The Mark Hughes Foundation (MHF) is putting significant funds towards several research projects fighting for a cure to brain cancer.
In the organisation’s latest Innovation Grant rounds, a total of $720,000 was allocated to six initiatives from across the country, with researchers encouraged to “think big”.
Programs will also have the opportunity for an extra $120,000 award to fund blue-sky research into brain cancer.
MHF Centre director and practicing radiation oncologist Professor Mike Fay said more than 45 people submitted applications for a diverse array of projects.
“It’s exciting that there are now so many researchers with great ideas in the brain cancer space,” he stated.
“There was a huge amount of interesting and innovative ideas from across the country.
“Narrowing the selection down to the top six was a real challenge, but we are proud to be funding the best of an absolutely top-tier range of applications.”
The projects are set to make a nationwide impact for patients, with a large variety of approaches including a Trojan horse method to deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to hard-to-treat brain tumours, to repurposing existing drugs to combat treatment resistance, to the establishment of the first site in a national brain cancer care trial.
For more than 10 years, MHF has been committed to funding vital medical research into the disease, said to be the leading cause of death in Australians under 40 and children under 10.
Co-founder Kirralee Hughes admitted the level of interest this round demonstrated a real difference was being made by the organisation to fund essential research.
“It’s exciting that the MHF Centre received so many applications for these Innovation Grants, which means there is momentum being created and researchers want to work in this space, which for years we didn’t have,” she said.
“This movement in the brain cancer space is exciting for us all, especially brain cancer patients and their families, as it gives us real hope that better outcomes are just around the corner.”
The six successful grants awarded in this round are:
- Dr Neda Haghighi from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will lead a multi-centre study exploring if using three smaller pre-surgery doses of radiotherapy (rather than one) can lead to better outcomes and less impact on quality of life in secondary brain cancer.
- Dr Paulo Martins, from the Tumour Immunology Laboratory at Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) Berghofer, is set to lead a groundbreaking project investigating the use of CAR T cell therapy for glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer. He has demonstrated that CAR T cells can be generated from third-party donors and effectively target glioblastoma cells. This work is a critical step toward a future clinical trial, bringing hope for new treatment options for patients facing this devastating disease.
- Dr Ernest Moles, from the Children’s Cancer Institute NSW, will look at a new approach to using new technology to selectively treat Diffuse Midline Glioma with improved efficacy and low-toxicity – two major barriers to fighting this deadly childhood brain cancer.
- Dr Duong Nhu, and a collaborative team from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) and Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Victoria, will initiate a Trojan-horse approach for anti-cancer drugs to help them cross the blood-brain barrier to kill high-grade brain tumours.
- Dr Laveniya Satgunaseelan, from Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and Royal Prince Alfred (RPA), will lead a project looking at new ultra-fast brain tumour diagnostics aiming to reduce anxious wait times for patients and putting treating doctors on the front foot by offering a diagnosis immediately after surgery.
- Associate Professor Paul Tooney from the University of Newcastle and HMRI Drug Repurposing and Medicines Research Program, will re-purpose existing medicines to stop the DNA repair that underlies treatment resistance and destroy cancer cells that remain after surgery.
Each of these innovative projects align with the key scientific research streams at the MHF Centre driving collaboration with research teams across the nation.
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