At the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF), we love to see results and that’s why we’re investing more than ever in world-class equipment and infrastructure for research into cancer.
Since 1987 we’ve provided 41 grants totalling almost $71 million to Australian cancer research institutes ($48 million of which has been awarded in the last six years). We profile some of the latest breakthroughs:
1) In a landmark discovery, scientists at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute have discovered the links between breast cancer risk and exposure to female hormones. This breakthrough research project – partially funded by a $5million ACRF grant – found that breast stem cells, despite lacking receptors for the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone, are still extra sensitive to sustained exposure to these hormones.
2) ACRF funding means researchers at the Garvan Institute are now closer to ‘switching off’ the gene identified as causing prostate cancer, following a world-first detailed description of gene expression in prostate cancer cells. ACRF has now awarded two research grants to the Garvan, the latest of $5million in honour of Lady (Sonia) McMahon.
3) Researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute’s ACRF Brain Tumour Research Centre are saving patients’ lives by safely taking primary tissue samples directly from patients and separating tumour cells from contaminated normal tissue, blood cells and cellular debris – made possible with numerous scientific instruments funded by ACRF.
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