One of Australia’s most influential philanthropic institutions, the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation, is celebrating 30 years of supporting local health and medical research with more than $90 million invested and a legacy of breakthroughs now shaping clinical care around the world.
To mark the milestone, the Foundation has announced the latest recipients of its Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowships, among the most sought-after awards for mid-career scientists and clinicians.
Each Fellow will receive $1.375 million over five years to pursue research into cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative conditions.
The 2025 Viertel Fellows are Dr Joanna Achinger-Kawecka from SAiGENCI, who is advancing cancer therapy through 3D chromatin structure mapping technology; Dr Dustin Flanagan from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, who is investigating how tissue damage drives gastric cancer initiation and progression; and, Associate Professor Zongyuan Ge from the Monash AIM for Health Lab, who is developing a personalised AI model that integrates diverse patient information to predict, diagnose, and manage disease.
Dr Achinger-Kawecka’s research explores how ancient viral DNA elements embedded in the human genome regulate cancer growth, potentially unlocking new therapeutic pathways. Dr Flanagan aims to uncover how inflammation and tissue repair mechanisms can trigger cancer metastasis and drug resistance, paving the way for new interventions. Associate Professor Ge will build Australia’s first Unified Phenotype Foundation Model. This AI system learns from vast, multimodal health data to improve early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment planning for diseases such as heart disease, skin cancer, and dementia.
Equity Trustees’ Jodi Kennedy, General Manager of Philanthropy and Community Trustee Services, said the Foundation’s impact over three decades has been extraordinary. “The Viertel alumni is a who’s who of global leaders in medical research,” she said, noting former Fellow Professor Melissa Little AC, internationally recognised for generating kidney organoids from human stem cells. “The Fellowship enables independent, high-impact research that has saved and improved countless lives.”
The Viertel Fellowships are delivered in collaboration with Bellberry, whose CEO, Kylie Sproston, said the partnership exemplifies how sustained philanthropic giving drives innovation. “We’re proud to collaborate with the Viertel Foundation to enable life-changing research in areas that affect us all,” she said. “These fellowships empower exceptional researchers to tackle Australia’s biggest health challenges.”
Professor Christina Mitchell AO, Co-Chair of the Viertel Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board, added that the Foundation’s 30-year legacy “is nothing short of extraordinary.” “Our congratulations go to this year’s recipients — their research has the potential to make a lasting difference to health and wellbeing,” she said.
Established with an initial bequest of $60 million, the Foundation is now worth around $260 million and distributes approximately $9 million annually. Since 1995, it has awarded 70 Fellowships supporting Australia’s top mid-career researchers, granted 162 Clinical Investigator Awards for early-career clinicians, and contributed $2.45 million in infrastructure grants to sustain world-class research facilities. In total, more than $90 million has been distributed to advance research across cancer, infectious diseases, respiratory illnesses, dementia, and stem cell science.