The researchers finding the best ways to treat childhood cancers
Two research teams investigating what treatments work best for deadly childhood cancers are set to share in $2.1m from the Victorian government.
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Australia is a world leader in discovering new and better ways to treat childhood cancers, but sadly three children still die every week from the heartbreaking disease.
Now two research teams who are among the best in the world investigating what treatments work best for these deadly childhood cancers are set to share in $2.1m from the Victorian Government to be announced today.
The Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs Danny Pearson said the funding comes under the Children’s Cancer CoLab’s Next-Generation Therapies Program.
This is a collaboration of researchers and clinicians from Victorian children’s hospitals, research institutes and universities launched last year with $35 million from the Victorian Government and $10 million from the Children’s Cancer Foundation.
The goal is to develop new treatments for children’s cancers that are hardest to treat.
The recipients of today’s grants are from Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research.
Dr Iman Azimi is a senior lecturer and a research head in the pharmacology department of Monash University. He will receive $460,000, funding he described as a game-changer.
“It allows us to build a much more realistic model of childhood brain cancer, specifically Group 3 medulloblastoma, an aggressive subtype with the poorest survival rates and one of the hardest to treat with current therapies,” Dr Azimi said.
“Until now, researchers have mostly relied on 2D cell cultures or mouse models, which don’t accurately reflect how these tumours behave in kids.
“With this support, we’re developing a stem cell – derived organoid model of the cerebellum that can actually mimic the environment of the human brain. That gives us a much better tool to discover and test new treatments.”
Dr Azimi said the CoLab had seen the potential of the team’s work to significantly improve survival rates for children with brain cancer while reducing the long-term side effects.
He said without this funding the work simply wouldn’t happen.
“We’re building something from the ground up that hasn’t been done in Australia before, and the technology is expensive and labour-intensive,” Dr Azimi said.
Professor Ron Firestein heads the Hudson Institute team that has developed the world-first Childhood Cancer Model Atlas (CCMA).
His team will receive $1.64 million to add an additional 50 pediatric cancer cell lines to the CCMA and expand its use of AI.
“Our program bridges the critical gap between discovery and real-world application by enabling rapid validation of the most promising therapies for children with the worst outcomes,” Professor Firestein said.
“Since 2023, we’ve expanded the CCMA to over 500 unique pediatric tumour models, making it the largest resource of its kind in the world.
“We’ve also integrated new AI-powered predictive analytics and data visualisation tools on our portal. It’s been accessed by thousands of researchers, clinicians and patient families in over 40 countries.”
Professor Firestein said the funding allowed the team to progress new therapies and continue key international collaborations, “that bring us closer to childhood cancer therapies in the clinic”.
He said through programs like CCMA at the Hudson Institute and the ZERO childhood cancer program in Sydney, Australia was at the global forefront of pediatric cancer discovery and translation.
“We’re definitely getting closer (to a cure). But the reality is that there won’t be a single cure for childhood cancer,” Professor Firestein said. “What we’re building is the infrastructure to match the right treatment to the right child at the right time. With the tools we now have, we’re finally in a position to outsmart the complexity of these cancers.”
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Originally published as The researchers finding the best ways to treat childhood cancers
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