Genomics Health Futures Mission
Professor Anne Cust, Deputy Director of the Daffodil Centre, was awarded $3 million to deliver improved practice and policy-relevant genomic risk prediction and increase the effectiveness of cancer screening and early detection services for the four most common cancers in Australia –breast, prostate, melanoma and colorectal cancers. Working directly with consumers, health professionals and policy stakeholders, the team aim to reduce the cancer burden and help Australians live longer and healthier lives.
Childhood Cancer Research
Associate Professor Hilda Pickett was awarded $1.4 million for her project Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT): Target discovery to treatment. Osteosarcoma is the most common type of primary bone malignancy, with the highest incidence in adolescence. Survival has shown little improvement over the last three decades. The majority of osteosarcomas activate the ALT pathway. The team have discovered a weakness of
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Researchers awarded $22 million for medical research The University of Sydney has received funding for 14 projects from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to improve health outcomes for Australians.
The Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Greg Hunt, has announced $180 million in funding for 105 medical research projects, to improve health outcomes for Australians.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Duncan Ivison welcomed the funding announcement which awarded $22.3 million to the University of Sydney for 14 projects.
“The funding of these 14 projects will support the important work our researchers do in improving the lives of Australians – from screening and early detection for common cancers to evaluating novel drugs for stroke patients.”
Biologists unravel pathway for cancer cells to become immortal
By: Richard C. Lewis | 2021.03.03 | 11:07 am
Cancer cells have been described as immortal because, unlike normal cells, they don’t age and die, but instead can continue to multiply without end.
In most cases, cancer cells become immortal by invoking a genetic mutation that can trigger the production of an enzyme, known as telomerase, which prevents telomeres from shortening. Telomeres are important because they prevent DNA-containing chromosomes from damage or fusing with nearby chromosomes. The longer the telomere, the better protected the chromosome and the DNA within it.
But there is another, less understood way how cancer cells achieve immortality. In a new study, University of Iowa biologist Anna Malkova explored Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT), a second pathway that cancer cells employ to maintain telomeres. Malkova and Josep Comeron, professor of biology at Iowa, analyzed baker’s ye