Australia is set to be home to a world-leading $100 million research centre that seeks to revolutionise how autoimmune diseases are understood and treated.
The Snow Centre for Immune Health, which will be based out of Melbourne’s Walter & Eliza Hall Institute and led alongside the Royal Melbourne Hospital, aims to transform immunological research and personalised medicine for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, as well as asthma and allergies.
It comes as WEHI announced the appointment of world-renowned immunology expert Professor Ken Smith as its new director following a global search.
The philanthropic Snow Medical Research Foundation will establish the research centre in what has been described as one of Australia’s largest and longest running philanthropic partnerships, with an “initial commitment” of $100 million over 10 years.
“We searched the country to find the best teams with the brightest ideas, and we chose to home this project at WEHI as we are confident it will help transform the lives of so many Australians with immunological disease,” said chair Tom Snow.
According to WEHI, the substantial and long-term funding will help support some of Australia’s best scientists to pursue high-risk, high-reward work that could fundamentally change the treatment landscape for immunological diseases.
WEHI acting director Professor Alan Cowman said the Snow Centre for Immune Health will revolutionise healthcare by focusing on proactively predicting and preventing, instead of reacting to and treating, immune illness and disorders.
“While research into immune health has traditionally focused on specific diseases or cells, the Snow Centre for Immune Health will invert this and look at the immune system from a ‘whole-of-system’ perspective – like we do for the cardiovascular and respiratory systems,” he said in a statement.
“The centre will rapidly accelerate this growing field of research and do it at a scale not seen anywhere else in the world.”