Translational Research Institute Australia

Should grant reviewers – who are often our colleagues – judge the legitimacy of career breaks due to personal circumstances? It’s a question Associate Professor Nathalie Bock, the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Research Lead at TRI, poses in a career column in Nature. Associate Professor Bock explores ideas including independent panels with medical, psychological and disability-equity specialists to review applications from researchers with career disruptions. The column also details family experiences in 2021 that caused career disruptions for both Associate Professor Bock and her partner – and led to the sharing of personal information with peers. It’s something she hopes others can avoid in the future. “My hope is that career breaks … no longer blunt a person’s competitiveness or push talented researchers out of academia.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/gpusthz5  Read the column in Nature: https://lnkd.in/gXCbjJJU Springer Nature Max Planck Queensland Centre (MPQC)

Congratulations, TRI General Counsel and Company Secretary Kirsten Kiel-Chisholm, a finalist in the Governance Top 100. The top 100 highlights the talent and achievements of people who take their role in governance to the next level. The winner will be announced on Friday 24 October. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gqrTJQdB

TRI CEO Professor Maher Gandhi is starting next week's AusBiotech International Conference 2025 with a presentation at a Life Sciences Queensland Ltd (LSQ) breakfast.   Professor Gandhi’s speech topic is TRI: Innovative Australian Example of a Translational Ecosystem in Action.   Prof. Chris Molloy, the founding CEO of the Medicines Discovery Catapult in the UK, will be speaking after Professor Gandhi.   AusBiotech International Conference 2025 connects Australian expertise with domestic and international partnerships for knowledge sharing, forging collaborations and exploring opportunities to go global.   Read more and register for the breakfast: https://lnkd.in/gp3hhVkn Read more about AusBiotech 2025: https://ausbiotechic.com/   Rebekah Cassidy Sue Coke Denise Johnston Lisa Cavallaro Trent Munro Natalie Davis Glenda Colburn Shari Armistead GAICD FIML

A collaboration between TRI-based researchers from The University of Queensland and Yale University is using a ‘Google maps’ approach to revolutionise lung cancer treatment. Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe from UQ Frazer Institute (pictured right) is part of the team, along with Dr James Monkman and Rafael Tubelleza. They studied tumours from 234 people with non-small cell lung cancer in Australia, the United States and Europe, with results published in Nature Genetics. AI and spatial biology were used to map cells to understand and predict treatment response; and pinpoint areas within a tumour that are either responsive or therapy-resistant. “Rather than having to use a trial-and-error approach, oncologists will now know which treatments are most likely to work with new precision medicine tools,” A/Prof Kulasinghe says. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ggnpJvHu Read the publication: https://lnkd.in/edG_Kera Springer Nature WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) Cure Cancer PA Research Foundation Wesley Research Institute National Institutes of Health Chin Wee Tan Kenneth O'Byrne

“We are very collaborative. We position ourselves as partners with the researchers.” Dr Brian Tse heads TRI's Preclinical Imaging Facility, one of the best equipped facilities of its kind in Australia to support research discovery, help in designing experiments and contribute to publications. Researchers using the Preclinical Imaging Facility can leverage multiple imaging modalities in a single longitudinal study. Dr Tse's team provides training on image acquisition and data analysis, as well as expert advice on project development, research grants and ethics applications. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gK8RG4fN

TRI-based researchers from The University of Queensland UQ Frazer Institute and the University of Cambridge have developed a platform to study how DNA is copied in cancer cells. The platform, powered by artificial intelligence, also enables researchers to see what happens when the process is disrupted during chemotherapy. UQ's Dr Mathew Jones says it will help with predicting how tumours will respond to chemotherapies, opening the door to development of better therapeutics and personalised treatments. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gPdkD9DD

A team of researchers and clinicians from Brisbane and Sydney have been working to overcome the second most common form of skin cancer with immunotherapy alone.   A Metro South Health/The University of Queensland/TRI investigator-led study focused on evaluating the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab for patients with a form of cancer that is typically treated with surgery or radiotherapy.   Among the leaders of the team, responsible for designing and conducting the study, are (pictured from left) TRI-based Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe, Dr Jazmina L. González Cruz and Associate Professor Rahul Ladwa.   They found that 17 of the 27 patients involved in their study had no invasive cancer in tissue samples after treatment. Of these patients, 13 avoided any surgery/ radiotherapy and remained disease-free on follow-up.   Response to upfront immunotherapy is a significant indicator of a positive long-term outcome, including a better chance of remaining disease-free and overall survival. This is particularly the case for aggressive cancers, allowing appropriate patients to safely de-escalate surgery and/or radiotherapy.   Findings have been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gEFuWmWw   Jenny Lee Margaret McGrath Howard Liu Ruta Gupta Jonathan Clark Sandro Porceddu Brett Hughes Queensland Health Metro North Health Chris O'Brien Lifehouse University of Sydney Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre UQ Frazer Institute American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Congratulations, Southern RNA 🧬 for the successful opening of your new Research and Development Labs at the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct. Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate officially opened the labs, sharing the occasion with more than 100 collaborators and supporters from across healthcare, industry and academia. Southern RNA has a focus on an mRNA platform for delivering personalised vaccines. Ian Gillespie AM Chris Peck Craig Rowsell Economic Development Queensland Queensland Government City of Gold Coast Glenda Colburn Cohort Innovation Space

TRI Head of Commercial Operations, Dr Ryan Parlett, will today join delegates at the Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa in Phoenix in the US. Dr Parlett will share details of ENTRI, our purpose-designed cGMP manufacturing facility under construction and due to open in early 2026, with support from the Queensland Government and TRI. ENTRI will offer companies flexible, ready-to-use space for cGMP manufacturing, as well as analytical and process development - to accelerate programs from manufacturing to the clinic with speed, flexibility, and scalability.

Researchers, technical staff and industry scientists have learned and shared as part of a hands-on microscopy workshop at TRI this week. The immersive four days of training covered foundations in microscopy and pushed participant skills toward advanced imaging workflows. TRI Microscopy's Mark Scott, Dr Maria Kasherman and Dr Cameron Flegg took the lead in introducing techniques and explaining capabilities in multi-colour image acquisition, live-cell imaging and super-resolution and spectral unmixing. Thank you, event sponsors Revvity, Evident Microscopy, ZEISS Microscopy, Sartorius, TissueGnostics, Leica Microsystems and Nikon. More about TRI Microscopy: https://lnkd.in/dZukyG_b