Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has officially opened Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI).
The Monash BDI will host 120 research teams comprised of 700 researchers, located at Monash’s Clayton campus, with the focus on collaboration with industry.
“Monash University has been Australia’s biomedical innovation leader for decades, from pioneering in-vitro fertilisation in the 1970s and developing the world’s first successful anti-flu drug in the 1980s to emerging advances in leukaemia treatment and novel therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Monash University’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner AO.
“With research programs spanning cancer, neuroscience, infection and immunity, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as advances in stem cell research, the Monash BDI has the potential to transform millions of lives while also helping to drive economic growth,” she said.
Director of the Monash BDI, Professor John Carroll, said its remit is to undertake discovery research and decrease the time it takes to get these findings to the clinic.
“We do this by bringing our researchers together with industry partners and clinicians as early as possible,” he said.
“More than 120 interdisciplinary research teams work synergistically across disease areas; to bring expertise from immunology together with experts in cancer or diabetes. This allows us to discover new approaches to identifying the next generation of therapeutic medicines,” said Professor Carroll.
He said the Monash BDI currently has research income of more than $50 million, with $14 million coming from industry partners.
"With over 700 researchers, more than 200 international research collaborators and around 270 PhD students, the Monash BDI is one of the largest and most comprehensive medical research institutes in the Southern Hemisphere.
“Research occurs in a hyper-competitive global environment and, for Australia to be successful, we need to be focused on doing the absolute best science we can and partnering with innovative companies and clinicians to make sure the research we do ultimately helps to drive the Australian economy.
“Bring together outstanding scientists, access to some of Australia’s most advanced research infrastructure, leading roles in two Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence, new international partnerships with pioneering research organisations, as well as over 20 new group leaders recruited from all over the world, and the Monash BDI is a driver of the future of innovation in Australia,” he added.
