| Project title | Brain Cancer Discovery Collaborative |
|---|---|
Grant Amount | $3.8 million |
Institution | Monash University |
Investigator Team | Principal investigators Prof. Terry Johns, A/Prof. Kerrie McDonald, Prof. Andrew Boyd, Dr. Nick Gottardo, A/Prof. Geraldine O’Neill and A/Prof. Stephen Rose |
Grant Type | Collaborative |
Years | 2013 – 2016 |
The Brain Cancer Discovery Collaborative (BCDC) is a collaborative network of research organisations including Australia’s leading brain cancer researchers devoted to the translation of therapeutic discoveries into the clinic for evaluation in brain cancer patients.
The BCDC is a collaboration between six leading laboratories around Australia. These are;
- Prof. Terry Johns, MIMR-PHI Institute of Medical Research at Monash University, VIC
- A/Prof. Kerrie McDonald, Cure Brain Cancer Neuro-oncology Group at Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW, NSW
- Prof. Andrew Boyd, Brain Cancer Research Unit at QIMR-Berghofer Medical Research Institute, QLD
- Dr. Nick Gottardo, The Telethon Kids Institute, WA
- A/Prof. Geraldine O’Neill, The Kids Research Institute at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW
- A/Prof. Stephen Rose, The Australian e-Health Research Centre (AeHRC), CSIRO, QLD
The aim of the BCDC is to determine the pre-clinical efficacy of new and existing drugs in adult and paediatric brain cancer. Lead drug candidates will be rapidly translated into clinical trials through the BCDC’s clinical partners, which include the Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology (COGNO).
Through an active mentoring program, the BCDC also aims to attract new scientific and clinical researchers to the brain cancer field.
The specific goals of this funding include supporting key infrastructure required for translation and pre-clinical studies in adult and paediatric brain cancer and salary and consumable support in the six BCDC Member laboratories.
“This is an example of how partnerships can break down barriers to bring the best researchers and opportunities together to enable greater breakthroughs in treatments and clinical care. The work this team is doing encompasses both innovation and world renowned expertise to hopefully change the outcome for those suffering at the hands of this disease.”
Prof. Margaret Gardner AO, Monash University President and Vice Chancellor
Progress
The brain cancer research community is relatively small, hence it is an ongoing priority for the members of the BCDC to actively grow the number of researchers in the field. A number of the labs within the BCDC have used the financial support from CBCF to nurture early career researchers who have a genuine interest in brain cancer research. It is hoped that these researchers will stay in the area and eventually commence their own research programs, increasing Australia’s capacity to conduct brain cancer research.
We are pleased to report that proactive mentoring through BCDC has started to produce tangible impacts, as Dr. Bryan Day, who was working under the direction of Professor Andrew Boyd, has recently become an independent lab head at QIMR and has dedicated himself to brain cancer research.
The primary goal of the BCDC is to drive research discoveries into the clinic in order to extend the lives of brain cancer patients. As detailed below we are achieving this aim in a number of ways.
Research conducted within the BCDC has already helped facilitate three clinical trials, an outcome only achieved through the support of CBCF.
1) Brain cancer patients are eligible for the ongoing Phase I PENAO trial. The pre-clinical work for this was conducted by Associate Professor Kerrie McDonald (Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW).
2) CBCF has agreed to fund a Phase 1 and biodistribution study of KB004 (an anti-EphA3 antibody) in brain cancer patients. The pre-clinical work for this was conducted in the laboratory of Professor Andrew Boyd (Brain Cancer Research Unit at QIMR-Berghofer Medical Research Institute).
3) The VERTU clinical trial seeks to determine if the drug veliparib can enhance the efficacy of the current standard of care for brain cancer. This trial is also based on pre-clinical work conducted by A/Prof. Kerrie McDonald
One of the primary goals of the BCDC is to establish key resources in different laboratories, so that collectively we can produce high quality publications that provide researchers worldwide with new insights into brain cancer. Since 2013 there have been ten publications that have included at least two members of the BCDC as authors (i.e. researchers from at least two labs); representing the increasingly collegial and considered approach that the members of the BCDC are taking to brain cancer research.