Prof Mike Fay, Foundation MHF Chair in Brain Cancer and Centre Director
We are thrilled to provide you with an update on the activities of the Mark Hughes Foundation Centre for Brain Cancer Research. Your generous support continues to make a significant impact on our efforts to advance research and treatment options for brain cancer patients.
After sector and patient consultation over the last few months, I am pleased to announce the Centre will focus on six research streams; Patient Experience, led by the Centre Director Prof Mike Fay, Brain Cancer Imaging, led by Associate Professor Saad Ramadan, Experimental Therapeutics, led by Associate Professor Paul Tooney, Blood Based Biomarkers, led by Dr Richard Lobb, Paediatric Brain Cancers, led by Professor Matt Dun, and Translational Neuroscience, led by Professor Hubert Hondermarck.
Driving towards better outcomes for brain cancer patients and their families, the Centre recently secured funding from the MHF to support the integration of the Mark Hughes Foundation Brain Care Cancer Coordinators into the Centre. These joint appointments between the University of Newcastle and area health services will be supported by the appointment of a nurse translational researcher into the Centre, to allow for both nursing care and research activity that promotes the transfer of research to practise. Engaging the Coordinators will close the loop from the patients to the research teams, support the development of improved models of care and allow us to collaborate at a national level.
Planning is well underway for the Centre’s Inaugural Brain Cancer Research Symposium which will be held at the Hunter Medical Research Institute on 25 May 2023. It’s a jam-packed symposium with national and international experts joining us over two days. The focus will be on “How can we collaborate to accelerate brain cancer research across Australia” and we are excited to be joined by Dr Alexander Lin from Harvard Medical School, along with an array of highly skilled clinicians and academics from across Australia including our own local experts.
As part of the Centre’s commitment to collaboration, the Centre Director recently travelled to Melbourne to meet with WEHI - the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Following this visit, WEHI visited us here in Newcastle to continue a wonderful discussion around a one-team approach to brain cancer research. We are looking forward to further engagements with WEHI and all opportunities that support our mission to facilitate a highly collaborative and impactful research program dedicated to finding a cure for brain cancer.
Thank you for your support of the MHF; we look forward to sharing further progress in the coming months.