ST, Liu ML, Liaw TY, Larsen MR, Ivery MT, Marshall GM, Gunning PW, Kavallaris M. Alterations in gamma-actin and tubulin-targeted drug resistance in childhood leukemia. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006;98 (19):1363-74.

Vlahovich, N., Kee, A. J., Van der Poel, C., Kettle, E., Hernandez-Deviez, D., Lucas, C., Lynch, G. S., Parton, R. G., Gunning, P. W., and Hardeman, E. C. (2009) Cytoskeletal tropomyosin Tm5NM1 is required for normal excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle, Mol Biol Cell 20, 400-409.

Vlahovich N, Schevzov G, NairShaliker V, Ilkovski B, Artap ST, Joya JE, Kee AJ, North KN, Gunning PW, Hardeman EC. Tropomyosin 4 defines novel filaments in skeletal muscle associated with muscle remodelling/ regeneration in normal and diseased muscle. Cell Motil Cytoskeleton.

2008;65(1):73-85.

Vrhovski B, McKay K, Schevzov G, Gunning PW, Weinberger RP. Smooth muscle-specific alpha tropomyosin is a marker of fully differentiated smooth muscle in lung. J Histochem Cytochem. 2005;53(7):875-83.

Vrhovski B, Lemckert F, Gunning P. Modification of the tropomyosin isoform composition of actin filaments in the brain by deletion of an alternatively spliced exon.

Neuropharmacology. 2004;47(5): 684-93.

Wilson SH, Bailey AM, Nourse CR, Mattei MG, Byrne JA. Identification of MAL2, a novel member of the mal proteolipid family, though interactions with TPD52-like proteins in the yeast two-hybrid system.

Genomics. 2001;76(1-3):81-8.

Wolf S, Wakelin LPG, Catchpoole DR. Considerations for Treatment Development in Rhabdomyosarcoma: In Vitro Assessment of Novel DNA Binding Drugs. In "Soft Tissue Tumors", Intech Publishers (Croatia).

2011; Accepted. (ISBN 978-953-307-862-5.)

Wolf SJ, Wakelin LP, He Z, Stewart BW, Catchpoole DR. In vitro assessment of novel transcription inhibitors and topoisomerase poisons in rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2009;64(6): 1059-69.

Xiang H, Schevzov G, Gunning P, Williams HM, Silink M. A comparative study of growth-inhibitory effects of isoflavones and their metabolites on human breast and prostate cancer cell lines. Nutr Cancer. 2002;42(2): 224-32.

Zihlif M, Catchpoole DR, Stewart BW, Wakelin LP. Effects of DNA threading bis(9-aminoacridine-4-carboxamides) on global gene expression. Cancer Genomics Proteomics. 2009;6(6): 317-23.

Vrhovski B, Schevzov G, Dingle S, Lessard JL, Gunning P, Weinberger RP. Tropomyosin isoforms from the gamma gene differing at the Cterminus are spatially and developmentally regulated in the brain. J Neurosci Res. 2003;72(3): 373-83.

Weidenhofer J and Byrne JA.Isolation of nucleic acids from hard tissues. In: Handbook of Nucleic Acid Purification. Liu D. (Ed.), Taylor & Francis CRC Press. 2009;pp. 427-448.

Whiteford CC, Bilke S, Greer BT, Chen Q, Braunschweig TA, Cenacchi N, Wei JS, Smith MA, Houghton P, Morton C, Reynolds CP, Lock R, Gorlick R, Khanna C, Thiele CJ, Takikita M, Catchpoole D, Hewitt SM, Khan J. Credentialing preclinical pediatric xenograft models using gene expression and tissue microarray analysis. Cancer Res. 2007;67(1):32-40.

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We’re giving ourselves a facelift and a new name.

While we may look different, our goal is very much the same: To cure kids’ Cancer.

You may be wondering – why the change of name from Oncology Children’s Foundation to The Kids’ Cancer Project?

The reasons are simple. A number of people told us they found the word ‘oncology’ a little perplexing. ‘Cancer’, on the other hand – well, sadly everyone knows what cancer means. Also, a project is something that, by definition, works towards a specific goal and has an end date. Our organisation’s sole aim is to obliterate childhood cancer. The Kids’ Cancer Project will exist only for as long as childhood cancer does, and we plan to be instrumental in its demise. We hope that you will help us in this mission.

www.thekidscancerproject.org.au

In order to grow, we need to change.

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The Kids’ Cancer Project 1800 651 158 Ground Floor, 5-11 Mentmore Avenue Rosebery NSW 2018 www.thekidscancerproject.org.au ABN 13 061 138 181