Children’s Cancer Institute was proud to see two of its researchers, Associate Professor Paul Ekert and Chelsea Mayoh, featured in The Australian newspaper’s ‘Top 100 Innovators 2024’ list published on 18 October.
The List recognises a selection of the nation’s best inventors and entrepreneurs and identifies some of the most exciting ideas emerging across the country. This year, a special focus was placed on health and medical research in Australia, which was described as “proving fertile ground for a new generation of scientists and clinicians”.
Professor Ekert, Co-Head of the Institute’s Personalised Medicine Theme, and Ms Mayoh, Principal Bioinformatic Scientist, made news last year when they published world-first research showing that many more children with cancer than previously realised could potentially benefit from immunotherapy, a type of therapy that uses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer which has been used to great effect in the treatment of certain adult cancers.
Their findings could have significant implications for the treatment of children with solid tumours such as brain cancer, sarcoma and neuroblastoma, if successfully applied to the clinical setting.
The List’s editor, Helen Trinca, was reported as saying that while the Top 100 Innovators “doesn’t pretend to be a definitive list”, it does spotlight “talented people who, one way and another, are changing the way we live.”
