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Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute

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Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute

We want to see a future where we better understand cancer so that we can make it a manageable disease.

ONJCRI is an independent medical research institute dedicated to developing cancer therapies that are more effective, tolerable and accessible for all patients. To achieve this, our teams of laboratory-based researchers and patient-focused clinicians work together to discover and translate research breakthroughs to deliver better health outcomes for patients. Our research is primarily focused on i

nvestigating treatments for cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, stomach, bowel, colon, breast, and brain. In 2021, we proudly partnered our researchers and clinicians with patients from many areas in Australia to lead 12 Institute-sponsored clinical trials giving patients access to potential new treatments including immunotherapies and personalised medicine.

20/08/2026

🔬 Support metastatic breast cancer research

Jazz was just 40 years old when she received her first breast cancer diagnosis. After a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, she was told her breast cancer was gone.

But four years later, she felt unwell, breathless and knew something was wrong.

A PET scan revealed that the breast cancer had returned and spread to different parts of her body.

She was quickly prescribed an aggressive chemotherapy regimen to treat the fast-growing spread of cancer.

Fortunately, she has been declared “no evidence of disease” since October 2025.

Jazz channelled her passion for medical research into raising funds for metastatic breast cancer, hosting a fundraiser for ONJCRI research in July this year.

“I want to live a long life; it's going to have to be backed by research.”

The way that Jazz's cancer returned six years after the initial diagnosis is exactly the problem Prof Delphine Merino's research is working to solve by finding the cancer cells that evade treatment and stopping them before they can spread.

💛 If this research is meaningful to you, donate to ONJCRI on the first-ever Medical Research Giving Day on Wednesday 9th September: LINK

Unfortunately, Jazz's story is one of thousands in Australia. Metastatic breast cancer can appear years after someone finishes treatment for early-stage breast cancer.

This is why we need more effective, tolerable and accessible treatments and diagnostic tools for metastatic breast cancer.

Australian Medical Research Institutes

14/08/2026

💪 Boosting immune cell fitness in breast cancer patients

Dr Bhupinder Pal leads a team of researchers seeking new drug targets and designing next-generation therapies for breast cancer.

Immunotherapy has transformed outcomes in many cancers by boosting the patient’s immune system to help it attack cancer cells. However, immunotherapy works only for a subset of breast cancers, and only a minority of eligible patients respond.

Dr Pal's team is focused on addressing this gap and restoring the immune system’s anti-cancer activity to improve patients’ response to immunotherapy.

🔬 One of the team's key projects is investigating whether taurine, a naturally occurring molecule that declines with age, could be used in a controlled way to help restore anti-tumour immune function in solid cancers such as breast cancer.

Dr Pal shares: “We found that taurine is critical for the function of anti-tumour immune cells, which rely on it to maintain their ability to kill cancer cells and stop disease spread.”

This work is an international collaboration with A/Prof Vijay K Yadav at Rutgers University.

Combining cutting-edge molecular approaches with preclinical models, the team now plans to harness taurine’s function to boost the effectiveness of existing immunotherapies across breast cancer subtypes.

“Identifying ways to improve the efficacy of existing treatments bypasses the need to develop new therapies from scratch, hopefully creating new treatment avenues for patients sooner”.

Learn more about the Cancer Single Cell Genomics Laboratory: https://ow.ly/KQiK50ZxfLA

13/08/2026

🔬 Support metastatic breast cancer research

ONJCRI is thrilled to join more than 30 medical research institutes for Australia’s first National Medical Research Giving Day on Wednesday 9th September.

💛 If you are passionate about supporting research into more effective, tolerable and accessible breast cancer treatments, this Giving Day will be your chance to make an impact.

Metastatic breast cancer, also known as secondary breast cancer, affects over 20,000 Australian women.

Prof Delphine Mérino’s team works to discover how breast cancer cells evade treatments and spread around the body.

By supporting this Giving Day, this team will be able to accelerate their research by analysing breast cancer samples from patients using powerful genetic sequencing tools.

This will help them identify potential new treatment targets and progress ongoing research that will make an impact.

➡️ Donate today: https://ow.ly/oXeB50ZymhL

Australian Medical Research Institutes

08/08/2026

Today we mark the fourth anniversary of our founding champion Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE's passing.

Olivia’s legacy lives on at the institute through our research, which is focused not only on developing more effective cancer treatments, but also on ensuring they are gentler on the patient.

More tolerable cancer care was important to Olivia, and is an objective that continues to guide the research undertaken in our laboratories.

💛 If you are passionate about research into cancer therapies that target the tumour, and not the whole person, we invite you to support our work.

https://donate.onjcri.org.au

07/08/2026

👋 Meet one of our patient advocates

Sam’s diagnosis of stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 22 came as a shock. She was unfortunately caught up in a car accident, which led her to undergo an X-ray where the tumours were discovered.

She had a short timeline to sort out her life, putting the final year of her teaching degree and a job lined up on hold.

Although she experienced hair loss and tiredness while receiving chemotherapy, her experience at the hospital was second-to-none. Her background in science also gave her a better understanding of the information her care team provided.

“I was never just a patient number. I felt I was always treated with respect. I knew what the treatment plan was. If I had a question or a concern, I could pick up the phone, and I knew someone would answer with a call.”

Coincidentally, after finishing her treatment, her brother also began treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I went from being a patient myself to then being a supporter... When my brother was treated, it was at the start of COVID. And that was a scary time because he had to go into the hospital by himself. We didn't get to go with him or see anything.”

Sam shares what it means to be a part of ONJCRI’s Patient Advocacy Program:

“It means a lot. The advocacy, the education is just so meaningful and being able to underpin that.

Going into lab meetings and meeting the incredible researchers that spend so much time and effort doing this incredible work. It just needs so much support in so many different ways.

The fact that they're talking to patients and even thinking about what our experience is, and again, comes back to that teamwork, the whole approach of person first, which I really appreciate.”

Today, Sam is a high school Science teacher in Melbourne, and in her spare time enjoys competing and coaching Calisthenics, going to Pilates and travelling the world.

We thank Sam for her immense support in our Patient Advocacy Program. The passion of our advocates and their lived experiences continue to shape and advance cancer research at the Institute.

Learn more about our Patient Advocacy Program ➡️ https://www.onjcri.org.au/patient-advocacy/

31/07/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Dr Shiyao Li on being awarded a 2026 Harold Mitchell Travel Fellowship!

This award gives emerging researchers the opportunity to attend in-person conferences and to visit renowned laboratories overseas.

Dr Li, postdoctoral researcher in the Nanomedicine & Gene Therapeutics Laboratory, shares:

“This award is an important recognition of my research in nanomedicine and RNA delivery, and it gives me confidence as I work towards establishing an independent research program.”

The fellowship will support Dr Li’s attendance at the 2027 Cancer Nanotechnology Gordon Research Conference and Seminar, where she plans to present her work on targeted mRNA–lipid nanoparticles for intracellular antibody delivery.

We would like to thank the Harold Mitchell Foundation for giving our researchers the opportunity to participate in these enriching experiences and for their commitment to the next generation of scientists.

➡️ https://ow.ly/GNrC50ZuSL1

27/07/2026

🔍 Gastric cancer research spotlight

Dr Michael Buchert leads a team focused on understanding whether our own immune system could be causing gastric cancer to spread.

ILC2s are a type of immune cell that are primarily located in the lungs, gut, and skin. When behaving normally, these cells maintain a healthy environment in these tissues.

Not only do ILC2s help cancer cells grow and survive, but they also travel from the stomach to the liver to potentially create a favourable environment for cancer to survive and spread.

💡 Now, his team wants to validate whether ILC2 movement contributes to gastric cancer spread to the liver by creating a favourable environment for cancer cells to survive rather than mutations (or errors) in the original tumour cell’s DNA.

“Confirming these findings would open an entirely new class of metastasis-specific therapies,” said Dr Buchert.

🔬 The team plans to explore whether blocking ILC2 cells in preclinical models predisposed to developing liver metastases (or spread) results in a reduction in cancer spread.

With gastric cancer having poor survival rates once it has spread, new treatments are urgently needed to avoid advanced cancer from developing.

In the future, Dr Buchert’s team wants to investigate the role of ILC2 cells beyond the liver.

“We would like to determine whether distinct ILC2 populations direct the cancer’s spread to specific organs, including the lung and peritoneum (lining that surrounds the organs).”

Learn more about the Biomarker & Tuft Cell Laboratory: https://ow.ly/ms4o50Zs8XX

24/07/2026

🎉 Congratulations to PhD student Biswadeep Sen, who was awarded the Student Poster Prize at the 24th Melbourne Protein Group Student Symposium.

The symposium, held at Monash’s Clayton Campus, brings together students to showcase their research and meet their peers from other institutions.

Biswadeep presented two aims of his current project, which seeks to improve the efficacy of standard therapies for colorectal cancer.

His poster highlighted how colorectal cancer cells can be reliant on redox proteins and how targeting these proteins can help increase the cancer’s sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Biswadeep shares the significance of the award:

“To receive this award amongst all the talented PhD students helps me become aware of the importance of my work and the importance of identifying novel biomarkers to help improve the efficiency of the standard treatments for people with colorectal cancer.”

We extend our recognition to all students who participated and the winners alongside Biswadeep.

La Trobe University

21/07/2026

Dr Annalisa Carli is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow studying a promising protein that could lead to next-generation precision medicines for cancer and chronic disease.

💡 The HCK protein is predominantly expressed in macrophages. These are a type of immune cell that tumours can hijack to support their own growth and spread.

“By blocking HCK, we aim to reprogram these macrophages from cells that help cancer grow, into tumour-fighting allies that help our immune system eliminate cancer.”

🔬 Building on earlier findings by her team, Dr Carli is exploring whether blocking HCK could be an effective way to treat pancreatic and bowel cancer.

The team developed a molecule that blocks HCK through AI-guided drug design, and its efficacy and safety are now being assessed in preclinical models.

“We are also exploring next-generation approaches, including HCK-targeted protein degraders or novel delivery methods, to accelerate the discovery of more effective and safe medicines.”

Because HCK is found in macrophages that support tumour growth in many different cancers, drugs that block HCK could have broad applications across multiple cancer types.

🫁 Dr Carli’s research interests extend beyond cancer into chronic respiratory diseases.

HCK plays an important role in controlling inflammatory immune cells, which can accumulate in the lungs and contribute to ongoing tissue damage, resulting in breathing difficulties and death.

“By targeting HCK, we hope to address the underlying drivers of inflammation rather than simply treating symptoms.”

“Because chronic inflammation is also a major risk factor for cancer and other serious diseases, HCK inhibition could represent a new therapeutic strategy with benefits that extend beyond respiratory disease alone.”

Dr Carli shares: "My research is driven by a simple goal: turning fundamental discoveries about how immune cells behave into new treatments for cancer and chronic disease.”

“By combining innovative biology, medicinal chemistry, and AI-enabled drug discovery, we are working to develop the next generation of precision therapies."

17/07/2026

📣 The Leukaemia Foundation and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute are proud to announce that Fatimah Jalud has been awarded The Griffiths Family PhD Scholarship.

This scholarship, generously funded by the Griffiths family, will enable Fatimah Jalud to undertake PhD research focused on addressing relapse in high-risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

Fatimah says, “I strongly believe we shouldn’t just settle for a ‘cure’ for cancer alone, but we should also strive for better and less toxic treatments”.

🗣️ “Many of these patients undergo treatment at the most formative years of their lives, and in the case of my PhD project, this disease represents the majority of infant blood cancers.

“Even when they’re cured of their cancer, the impact of their treatment continues to affect their health and wellbeing long after their therapy ends and even increases their risk of other cancers later in life.”

Relapse remains one of the leading causes of death in childhood ALL, particularly among children and infants with a high-risk subtype known as KMT2A-rearranged B-cell ALL.

Using advanced genomic and gene editing approaches, Fatimah will study how leukaemia cells from patients at diagnosis, during treatment, and at relapse, adapt and evade treatment.

“By combining single-cell genomics with functional gene-editing models, I hope to uncover vulnerabilities that could eventually be used to guide more effective and personalised treatment strategies.

“Being awarded the Griffiths Family PhD Scholarship from the Leukaemia Foundation is incredibly meaningful to me. It provides the opportunity to pursue research in an area where there’s still a significant unmet need.

“It’s also deeply motivating to know that this work is supported by an organisation committed to improving the lives of people affected by blood cancer.”

We extend our sincere thanks to the Griffiths family for their generous support of blood cancer research and their commitment to advancing discoveries that can lead to better treatments and outcomes for people affected by blood cancer 💙

📲 For more information about blood cancer research grants, visit 👇
https://www.leukaemia.org.au/research/overcoming-treatment-resistance-and-relapse-in-kmt2a-rearranged-acute-lymphoblastic-leukaemia/

Address

145 Studley Road
Melbourne, VIC
3084

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61394965726

Website

http://www.onjcri.org.au/

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