At QIMR Berghofer, we recognise the vital role that Trusts and Foundations play in supporting the work of our scientists in solving some of Queensland’s and the world’s most terrible diseases.
Gifts from Trusts and Foundations have allowed us to spend vital time in the discovery stage of research, to ask the difficult questions, trial the most innovative solutions, and move treatment quickly from the bench to the bedside and ultimately, towards saving lives.
Over our 75-year history, we have been proud to be supported in our research, by long established family foundations, private trusts, and public charitable organisations.
We believe that all gifts should have impact and work closely with our philanthropic partners to make sure their investment continues to inspire new research, well beyond the life of the funded project.
If you would like to work with us, receive further information or collaborate on any of our projects, we want to hear from you!
Please contact:
Tiffany Hardy
Fundraising & Philanthropy Manager
E Tiffany.Hardy@qimrberghofer.edu.au
Organisation: Perpetual
Recipient: Dr Glen Boyle
Fund: The John Thomas Wilson Endowment Fellowship
Research: Advanced Level Postdoctoral Fellowship for research into skin cancer
“I am incredibly grateful for the support that the Fellowship gave me. Without the support of the Fellowship, the work would not have been done – in any way, full stop. With the support, we were able to make insights into a disease that doesn’t get very much attention. Of course, it will be a long way into the future, but this work is part of the puzzle that may lead to a brighter, better future for those patients with skin cancer complications.
The Fellowship was incredibly important for me. It enabled me to begin my own lab, attract and supervise MPhil and PhD students independently as a principle supervisor/advisor. It also enabled me to submit grant applications independently, with the full support of the Institute. Without this particular Fellowship, it is unlikely that I would still be in medical research.
The work is continuing. I’m currently co-supervising a PhD student who is now advancing the model that we established and testing potential targeted therapies for the treatment of this disease.”
Organisation: The Ian Potter Foundation
Recipient: John Pearson and Nic Waddell
Fund:Ian Potter Foundation Medical Research program
Grant: $100,000
QIMR Berghofer recently received a generous award from the Ian Potter Foundation which will support the work of John Pearson and Nic Waddell, through the purchase of computer hardware to store cancer genomes and specialised computer servers optimised to run Machine Learning (ML) analyses.
“One in two Australians will be diagnosed with cancer by 85 and cancer causes three out of every 10 deaths. Genomic data are revolutionising the way we diagnose and treat cancer, but the data are big and patterns are very difficult to spot using traditional statistical methods.
Machine Learning is a new analytical technique that shows great promise in discovering patterns that have previously been invisible to researchers and clinicians.
This grant will allow us to target two clinical problems:
- can we predict patient outcomes by combining genomics and cancer imaging?
- can we improve on cancer classification to predict most appropriate treatment decisions?”