WEHI researchers win Premier's Award and two Commendations

Friday, June 9th 2006

Dr Mark Shackleton, a key member of the research team that discovered stem cells in the breast, has won the 2006 Premier’s Award for Medical Research.

Dr Shackleton received the prestigious award from the Premier at a ceremony at Government House today.

He was presented with $16,000 and a trophy from the Victorian Government. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) will receive $30,000 from the Jack and Robert Smorgon Families Award.

The Premier, Mr Steve Bracks, said, "This discovery of stem cells in the breast has been hailed by cancer experts around the world as one of the most significant in the fight against breast cancer."

With breast cancer being the most common cancer to affect women in Australia, Dr Shackleton’s research, together with research by other cancer researchers from WEHI and the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium, is providing important clues about how breast cancer develops.

"Amazingly, it most likely begins as a single cell - in some cases from a rogue stem cell. That cell then divides, grows and can spread to other parts of the body, with devastating consequences. It seems that understanding breast stem cells may be a key to understanding what goes wrong in breast cancer cells.

This discovery will be particularly significant for those women whose cancer apparently disappears after treatment, only to return again later," said Mr Bracks.

The findings have implications for growing human breast tissue and could lead to improved breast feeding for those mothers with difficulties and women growing their own cells for a breast reconstruction.

The Premier also presented three $8,000 Commendation awards at the ceremony. These were given to:

• Dr Nicholas Huntington, from WEHI, for his work into why the immune system can mistakenly attack the body. His work has far reaching implications for people with arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Arthritis affects about 3.4 million Australians.

• Dr Shalin Naik. from WEHI, whose landmark discovery of how the body grows dendritic cells - white blood cells that detect and help fight infections - has implications for the battle against diseases such as AIDS and cancer.

• Dr Ken Pang, from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Heidelberg, whose research into the role of "junk DNA" reveals that it may in fact be essential in helping us understand how the human genome works, and promises to significantly influence the future practice of medicine.

This is the twelfth year of the Awards, presented to gifted and committed early career Victorian medical researchers

The Awards, made in conjunction with the Australian Society for Medical Research, recognise the exceptional achievements of these postgraduate scholars.

Mr Bracks said it was the calibre of Victoria’s young scientists and their research that was enabling Victoria to remain on target to become one of the world’s top five biotechnology locations by 2010.

Professor Nick Nicola, the Acting Director of WEHI, said, "To be the home institute of the winner of the Premier’s Prize is a great honour. To host two of the three Commendation winners as well is quite staggering. Naturally, we are absolutely delighted that three of our early career researchers have been recognised for their innovative contributions to biomedical progress and I congratulate them on behalf of the whole WEHI community. I would also like to congratulate the Victorian state government for demonstrating such a deep commitment to biomedical science in so many significant ways - the Premier’s Award included. Our special thanks also to the trustees of the Jack and Robert Smorgon Families Award, whose gift to WEHI will enhance our capabilities in the search for new therapies to relieve human suffering."

Further information:

Mr. Brad Allan

WEHI Communications Manager
Phone: (03) 9345 2345
Mobile: 0403 036 116
Email: allan@wehi.edu.au