His nine-year tenure as an EMBL Australia group leader allowed Professor Chen Davidovich to make and nurture connections with other ambitious researchers across Australia, enabling him to identify a critical gap in the nation’s research infrastructure and address it by establishing a dedicated RNA mass spectrometry platform.
Now leading a $4m Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) project, Prof Davidovich (Monash University) is developing this platform to support local RNA therapeutics development
and enable earlier detection of diseases, including cancer.
In collaboration with current and alumni EMBL Australia group leaders, Prof David Lynn (SAHMRI) and Dr Qi Zhang (SAiGENCI), and leveraging state-of-the-art NCRIS facilities at Bioplatforms Australia nodes, this initiative will deliver comprehensive quality assessments of mRNA and RNA therapeutics.
Prof Davidovich said the MRFF National Critical Research Infrastructure (NCRI) initiative will facilitate access to new RNA therapeutics for a range of conditions – including cancer, infectious diseases, auto-immune and metabolic diseases – and support the identification of early disease biomarkers, paving the way for innovative treatments.