OUR GOAL
Brain cancers are some of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Despite recent therapeutic advances, patients with the most common type of brain cancer, glioma, have an overall poor outcome.
We want to reduce the impact of brain cancer by improving patient outcomes. Better diagnosis, treatment and ultimately prevention are the key.
Please join us in our goal by making a donation today.
OUR WORK
Brainstorm supports the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) Department of Neuropathology and University of Sydney’s Brain & Mind Research Institute Molecular Neuropathology Program.
These programs in turn provide support to RPAH neurosurgeons, oncologists, and other specialists both at the RPAH and at hospitals nation-wide.
Research and clinical activity are combined in the one location through a partnership between the University of Sydney’s Brain & Mind Research Institute and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. This partnership provides a strong pathway from discovery to implementation, promoting a priority-driven approach to research and innovation.
Our team is driving improvements in healthcare delivery through the translation of research evidence into better health outcomes.
Many of the techniques we use in clinical assessments have been developed as part of research programs. The opposite is also true.
DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES
We provide clinical and molecular tests for diagnosing and assessing brain cancer and muscle biopsy interpretation for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. We are also the NSW state referral centre for all suspected clinical cases of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Early and accurate identification of brain cancer enables more targeted treatments, improving the outcome for the patient.
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
We are developing new techniques to provide a deeper understanding of brain cancer, and making life-changing discoveries into novel therapies and strategies for the detection of brain cancer in its earliest stages – a first step towards prevention.
WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE
The Brain and Mind Research Institute has world leading researchers in neuroscience, neurology, molecular biology, neuropsychology and psychiatry.
The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital has a unique mix of world class neurosurgeons, oncologists, clinical nurse specialists, radiologists and pathologists working hand in hand to improve patient outcomes in brain cancer.
The close and productive relationship of RPA Neuropathology with clinicians and with world leading researchers and facilities at the Brain and Mind Research Institute provides opportunities for translational research into brain cancer unparalleled anywhere in Australia.
Brainstorm is dedicated to growing this productive partnership, by providing research equipment, consumables and most importantly research staff to work on the biggest challenges in brain cancer and neuropathology.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
To reduce the impact of brain cancer and improve patient outcomes, we need to:
1. Build technological capacity;
2. Grow the workforce of outstanding brain cancer researchers;
A gift of $1000 would fund consumables brain tumour research for 2 weeks.
A gift of $120,000 would fund a staff member to work on the Tumour Bank – a collection of tissue from consenting Royal Prince Alfred Hospital patients. In this role, the staff member would record patient histories and treatments to correlate these characteristics with the tissue samples. This information will provide new insights into brain cancer progression.
A gift of $150,000 would allow us to purchase a benchtop deep sequencer to analyse a wide array of genes involved in cancer, providing clues to future preventions and treatments as well as improved diagnostic and prognostic information for patients.
If everyone who knew someone with brain cancer donated just $1 we would have $600,000 to provide a mid-career researcher with five years of guaranteed funding while they build their research profile.
Even the most promising researchers can struggle in the earlier years of their career due to competition for funding with established researchers. We want to give a mid-career researcher the stability to fully establish themselves in the field following an already outstanding track record.
This position would in turn attract neurology and neurosurgery trainees, and graduate students to the field of brain cancer research, building our national workforce of talented brain cancer researchers.
