Qld scientist’s breakthrough could revolutionise brain cancer treatment
Revolutionary research revealing how brain cancer cells “sleep” to survive treatment has earned a Queensland scientist Australia's top stem cell prize.
QIMR Berghofer researcher Lachlan Harris has been awarded the prestigious National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia’s 2025 Metcalf Prize.
The Queensland scientist was awarded the $60,000 prize following his breakthrough research into understanding how healthy brain stem cells fall asleep and wake up.
He hopes to use the findings to target brain cancer cells and wake them up at the right time to sensitise them to treatment.
Tumour cells were known to take over the resting state to dodge therapies like chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Brain tumours, specifically aggressive forms of brain cancer, were typically harder to treat because some cancer cells could move into a dormant state, becoming invisible to standard treatments that target active cancer cells.
When in a dormant state, cancer cells can survive initial therapy, but can then reactivate and drive tumour growth.
Dr Harris has previously told The Courier-Mail that understanding how stem cells move through the deep and shallow sleep stages would be transformational for brain health and cancer therapies.
“It doesn’t just advance our understanding of brain biology, it provides a road map for developing entirely new approaches to treating brain cancer or other neurological disease,” Dr Harris said.
“If our ideas are right, it could lead to a whole new way of treating brain cancer, but that’s at least ten years away.”
Dr Maria Di Biase from the University of Melbourne also received the prize.
Both will be awarded their prizes on Monday at the Australasian Society of Stem Cell Research Annual Scientific Meeting on the Gold Coast.
The Metcalf Prizes are named after the late Professor Donald Metcalf AC, who, over a 50-year career, helped transform cancer treatment and transplantation medicine, paving the way for potential stem cell therapy in the treatment of many other conditions.
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Originally published as Qld scientist’s breakthrough could revolutionise brain cancer treatment
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