Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences News
Cancer research funding for the future
31 January 2007
The discovery of new drugs for the treatment of cancer has received a major boost with a new project funded by the Federal Government and industry groups. The CRC for Cancer Therapeutics will receive almost $38 million from the Commonwealth CRC scheme to enable a $148 million drug discovery program.
The CRC will link several of Australia’s leading cancer research organisations including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute and St Vincent’s Research Institute, with internationally recognised pharmaceutical scientists and medicinal chemists from Monash University’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Griffith University, CSIRO and WEHI.
Industrial partners include Bionomics and successful British cancer technology company CRT which has a proven track record in taking anti-cancer drugs to market.
“The CRC for Cancer Therapeutics will make further enhance Australia’s position as a significant international player in anti-cancer drug discovery and it will provide a means to capitalise on the tremendous advances made in understanding the biology of cancer by Australian and international scientists,” faculty Dean Professor Bill Charman said.
“The CRC brings together pharmaceutical scientists and medicinal chemists from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University with the leading cancer research organisations in Australia, and these groups will be linked with UK cancer drug discovery and development through the technology transfer company CRT.”
Professor Dick Fox, Chairman-elect of CRC-CT and a medical oncologist said: “With cancer killing more Australians than any other single cause there is an urgent need for more effective therapies. Australia invests over $150 million each year in cancer research and the creation of CRC-CT provides a catalyst for translation into new therapies through bringing together immense knowledge, expertise, and resources to realise the therapeutic potential in the outstanding research being carried out at Australian research institutes.”
The CRC for Cancer Therapeutics will involve several academic staff and will provide continuing funding for up to 10 researchers who will be based at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Parkville. Monash scientists, including Professors Bill Charman, Colin Pouton, Susan Charman, Peter Scammells and their colleagues, will be core members of the CRC drug design teams.
There will also be opportunities for Monash University’s biological scientists from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and the Monash Institute of Medical Research to engage with the CRC to take their promising strategies for cancer therapy closer to the clinic.
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