Recipient: Professor Brandon Wainwright
Institute: Institute for Molecular Bioscience
Funding: $260,420 July 2016 to June 2018
Discovering better treatments for brain cancer
Brain tumours are the most common cause of cancer-related death in children and of these medulloblastoma, a tumour of the cerebellum, is the most frequent malignant tumour. The challenge for successful medulloblastoma therapy is to improve the effectiveness of the initial intervention while reducing the toxic effects.
Research carried out in the Wainwright laboratory, has identified proteins that do not function appropriately in medulloblastoma and that could be exploited to kill the tumour. This project will test an already approved drug that targets these defective proteins, together with standard chemotherapy and has the potential to be rapidly implemented in the clinic if successful.