Search
Research
The bone marrow microenvironment of pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia at single-cell resolutionThe bone marrow microenvironment (BMM) plays a key role in leukemia progression, but its molecular complexity in pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common cancer in children, remains poorly understood. To gain further insight, we used single-cell RNA sequencing to characterize the kinetics of the murine BMM during B-ALL progression.

News & Events
Census data reveals stark gap in asthma risk for inner and outer city kidsChildren who live in the outer suburbs of Australia’s four biggest cities are twice as likely to have asthma as those living in inner city areas, according to a new study based on health data captured in the last Australian Census.
Research
Clinical Implications of Minimal Residual Disease Detection in Infants With KMT2A-Rearranged Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated on the Interfant-06 ProtocolInfant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is characterized by a high incidence of KMT2A gene rearrangements and poor outcome. We evaluated the value of minimal residual disease (MRD) in infants with KMT2A-rearranged ALL treated within the Interfant-06 protocol, which compared lymphoid-style consolidation (protocol IB) versus myeloid-style consolidation (araC, daunorubicin, etoposide/mitoxantrone, araC, etoposide).

News & Events
Lab results confirm promise of new immunotherapy gel for kids cancerNewly published research from The Kids Research Institute Australia and The University of Western Australia has found a gel applied during surgery to treat sarcoma tumours is both safe and highly effective at preventing the cancer from growing back.

News & Events
Finding new treatments for rare brain cancers in infantsThe WA Kids Cancer Centre has secured $1.1 million in funding from the Medical Research Future Fund’s (MRFF) Paediatric Brain Cancer Research Stream 2 to develop more effective and less toxic treatments for rare brain cancers in infants.

News & Events
World-first maps reveal how long it takes to reach healthcare from anywhere in the globeNew research which maps the entire global population’s travel time to their nearest healthcare facility has revealed major inequalities in access to healthcare depending on whether people have access to motorised transport or not.
Research
Comparison of new computational methods for spatial modelling of malariaGeostatistical analysis of health data is increasingly used to model spatial variation in malaria prevalence, burden, and other metrics. Traditional inference methods for geostatistical modelling are notoriously computationally intensive, motivating the development of newer, approximate methods for geostatistical analysis or, more broadly, computational modelling of spatial processes.

News & Events
Researchers narrow down field of new treatments for most common childhood brain cancerCancer researchers have narrowed-down the field of immunotherapy drugs which could be used to tackle a form of childhood brain cancer.

News & Events
WA Kids Cancer Centre researchers appointed to Brain Cancer Expert Advisory PanelDr Jessica Buck and Associate Professor Raelene Endersby have been appointed to the prestigious Australian Brain Cancer Mission Expert Advisory Panel.

News & Events
Survivors of drug-resistant TB face long-term health problems: studyNew research highlights the long-term physical health problems faced by people who survive drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) .
Research
Geospatial mapping of drug-resistant tuberculosis prevalence in Africa at national and sub-national levelso map subnational and local prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) across Africa. We assembled a geolocated dataset from 173 sources across 31 African countries, comprising drug susceptibility test results and covariate data from publicly available databases. We used Bayesian model-based geostatistical framework with multivariate Bayesian logistic regression model to estimate DR-TB prevalence at lower administrative levels.

News & Events
'Natural killers' potential new cancer weaponThe Cancer Immunology team at The Kids is investigating how the body's 'natural killer' cells can be harnessed to fight cancer – whilst also protecting kids from nasty chemotherapy side effects.
Research
Empowering quality education through sustainable and equitable electricity access in African schoolsAlthough most people born this century will be educated in African schools, these schools often lack basic infrastructure, such as electricity and/or lighting. In the face of a rapidly growing school-age population in Africa, the electrification of educational facilities is not just an infrastructural challenge but also a pivotal investment in the continent’s future workforce.
Research
Transcriptional rewiring in CD8+ T cells: implications for CAR-T cell therapy against solid tumoursT cells engineered to express chimeric-antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) can effectively control relapsed and refractory haematological malignancies in the clinic. However, the successes of CAR-T cell therapy have not been recapitulated in solid tumours due to a range of barriers such as immunosuppression, poor infiltration, and tumour heterogeneity.
Research
Predicting immune protection against outcomes of infectious disease from population-level effectiveness data with application to COVID-19Quantifying the extent to which previous infections and vaccinations confer protection against future infection or disease outcomes is critical to managing the transmission and consequences of infectious diseases. We present a general statistical model for predicting the strength of protection conferred by different immunising exposures (numbers, types, and strains of both vaccines and infections), against multiple outcomes of interest, whilst accounting for immune waning.
Research
Disruption of cotranscriptional splicing suggests that RBM39 is a therapeutic target in acute lymphoblastic leukemiaThere are few options for patients with relapse/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, thus this is a major area of unmet medical need. Here, we reveal that inclusion of a poison exon in RBM39, which could be induced both by CDK9 or CDK9 independent CMGC (cyclin-dependent kinases, mitogen-activated protein kinases, glycogen synthase kinases, CDC-like kinases) kinase inhibition, is recognized by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway for degradation.
Research
IDH-mutant gliomas in children and adolescents - from biology to clinical trialsGliomas account for nearly 30% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors in children and adolescents and young adults (AYA), contributing to significant morbidity and mortality. The updated molecular classification of gliomas defines molecularly diverse subtypes with a spectrum of tumors associated with age-distinct incidence.