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Recipient of the 2024 NHMRC Fiona Stanley Synergy Grant Award, Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat is investigating how cancer evades the immune system and how immunotherapies and cancer vaccines can be enhanced to improve treatment outcomes. Professor Asselin-Labat PharmD, PhD, is a Division Head at WEHI, leading a team that studies the interactions between immune and tumour cells in lung cancer, and how external factors can trigger the disease and treatment response.

Associate Professor Louise Cheng, recipient of the 2024 NHMRC Marshall and Warren Ideas Grant Award, is a group leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne. Her lab utilises the fruit fly (Drosophila) to study how tumours grow at the expense of other tissues in cancer cachexia- a metabolic syndrome affecting up to 80% of people with advance cancer.

Recipient of the 2024 NHMRC Marshall and Warren Innovation Award, Associate Professor Garron Dodd, is globally acknowledged as a top authority in metabolic neuroscience. His research led out of the Metabolic Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Melbourne has been pivotal in advancing metabolic health both in Australia and internationally, aiming to create innovative therapies for obesity and type-2 diabetes.

Corneal transplantation is the most common form of transplantation surgery occurring in the world and, globally, it provides improved vision to many thousands of people each year. NHMRC-funded researchers at Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University have made major contributions to improving clinical and eye bank practice both in Australia and internationally, through their establishment of the Australian Corneal Graft Registry (ACGR), the largest registry of its type in the world. 

Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe, recipient of the 2025 NHMRC Science to Art Award, is bringing together the rigour of heath and medical research with aesthetically powerful art. With a focus on cutting edge spatial biology and genomic techniques, Associate Professor Kulasinghe is dedicated to unlocking the secrets of individual cell interactions, leading to personalised treatments for several diseases, including cancer.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, with an estimated 80 million people affected1 including more than 200,000 Australians.2 Over two decades, NHMRC-funded researchers at the Lions Eye Institute (LEI) and the University of Western Australia (UWA) developed a new approach that has revolutionised glaucoma treatment, leading to safer surgery and improved vision outcomes. With later support from an international industry team, this new glaucoma surgery is now in use worldwide.

The human central nervous system is extremely complex, consisting of about 86 billion neurons,1 and with each neuron capable of forming thousands of connections with other neurons. It is these connections that make the nervous system capable of processing information, but up until the mid-20th century some key aspects of their functions were unknown. NHMRC-funded researchers made critical breakthroughs in our understanding of how neurons communicate with each other, and in doing so provided a foundation for modern neuroscience and neurotransmitter-based medicine.

Commonly referred to as a ‘second brain’, the role of the gut extends beyond being a digestor of food and drink. In fact, research has demonstrated time and time again the profound partnership between the gut and the brain, and the range of actions elicited by the chemical factory that is our gut microbiome. The gut-brain-axis operates through several pathways and chemical signals that have an influence over our mood, stress levels and cognitive function. So, with the support of the 100 trillion microbes that live within the human digestive system, Australian researchers are discovering how we can improve mental health conditions through diet.

As nutritional and psychological sciences advance, the evidence grows that diet is not only vital for physical health but also plays a significant role in mental wellbeing. While the burgeoning field of Nutritional Psychiatry shows correlations between not only what we eat and how we feel and behave, there is still so much to explore.

Colorectal adenocarcinoma, also known as colorectal cancer (CRC) or bowel cancer, is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia. With one of the highest rates of CRC in the world, Australia was also the first country in the world to implement and sustain a national population-based organised CRC screening program using faecal immunochemical tests. NHMRC-funded researchers made key contributions to the program’s initial development and ongoing conduct.

Leukaemias are difficult-to-treat blood cancers, which are common among both young and older people. In Australia in 2023, around 20,000 people were diagnosed with a blood cancer and blood cancers accounted for an estimated 38% of all cancer cases among the 0–19 year-old age group. Over 5,000 Australians die each year from blood cancers.1 NHMRC-funded researchers at WEHI have made revolutionary breakthroughs in our understanding of leukaemia biology, leading to the development of a new type of anti-cancer drug, venetoclax, that has significantly improved treatment for leukaemia patients.

Professor Julie Bines from Murdoch Children's Research Institute is doing some inspiring work, developing the RV3-BB rotavirus vaccine. 'Funding for this research from the very early days has become very critical and NHMRC has provided much of that critical funding through the course of this project'. Listen to Professor Bines' story below.

Dr Clara Chow is Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Academic Director of the Westmead Applied Research Centre and Academic Co-Director of CPC Westmead. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant Leadership awardee and with this leads a research program focused on innovation for health service provision and clinical management of cardiovascular disease prevention. Professor Clara Chow shares her research on cardiovascular disease prevention.

NHMRC caught up with Professor Andrew Lloyd from The University of New South Wales who develops vaccines for Hepatitis C, which effects 750,000 Australians. Find out how his research is not only helping treat Hepatitis C but working on prevention strategies.

Professor Louisa Jorm is the Foundation Director of the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at UNSW Sydney.

Professor Joanne Reed from the Garvan Institute's research focuses on autoimmune diseases, particularly the origin and role of autoantibodies. 'It's really promising research and NHMRC has been able to fund this. This is something that's capable of having a big impact'. Watch her story in the video below.

Associate Professor Antony Cooper from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research is a cell and molecular biologist / geneticist with strong interests in elucidating how cellular dysfunction results in human diseases, with a specific interest in neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s Disease. His research on neurodegenerative diseases focuses on understanding the basis of Parkinson’s Disease. Watch his story in the video below.

Professor Hannan from the John Curtin School of Medical Research is an internationally recognised laboratory scientist, whose work on ribosome biogenesis has led to new treatment paradigms in cancer, centred on drugs that activate nucleolar stress. Professor Ross Hannan is a great detective of cancer research—finding and developing new cancer treatments for patients. Watch his story in the video below.

Professor Sandra Eades from Curtin University has dedicated her career to research in Aboriginal health improvements. Professor Eades works with National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to advise and develop strategic guidelines focused on closing the gap.