Skip to:
-

Snow Centre for Immune Health

A new era for global immunology research

“We empower bold transformative research across Australia by backing the best and brightest researchers – and resourcing them with the tools they need to be world-class.”
Tom Snow
Chair, Snow Medical

Revolutionising immune health

The Snow Medical Research Foundation (Snow Medical) is establishing one of the world’s leading immunology research centres at WEHI.

The Centre, co-led by WEHI and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, will bring together leading Australian and international researchers to transform how we research and treat the immune system. Through collaboration, it will accelerate the pace of medical discovery at a scale not seen anywhere else in the world.

The Centre is funded by an initial commitment of $100 million over 10 years – one of the largest and longest running philanthropic partnerships in Australian history.

A world first for immune health

The Snow Centre for Immune Health has a bold and ambitious global mission to improve the lives of people with immune diseases, using a novel approach to immune health.

For the first time globally, at a large scale, the Centre will look at immune health and the immune system from a whole-of-system, whole-of-person perspective.

The research program will decipher what factors give us good or poor immune health, transforming and accelerating personalised diagnosis and treatment for people suffering from immune diseases and dysfunction.

Life-changing for millions of people

Hear how the Snow Centre for Immune Health will deliver life-changing impacts for millions of people who live with debilitating immune diseases like asthma, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Centre will empower research leaders including WEHI laboratory head Dr Vanessa Bryant and her team to discover new treatments, and to predict, diagnose and even prevent immune disorders.

“The integrated design of the Snow Centre for Immune Health will ensure the best treatments are immediately available to patients in the clinic.”
Professor Jo Douglass
Director of Research, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Snow Centre for Immune Health co-leader

A leap towards global excellence

As well as backing our brightest scientists, Snow Medical’s incredible generosity and vision will also fund Snow Research Clinics which will allow patients to join immune health trials, while also treating those most at need with the latest treatments.

The clinics will start with founding partner the Royal Melbourne Hospital and roll out progressively across Victoria. This will leapfrog Victoria forward to be one of the best places globally to treat immune diseases.

Four young scientists are photographed in a laboratory looking at a sample

Accelerating discovery through collaboration

Immune conditions like asthma, allergies and arthritis affect millions of people. Treatments are limited, and for some diseases, there are none. Most medical research globally to-date has focused on a disease by disease, project by project approach, and has led to few new treatments.

The combination of people-facing Snow Research Clinics and WEHI’s co-leadership with the Royal Melbourne Hospital means in the future discoveries can be rapidly taken out of the lab to benefit patients.

Doing science in a new way

Learn why WEHI division head, Professor Daniel Gray, believes the Centre’s single focus will help solve some of the biggest challenges in immunology.

We’re backing our best scientists, and the next generation of exceptional researchers, from Australia and around the world. 

Snow Medical’s substantial, long-term support will allow researchers to pursue an ambitious and far-sighted research program, beyond the short-term funding largely available in Australia. It helps move away from incremental science to solving the grand challenges of immunology.

The long-term support from Snow Medical means science can be done in a new way, paving the way for positive and sustainable community impact.

Collaborators

Led by Professor Phil Hodgkin (Joint Head of the Immunology Division, WEHI) and Professor Jo Douglass (Director of Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital), the Centre’s initial collaborators include researchers from leading Australian and international institutions including:

University of Cambridge (UK)

The Francis Crick Institute (UK)

Northeastern University (US)

Rockefeller University (US)

Garvan Institute (Aus)

University of Adelaide (Aus)

Find out more

Read our fact sheet to learn more about the Snow Centre for Immune Health.

We invite you to have a conversation with us about how together we can maximise our impact and support the transformational Snow Centre for Immune Health.

Contact

Deborah Carr
Head of Philanthropy
M: 0400 724 853
E: carr.d@wehi.edu.au

© WEHI 2023
Close