- About
- Strategic Plan
- Structure
- Governance
- Scientific divisions
- ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells
- ACRF Chemical Biology
- Advanced Technology and Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Blood Cells and Blood Cancer
- Clinical Translation
- Epigenetics and Development
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence
- Inflammation
- Personalised Oncology
- Population Health and Immunity
- Structural Biology
- Ubiquitin Signalling
- Laboratory operations
- Funding
- Annual reports
- Human research ethics
- Scientific integrity
- Institute life
- Career opportunities
- Business Development
- Partnering opportunities
- A complete cure for HBV
- A stable efficacious Toxoplasma vaccine
- Activating SMCHD1 to treat FSHD
- Improving vision outcomes in retinal detachment
- Intercepting inflammation with RIPK2 inhibitors
- Novel inhibitors for the treatment of lupus
- Novel malaria vaccine
- Precision epigenetics silencing SMCHD1 to treat Prader Willi Syndrome
- Rethinking CD52 a therapy for autoimmune disease
- Targeting minor class splicing
- Royalties distribution
- Start-up companies
- Partnering opportunities
- Collaborators
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- People
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Associate Profesor Ian Majewski
- Associate Professor Aaron Jex
- Associate Professor Alyssa Barry
- Associate Professor Andrew Webb
- Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
- Associate Professor Daniel Gray
- Associate Professor Diana Hansen
- Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
- Associate Professor Emma Josefsson
- Associate Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Murphy
- Associate Professor James Vince
- Associate Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Associate Professor Jeanne Tie
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Kate Sutherland
- Associate Professor Leanne Robinson
- Associate Professor Marco Herold Marco Herold
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Associate Professor Melissa Davis
- Associate Professor Misty Jenkins
- Associate Professor Nawaf Yassi
- Associate Professor Oliver Sieber
- Associate Professor Peter Czabotar
- Associate Professor Rachel Wong
- Associate Professor Rhys Allan
- Associate Professor Rosie Watson
- Associate Professor Ruth Kluck
- Associate Professor Sandra Nicholson
- Associate Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Associate Professor Seth Masters
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Associate Professor Wei Shi
- Catherine Parker
- Chela Niall
- Deborah Carr
- Dr Alisa Glukhova
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Gemma Kelly
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr Joanna Groom
- Dr John Wentworth
- Dr Kelly Rogers
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Melissa Call
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Shalin Naik
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Simon Chatfield
- Dr Stephen Wilcox
- Dr Tracy Putoczki
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Joh Kirby
- Kaye Wycherley
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Joel Chibert
- Mr Simon Monard
- Mr Steve Droste
- Ms Carolyn MacDonald
- Professor Alan Cowman
- Professor Andreas Strasser
- Professor Andrew Lew
- Professor Andrew Roberts
- Professor Anne Voss
- Professor Clare Scott
- Professor David Huang
- Professor David Komander
- Professor David Vaux
- Professor Doug Hilton
- Professor Gabrielle Belz
- Professor Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marc Pellegrini
- Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Burgess
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- A new regulator of stemness to create dendritic cell factories for immunotherapy
- Advanced methods for genomic rearrangement detection
- Control of cytokine signaling by SOCS1
- Defining the protein modifications associated with respiratory disease
- Delineating the pathways driving cancer development and therapy resistance
- Developing a new drug that targets plasmacytoid dendritic cells for the treatment of lupus
- Development and mechanism of action of novel antimalarials
- Development of a novel particle-based malaria vaccine
- Discovering novel therapies for major human pathogens
- Dissecting host cell invasion by the diarrhoeal pathogen Cryptosporidium
- Epigenetic biomarkers of tuberculosis infection
- Essential role of glycobiology in malaria parasites
- Evolution of haematopoiesis in vertebrates
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis
- Identifying novel treatment options for ovarian carcinosarcoma
- Interaction with Toxoplasma parasites and the brain
- Interactions between tumour cells and their microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer
- Investigating the role of mutant p53 in cancer
- Microbiome strain-level analysis using long read sequencing
- Minimising rheumatic adverse events of checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy
- Modelling spatial and demographic heterogeneity of malaria transmission risk
- Naturally acquired immune response to malaria parasites
- Predicting the effect of non-coding structural variants in cancer
- Structural basis of catenin-independent Wnt signalling
- Structure and biology of proteins essential for Toxoplasma parasite invasion
- T lymphocytes: how memories are made
- TICKER: A cell history recorder for longitudinal patient monitoring
- Targeting host pathways to develop new broad-spectrum antiviral drugs
- Targeting post-translational modifications to disrupting the function of secreted proteins
- Targeting the epigenome to rewire pro-allergic T cells
- Targeting the immune microenvironment to treat KRAS-mutant adenocarcinoma
- The E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin and mitophagy in Parkinson’s disease
- The molecular controls on dendritic cell development
- Understanding malaria infection dynamics
- Understanding the genetics of neutrophil maturation
- Understanding the neuroimmune regulation of innate immunity
- Understanding the proteins that regulate programmed cell death at the molecular level
- Using cutting-edge single cell tools to understand the origins of cancer
- When healthy cells turn bad: how immune responses can transition to lymphoma
- School resources
- Frequently asked questions
- Student profiles
- Abebe Fola
- Andrew Baldi
- Anna Gabrielyan
- Bridget Dorizzi
- Casey Ah-Cann
- Catia Pierotti
- Emma Nolan
- Huon Wong
- Jing Deng
- Joy Liu
- Kaiseal Sarson-Lawrence
- Komal Patel
- Lilly Backshell
- Megan Kent
- Naomi Jones
- Rebecca Delconte
- Roberto Bonelli
- Rune Larsen
- Runyu Mao
- Sarah Garner
- Simona Seizova
- Wayne Cawthorne
- Wil Lehmann
- Miles Horton
- Alexandra Gurzau
- Student achievements
- Student association
- News
- Donate
- Online donation
- Ways to support
- Support outcomes
- Supporter stories
- Rotarians against breast cancer
- A partnership to improve treatments for cancer patients
- 20 years of cancer research support from the Helpman family
- A generous gift from a cancer survivor
- A gift to support excellence in Australian medical research
- An enduring friendship
- Anonymous donor helps bridge the 'valley of death'
- Renewed support for HIV eradication project
- Searching for solutions to muscular dystrophy
- Supporting research into better treatments for colon cancer
- Taking a single cell focus with the DROP-seq
- WEHI.TV
Team behind new cancer drug wins Clunies Ross Award
13 June 2018
A team of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have been recognised for their role in the development of a new anti-cancer medicine, receiving the 2018 Clunies Ross Knowledge Commercialisation Award from the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE).
Guillaume Lessene, Associate Professor Peter Czabotar
and Professor David Huang have received the
2018 Clunies Ross Knowledge Commercialisation Award.
Professor David Huang, Associate Professor Peter Czabotar, Associate Professor Guillaume Lessene and Professor Andrew Roberts received the award for their roles in the development of the anti-cancer agent venetoclax, which involved a collaboration with the companies Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and AbbVie.
Venetoclax (marketed as VENCLEXTA® and VENCLYXTO®) is a medicine that is now approved for clinical use in Australia, North America and Europe for the treatment of people with certain advanced forms of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). CLL the most common type of leukaemia diagnosed in Australia.
At a glance
- The ATSE’s Clunies Ross Awards recognise Australians who have shared their vision and knowledge to apply technology for the benefit of Australia.
- The 2018 Clunies Ross Knowledge Commercialisation Award recognises the contributions of a team of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists to the development of anti-cancer agent venetoclax.
- Venetoclax was co-developed by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists in collaboration with the companies Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and AbbVie, and has its basis in fundamental research discoveries made at the Institute.
Translating research discoveries to a treatment
The development of venetoclax has its foundation in a research discovery at the Institute in the 1980s, that a protein called BCL-2 can make cancer cells immortal by preventing a form of programmed cell death called apoptosis.
Professor David Huang, whose research has investigated cell death since the 1990s, said the team had a long-term goal of developing a new anti-cancer treatment that killed cancer cells by inhibiting BCL-2. “Venetoclax was the first drug of this kind to be approved for regular use in the clinic,” he said.
“It has been thrilling to work with our team and our industry partners to see the translation of our laboratory research to clinical benefit. We are honoured to receive the Clunies Ross Award from ATSE.”
Clinical trials of venetoclax demonstrated its benefit as a treatment for people with certain forms of CLL who had no other treatment options, said Professor Andrew Roberts, who is the Head of Clinical Translation at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, a clinical haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter Mac, and also holds the Metcalf Chair of Leukaemia Research at the University of Melbourne and Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
“It was exciting and rewarding to be part of the journey that saw a fundamental research discovery developed to benefit patients,” Professor Roberts said.
“The initial clinical trials of venetoclax took place at sites including the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter Mac, which meant that Australian patients were the first in the world to benefit from Australian innovation.”
The power of collaboration
were key to the development of venetoclax.
The research fields of structural biology and medicinal chemistry were crucial for the development of venetoclax. Associate Professor Peter Czabotar led research that revealed three-dimensional structures of target proteins. These provided ‘blue-prints’ for developing venetoclax through the team’s collaboration with AbbVie and Genentech.
“Our research benefited from the depth of structural biology expertise in the Institute, and from our access to the Australian Synchrotron,” Associate Professor Czabotar said. “By visualising detailed structures of BCL-2 family proteins, we could see how medicines could be developed that were highly specific for BCL-2.”
The early work to develop drug-like molecules that specifically blocked BCL-2 family proteins was led by Associate Professor Guillaume Lessene. “These proteins presented technical challenges that needed to be overcome in our quest for inhibitory molecules,” Associate Professor Lessene said. “The depth of expertise in medicinal chemistry at the Institute was critical for the project to reach the point at which we could secure industry collaborations to progress the research further.”
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute director Professor Doug Hilton AO said the story of venetoclax was an important example of Australian science having a global impact.
“Venetoclax is a great demonstration of the power of collaboration,” he said. “David, Andrew, Peter and Guillaume led the team that brought together skills in cancer research, structural biology, medicinal chemistry and clinical translation that, when combined with the strengths of our commercial partners AbbVie and Genentech, enabled us to see a laboratory discovery translated into a new medicine.
“I hope the recognition the Clunies Ross Knowledge Commercialisation Award provides to this team will inspire other Australian researchers to pursue similar journeys.”
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute acknowledges the contributions of its funding partners to its cell death research, including the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, the Australian Government, Cancer Council Victoria, the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia, the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Victorian Government.
Media enquiries
M: +61 475 751 811
E: communityrelations@wehi.edu.au
Super Content:
Want to hear about our latest discoveries? Subscribe to our supporter newsletter, Illuminate.
Professor Andrew Roberts and collaborators have shown that patients with an advanced form of leukaemia can achieve complete remission with a novel tablet treatment.
The work that led to the development of a new anti-cancer drug has been awarded the 2016 Johnson & Johnson Eureka Prize for Innovation in Medical Research
Starting with a landmark discovery in 1988, follow the story of how Institute research has driven development of a breakthrough anti-cancer drug.