New cancer strategy wins Victoria Prize

New cancer strategy wins Victoria Prize

Illuminate newsletter header, Autumn 22
March 2022
Congratulations to Professor Anne Voss and Associate Professor Tim Thomas for being jointly awarded the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in Life Sciences.

Prof Anne Voss and A/Prof Tim Thomas
Associate Professor Tim Thomas (L) and Professor Anne Voss
receive the prestigious Victoria Prize for developing a new
chemical strategy to treat cancer.

The $50,000 prize honours the duo’s work that led to a new cancer treatment approach that doesn’t trigger the harmful side-effects caused by conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation.

Their work uncovered key functions of the MYST family of proteins, which includes oncogenes, and validated the proteins as novel targets for anti-cancer therapeutics.

They then worked with a collaborative team of 52 researchers from the Cancer Therapeutics CRC, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CSIRO and St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research to develop a new type of anti-cancer compound that ‘puts cancer cells into a permanent sleep’.

The collaboration with the Cancer Therapeutics CRC yielded compounds that are now licenced to Pfizer with clinical trials having commenced in late 2020.

Super Content: 
Three researchers in a corridor

In a world first, Institute scientists and collaborators have discovered a new type of anti-cancer drug that can put cancer cells into a permanent sleep, without the harmful side-effects caused by conventional cancer therapies.

Three researchers in a laboratory

WEHI scientists have revealed that a gene called PHF6 plays a powerful role in protecting against blood cancer. The study showed how a breakdown in the gene’s function could accelerate the development of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).