Million Dollar Grant for the Melbourne Branch’s Cancer Proteomics Program from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation
The Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) has awarded the Melbourne Branch AUD 1 million for the purchase of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry equipment for the Branch’s Cancer Proteomics Program.
The Cancer Proteomics Program aims to apply the Branch’s considerable expertise in proteomics to the identification of proteins and peptides as cancer biomarkers. The Cancer Proteomics Program is linked directly to the international LICR Colon Cancer Initiative (LCCI): proteomics data from the Program will be correlated with samples and clinical data from the LCCI’s bioinformatics and tissue banking network. The LICR Sao Paulo Branch, particularly Drs. Sandro De Souza and Anamaria Camargo, plus collaborators at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TX USA), will also be involved in validating the results from the biomarker project. The LCCI’s annotated tissue bank, the biomarker sets and the bio-informatics algorithms will be accessible to clinicians world-wide.
While the aim of the Branch Program will be, in the first instance, improving prognosis and treatment of colon cancer, the work will be extended to early detection and other cancer types in the future.
The Melbourne Branch’s Cancer Proteomics Program will be headed by Dr. Tony Burgess (Branch Director) and Dr. Peter Gibbs. Dr. Rob Moritz, Manager of the Joint Proteomics Services Facility (JPSF) — a service facility created by LICR and The Walter and Eliza Hall Medical Research Institute (WEHI) — will play an integral role in the management and running of the technologies.
Mr. Tom Dery, Chairman of the ACRF Board of Trustees (far left), Mr. Ed McDermott, President of LICR (second from left) and Dr. Tony Burgess, Director of the Melbourne Branch (far right) look on as The Honourable John Brumby, Minister for Innovation, State Government of Victoria, unveils a plaque commemorating the opening of the Branch’s Cancer Proteomics Program.