WEHI awarded $2.5 million ACRF grant to launch Australia’s boldest approach to lethal childhood and adult brain cancers

Melbourne’s WEHI has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) to launch the ACRF BRAIINSTORM Program - a landmark national initiative that will fast-track new personalised treatments for high-grade gliomas, the most aggressive and deadly brain cancers in both children and adults. 

Brain cancers remain the leading cause of childhood cancer death in Australia, and DIPG is the deadliest tumour type. In adults, it is glioblastoma, which claims 65% of all brain cancer deaths and still has no effective long-term treatment. Survival rates for both remain heartbreakingly low. 

BRAIINSTORM - BRinging AI and Immunotherapy for Neuro-oncology together - will create a complete end-to-end pipeline: from AI-powered drug discovery and cutting-edge laboratory models, through to a new dedicated clean room where personalised cell therapies will enable affordable and timely delivery of novel treatments to Australian brain cancer patients. This agile, point-of-care approach will dramatically speed up the journey from breakthrough idea to first-in-human clinical trials. 

Professor Misty Jenkins AO, Head of WEHI’s Brain Cancer Immunotherapy Lab and Co-Head of Research Strategy of The Brain Cancer Centre, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation for this generous investment in the BRAIINSTORM Program.  This funding will supercharge our efforts to develop desperately-needed new treatments for brain cancer, one of the most devastating and under-researched diseases in Australia. By bringing together cutting-edge technologies and a national team of experts, BRAIINSTORM will help us move promising therapies from the lab to the clinic faster than ever before – giving real hope to patients and families who need it most.”  

Kerry Strydom, CEO at ACRF, says currently, time is the enemy for families facing DIPG or glioblastoma and BRAIINSTORM could change that. 

“High-grade gliomas have defied treatment for decades. The ACRF BRAIINSTORM Program is the most ambitious and comprehensive Australian effort ever mounted against them. It has the potential to deliver the first genuinely effective new therapies for DIPG and glioblastoma in a generation, and to save hundreds of young lives every year.” 

“The Program will give Australian patients access to tomorrow’s therapies today. This program is about potential of turning the impossible into the possible and giving children and adults a real chance to overcome these devastating cancers.” 

The program will open in 2026. For more information visit acrf.com.au