Our Impact Our research projects Grant recipients Grant Recipients Congratulations to our Grant Round 2022 recipients. You can find our current research projects here. Professor Maria Kavallaris Head of Translational Cancer Nanomedicine Theme - Executive Head, Research Engagement Group Leader, Tumour Biology and Targeting at the Children's Cancer Institute Professor Maria Kavallaris’ proposed project to study the benefits of using nanoparticles to treat neuroblastoma was one of two major 2023 research projects awarded $175,000 in funding by Neuroblastoma Australia. Neuroblastoma patients with recurrent and drug resistant disease have limited therapeutic options. Moreover, many of the therapies given to treat patients with recurrent and drug resistant disease are highly toxic and determined empirically, which means that children can be exposed to damaging and ineffective therapies. Indeed, long-term survivors have a high likelihood of experiencing life-long health issues. Professor Kavallaris will bring together leading experts in childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, nanomedicine and paediatric oncology to develop effective and less toxic therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma. This grant was partially funded through a generous donation made by the Davidson family who very sadly lost their son George in 2021 to neuroblastoma. His legacy continues as he helps other children affected by this devastating disease. The funding from Neuroblastoma Australia will help lead to knowledge gain on the development of new strategies for neuroblastoma treatment. Therapeutic targeting coupled with advanced tumour delivery and diagnostics will lay the foundations for future clinical trials. Professor Maria Kavallaris. More information Professor Maria Kavallaris 2020 NSW Woman of the Year The Cancer Council NSW Dr. Daniel Carter Senior Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney, Biomedical Engineering Dr. Daniel Carter’s genetic barcoding proposal was one of two major 2023 research projects awarded $175,000 in funding by Neuroblastoma Australia. A major problem hindering successful therapy in neuroblastoma is that cancer cells of a given tumour have differing genetic profiles, and therefore differing sensitivity to chemotherapy. Treatments fail in neuroblastoma because minor cancer cell populations are naturally drug resistant due to their unique genetic makeup, and these cells ultimately regrow as a highly drug-resistant ‘relapsed’ tumour. To identify key genetic features that allow resistance to chemotherapy, Dr. Carter will use novel genetic barcoding technology, that allows him and his team to track individual tumour cells when they are exposed to anti-cancer drugs in the lab. Our plan is to ultimately apply these findings as a novel single-cell diagnostic method that allows for better prediction of patient response to chemotherapy and optimised drug treatment approaches individualised for each patient. Dr. Daniel Carter More information Dr Daniel Carter Read more about our 2019 grant round winners: Associate Professor Tao Liu Associate Professor UNSW and Group Leader - Gene Dysregulation Group at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick. Associate Professor Tao Liu's project High-risk neuroblastoma cases with TERT oncogene rearrangement was one of two major research projects awarded $125,000 in funding by Neuroblastoma Australia for 2020. The funding from Neuroblastoma Australia will allow our team at Children’s Cancer Institute to identify the specific drivers of high-risk neuroblastoma with TERT oncogene rearrangement and demonstrate a novel therapy that specifically target these drivers. We hope that, if successful, the novel therapy can be taken into clinical trials, leading to better survival rates and better quality of life for children with this devastating childhood cancer. Associate Professor Tao Liu Neuroblastoma Australia and the Cancer Council NSW supported a previous project called The critical role of the long intergenic noncoding RNA MALAT1 in Neuroblastoma during which Dr Liu’s team uncovered the possibility of using MALAT1 as a new and effective target for neuroblastoma treatment. This means there is an opportunity to create new drugs that directly inhibit the activity of MALAT1 to stop neuroblastomas from spreading. Going forward, Dr Liu and his team will work on developing stable MALAT1-blocking compounds. If these blockers are successful in the lab, this could lay the foundation to start clinical trials testing this treatment with neuroblastoma patients. More information Associate Professor Tao Liu Introducing Associate Professor Tao Liu and his groundbreaking research Two research grants awarded to the Children's Cancer Institute Project updates from our 2020 research grant winners Article: Investigating a novel therapy for a problematic childhood cancer The Cancer Council NSW Dr Alla Dolnikov, PhD Principal Hospital Scientist, Blood and Marrow Transplant Laboratory, Sydney Children's Hospital. Associated Investigator, Children's Cancer Institute Australia. Senior Lecturer, School of Women's and Children's Health Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Australia Dr Alla Dolnikov's project - using MYC inhibitors to potentiate CART cell therapy for neuroblastoma, was one of two major research projects awarded $125,000 in funding by Neuroblastoma Australia for 2020. The project is researching a new way to make CAR T therapy more effective in treating neuroblastoma tumours by suppressing the MYC oncogene. Currently CAR T therapy which is seen as a promising way of using the body’s own immune system to tackle cancer cells has not worked on neuroblastoma tumours. But the award-winning research looks like there could be a way of changing this. More information Dr Alla Dolnikov UNSW Introducing Dr Alla Dolnikov and her incredible research Two research grants awarded to the Children's Cancer Institute Project updates from our 2020 research grant winners Dr. Jamie Fletcher Project Leader, The Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Dr Jamie Fletcher and Dr Toby Trahair, are currently leading two projects supported by Neuroblastoma Australia: Characterisation of high-risk neuroblastoma models to support translational research Optimisation of high-risk neuroblastoma model development More information Dr Jamie Fletcher High-risk neuroblastoma PDX paper published Urgent Appeal - Venetoclax Dr Jamie Fletcher Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Dr. Toby Trahair Conjoint Lecturer in the School of Women’s & Children’s Health, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW. He has appointments as a staff specialist in paediatric haematology and oncology at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital and a Clinical Research Fellow at the Children’s Cancer Institute. Dr Toby Trahair and Dr Jamie Fletcher are currently leading two projects supported by Neuroblastoma Australia: Characterisation of high-risk neuroblastoma models to support translational research Optimisation of high-risk neuroblastoma model development More information Dr Toby Trahair Video of Dr Toby Trahair Article: Dr Toby Trahair - childhood cancer research fundraiser with Tour de Cure Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy Research officer at Children's cancer Institute Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy conducted research to find a novel therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma. The study focused on therapeutic targeting of ALYREF-mediated MYCN turnover in high risk neuroblastoma. The goal of the study is to develop a therapeutic strategy that target the crosstalk between chromosome 17 and MYCN in neuroblastoma. This project will now be led by Dr. Kevin Wang as Dr. Nagy is moving to the United States. Dr. Kevin Wang obtained his PhD from Lens Research Laboratory at the University of Sydney in 2008 and joined the Children’s Cancer Institute in 2021. More Information Therapeutic targeting of ALYREF-mediated MYCN turnover in high risk neuroblastoma Other Recipients: Dr. David Ziegler Senior researcher at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick and Head of Clinical trials at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital (Randwick). Dr Ziegler will be running the CBL137 single agent clinical trials for children at leading children’s cancer centres in the United States and at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, conducted through the US-based Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the largest children’s cancer study group in the world. This is the first time that a COG trial of this sort would be made available to Australian children. More information Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital Professor Glenn Marshall Senior Oncologist, Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick Head of Translational Research and Molecular Carcinogenesis Program, Children’s Cancer Institute Neuroblastoma Australia has funding the pre-clinical research for CBL137 in combination with other targeted therapies at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick through groups led by Professors Michelle Haber, Murray Norris and Glenn Marshall. More information Professor Glenn Marshall Experimental drug giving hope to kids with cancer (SBS) A way to target the Achilles heel of neuroblastoma (CCIA) Neuroblastoma our battle (CCIA) Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Professor Rod Hicks Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Centre for Cancer Imaging at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Hicks is currently leading a project which aims to generate a more faithful model of NMYC driven neuroblastoma for therapeutic testing (by transfecting tumour cells arising from MYCN mice with a key receptor) to evaluate the efficacy of radionuclide therapy alone and in combination with other therapies. More information Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Professor Rod Hicks Dr Christina Signorelli Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Behavioural Sciences Unit, School of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW Sydney and the Sydney Children’s Hospital. Dr Signorelli received a grant from Neuroblastoma Australia in 2019 for her project Improving the long-term health of Australian childhood cancer survivors. This study will be the first Australian database recording long term effects of childhood cancer treatments on survivors. Dr Signorelli has been a researcher at the Behavioural Sciences Unit, Kids Cancer Centre, for over five years and has been involved in a large body of work examining Australian childhood cancer survivors’ physical and mental health. She has been developing a model of care to reduce survivors’ risk of chronic health problems and the natural next step was to develop a national childhood cancer database, to investigate the long-term health risks associated with cancer and its treatments. ‘Ultimately, the wealth of information collected in this database will be used to help us create resources and interventions to manage the impact of treatment-related conditions in survivors, and inform future treatment protocols to prevent some of these conditions altogether.’ Dr Christina Signorelli In addition to Dr Christina Signorelli, this study will also be led by Prof Claire Wakefield and Prof Richard Cohn at the Kids Cancer Centre, located within Sydney Children’s Hospital and UNSW Sydney. More information Spotlight on Dr Christina Signorelli Dr Christina Signorelli UNSW Sydney Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital Professor Michelle Haber Executive Director, The Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Neuroblastoma Australia has funding the pre-clinical research for CBL137 in combination with other targeted therapies at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick through groups led by Professors Michelle Haber, Murray Norris and Glenn Marshall. More information Professor Michelle Haber Professor Michelle Haber Experimental drug giving hope to kids with cancer (SBS) A way to target the Achilles heel of neuroblastoma (CCIA) Neuroblastoma our battle (CCIA) Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick Professor Murray Norris Deputy Director, The Children’s Cancer Institute Neuroblastoma Australia has funding the pre-clinical research for CBL137 in combination with other targeted therapies at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick through groups led by Professors Michelle Haber, Murray Norris and Glenn Marshall. More information Professor Murray Norris Experimental drug giving hope to kids with cancer (SBS) A way to target the Achilles heel of neuroblastoma (CCIA) Neuroblastoma our battle (CCIA) Children’s Cancer Institute, Randwick