$8.2 million for cancer research

Last Friday, Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon announced that fifteen of Australia's leading health and medical research teams have won a share of more than $108 million in National Health and Medical Research Council's program grants scheme.

Researchers to benefit from this year's grants include a Nobel Laureate, two former Australians of the Year and Professor Mathew Vadas and his colleagues, Professor Jenny Gamble, Professor Geoff McCaughan, Associate Professor Pu Xia and Dr Patrick Bertolino from the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney. They will receive a total of $8.02m for their work on Inflammation, Angiogenesis and Cancer.

The project, which will be conducted at the Centenary Institute, brings together researchers with expertise in basic science and the clinic, with the aim of exploring inflammation and cancer at the cellular and molecular level. The synergistic and combinatorial use of basic and clinical skills gives a high likelihood of discoveries leading to new therapies.

"This research is very important because inflammation and cancer are at the heart of many human diseases. This particularly applies to the major global problem of liver fibrosis and liver cancer affecting almost half a billion of the world's population," Professor Vadas said.

Professor Vadas is Executive Director of the Centenary Institute and a member of the University of Sydney Cancer Research Network.

A complete list of 2010 NHMRC Program Grant recipients is available on the NHMRC website.