Peter Mac secures $13 million in NHMRC funding
17 December 2024
Peter Mac has secured over $13 million in funding for 11 projects through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant scheme.
The Ideas Grant scheme provides opportunities for early- and mid-career researchers and supports innovative research projects addressing a specific question.
Acting Executive Director Cancer Research, Professor Mark Dawson, said it is a fantastic result for Peter Mac.
“This is an incredible result for Peter Mac to have 11 exciting projects being funded for an amount of $13.5 million across laboratory and clinical research,” he said.
“This is a substantial increase from previous years, and I congratulate all our researchers and professional services teams, especially the grants team, for their outstanding submissions to this highly competitive scheme.
“This result will enable Peter Mac to continue our world-class, innovative research.”
Read more on each project below:
Investigating novel determinants of response to CAR T-cell therapy for large B-cell lymphoma
Dr Yih-Chih Chan
This project will investigate how specific DNA mutations found in samples from patients with an aggressive type of blood cancer (large B-cell lymphoma) make these cancers resistant to a new form of treatment called chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T). It is important to be able to predict which patients will respond to CAR-T, to ensure that they get appropriate treatment and avoid unnecessary side effects.
Epigenetic targeting of multiple myeloma
Dr Emily Gruber
Multiple myeloma is a common incurable blood cancer and new therapies are required to improve patient outcomes. Researchers have unexpectedly uncovered that some multiple myeloma cells require an epigenetic protein called Menin to survive. This project will characterise the molecular pathways that are controlled by Menin in multiple myeloma and test the anti-cancer efficacy of small molecules that block Menin activity using cell lines, mouse models and patient samples.
Identifying novel metabolic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in patients with melanoma
Dr Aparna Rao
Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma globally. Although newer therapies improve outcomes, researchers do not fully understand why some patients relapse or do not respond to therapy. Understanding fuels that tumours use to derive energy (metabolism) could potentially answer such questions. This project will use novel techniques to characterise melanoma metabolism in living tumours and aim to use this knowledge to improve diagnosis, predict outcomes and develop novel therapies for patients with melanoma.
Lineage tracing to identify ovarian cancer cells of origin
Associate Professor Kylie Gorringe
There are many different types of ovarian cancer. Although they have the same location in the body, they don't necessarily grow from an ovarian cell. Using novel methods, this study will discover the cell of origin for two rare subtypes. This knowledge will help us to develop ways to detect and prevent ovarian cancers as well as generate accurate pre-clinical models that we can use to test emerging therapies for these rare but deadly diseases.
Off-the-shelf circular mRNA vaccine exploiting non-conventional tumour antigens to improve immunotherapy of mismatch repair-proficient colorectal cancer
Professor Riccardo Dolcetti
Despite remarkable successes in other cancers, immunotherapy of colorectal cancer (CRCs) is not effective in most cases. This is due to the limited knowledge of the target antigens expressed by these tumours and that may favour their recognition and elimination by the immune system of the patient. This project aims at identifying novel classes of antigens that can be exploited to develop innovative mRNA therapeutic vaccines to improve the clinical control of the majority of CRCs.
Developing novel CAR T cells with enhanced metabolic performance for solid tumor treatment
Dr Isabelle Munoz
CAR T cell therapy, which uses a patient’s own T cells modified to make a synthetic receptor for cancer cell recognition and killing, has proven to be very effective to treat certain blood cancers. However, it has not been approved for solid tumours due to a failure of the cells to persist long-term. Through genetic engineering, this project aims to modify the CAR T cell’s metabolism to generate metabolically fitter cells that persist longer and enable eradication of previously untreatable cancers.
Revealing the remaining genetic cause of breast and ovarian cancer in multicase families. What we are missing matters
Associate Professor Heather Thorne
Of high-risk families with breast-ovarian cancer, 50 per cent have a clinically significant gene variant in BRCA1/2, the inherited cause of cancer. Unfortunately, current sequencing methods only allows a small portion of the gene to be assessed. This means 50 per cent of high-risk families, known as BRCAX, the exact genetic cause of cancer still needs to be determined. This project will use novel Long Read Sequencing to discover variants in BRCAX families to improve risk assessment and therapeutic interventions.
Defining immunotherapy response and resistance mechanisms in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
Dr Annette Lim
Australians have the highest rate of a skin cancer called CSCC which arise due to sun exposure and aging. Despite major breakthroughs with immunotherapy, researchers don't know why it works in only 50 per cent of people or how to select the best treatment for an individual. This project will study patient samples who received immunotherapy, using cutting edge methods to unlock new knowledge, understanding cancer genes and the immune system, to identify ways to select who will respond to immunotherapy upfront.
Organ competition: how do tumours grow at the expense of other tissues in cancer cachexia?
Associate Professor Louise Cheng
Cachexia is a metabolic disease where tumours cause muscle and fat to waste away. Researchers on this project established a fly model of tumour induced wasting, opening up new opportunities to better understand the genetic basis of cachexia-like wasting. They will look at how organs communicate with each other, and whether by cutting off the fuel that feeds the tumour we can improve cachexia and stop tumours from growing. The findings will allow us to find new avenues for the development of treatments for cachexia.
Identification of novel regulators in cancer-associated cachexia
Associate Professor Andy Cox
Cancer-associated cachexia is a debilitating wasting syndrome that is a hallmark of low-survival cancers. Cachexia is associated with poorer responses to treatment and decreased survival. Currently, very little is known about the causes of cachexia and there are no effective therapies to combat this syndrome. In this project, researchers will seek to use novel zebrafish models of cancer associated cachexia to identify cues that initiate cachexia and drive cancer progression.
Mechanisms underlying the pathology of spliceosomal mutations in myelodysplastic syndromes and cancer
Professor Vi Wickramasinghe
It has recently been discovered that there are a discrete set of mutations that are likely causal to many blood cancers. These mutations cause widespread changes to how genetic information is processed in a cell, but the precise changes and which are important to cancer are unknown. Researchers have developed a novel system to detect these important changes, and to uncover how they affect cellular behaviour. This project will use this system to help identify new therapies targeting these blood cancer mutations.