Research Institute: Children’s Medical Research Institute and University of Newcastle
Amount granted: $3.1 million
Year granted: 2009
The ACRF grant in 2009 allowed for building laboratories for the world’s first Chemical Proteomics Centre for Kinomics (CFK).
At the time, Kinomics was a new discipline, not yet available in Australia. It comprises a very simple, yet rapid, large-scale, high-throughput screening to study the entire “kinome” – that is, all of the protein kinases which are expressed in a cell at a given point in time. Kinomics is a merger between genomics and proteomics.
Kinases are one of the most important classes of protein in cells. They play a role in cellular signalling, regulating everything from cell growth to inflammation. But, more importantly, when their function goes awry, kinases have been implicated in certain human cancers. Because of this role in cancer, kinases have become a priority for new drug targets.
Kinomics is able to rapidly, accurately and systematically explore and classify therapeutically relevant protein kinase targets for drug discovery.
The new laboratories were an expansion of medicinal chemical and mass spectrometry capabilities at CMRI.
Chief investigators: Prof Phil Robinson, Assoc Prof Adam McCluskey, Prof Roger Reddel
What your donations have achieved
Cervical cancer vaccine
We gave initial seed funding to Professor Ian Frazer’s research into the cervical cancer (HPV). Over 150 million doses of vaccine have been delivered worldwide to date.
The pill that melts away cancer
Our long term support of cancer research at WEHI has led to a treatment that melts away certain advanced forms of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. It has been approved for clinical use in the US, European Union and Australia and is being trialed for other types of cancer.
Personalised cancer diagnosis
In 2015, we awarded $10 million seed funding to an ambitious cancer proteome project that aims to provide each cancer patient a personalised treatment plan within 36 hours. This will improve treatment outcomes and help avoid unnecessary treatments.
Zero childhood cancer
We are one of the founding partners of the initiative that will tackle the most serious cases of infant, childhood and adolescent cancer in Australia. It is a key step towards the program vision of one day helping to cure 100% of children with cancer.
