The work that led to the development of a new anti-cancer drug has tonight been awarded the 2016 Johnson & Johnson Eureka Prize for Innovation in Medical Research.

Professor David Huang, Dr Peter Czabotar, Associate Professor Guillaume Lessene and Professor Andrew Roberts, who were part of the team whose research led to the new class of drugs, called BH3-mimetics, received their award tonight at the annual Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

The judges commented: “The work undertaken by Professor David Huang and his team has transformed a basic Australian research discovery into a new cancer therapy approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Central to the achievement is the development of a novel class of targeted anti-cancer drug, the BH3 mimetic compounds.”

Two other Institute teams were 2016 Eureka Prize finalists: 

• Dr Justin Boddey, Dr Brad Sleebs and Professor Alan Cowman in the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research category for their research determining how malaria parasites cause disease; and 

• Professor Gabrielle Belz, Dr Nicholas Huntington, Dr Sandra Nicholson and collaborators for their work identifying key regulators necessary to target innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) for immunotherapy and protection against infections.

Further information

Ebru Yaman
Media and Publications Manager
Ph: +61 3 9345 2928
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Email: yaman.e@wehi.edu.au