New imaging equipment to boost children's cancer research
A cutting edge cancer imaging facility will help specialist children's cancer researchers at Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research to better understand how tumours grow.
The facility will be funded by a $2.4million grant from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF).
The PET scanner will enable researchers to investigate tumour progression in pre-clinical laboratory models.
The ACRF says the facility will maximise Western Australia's capacity to promote innovation in cancer research, and ensure a high quality imaging hub to facilitate world-class cancer discoveries with direct relevance to clinical outcomes.
In addition to researchers at the Telethon Institute, the facility will be used by cancer researchers at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, University of WA, QEII Medical Centre, Royal Perth Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, the Lions Eye Institute and Pathwest.
The head of the Institute's Division of Children's Leukaemia and Cancer Research, Professor Ursula Kees, said the imaging technology would accelerate the research program into brain tumours in children.
"The sophisticated technologies facilitate the study of early brain tumour formation, understanding the role of mutations and abnormal molecular pathways that are critical for brain tumour survival."
Through collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry Dr Nick Gottardo and his team are assessing several exciting novel drugs, which are designed to specifically target abnormal molecules produced by brain tumour cells.
These new imaging systems will permit real-time, non-invasive monitoring of brain tumour cells in our laboratory models to determine the effectiveness of these new targeted drugs.
This ACRF-funded cancer imaging facility will expedite the process of finding more effective and less toxic therapies for children with brain tumours.