Research Missions

[Image appears of Professor Helen Christensen sitting in an office talking to the camera and the camera zooms in on her face as she talks]

Professor Helen Christensen: In Australia there’s about 4,000,000 people who have a mental health problem.

[Music plays and the image changes to show an open pamphlet with a note pad next to it with the Black Dog Institute logo on it]

[Images move through to show the Black Dog Institute building, a statue of a black dog, Helen talking to the camera, and then people sitting in an auditorium] 

Understanding big problems like mental illness requires a large national response and the Medical Research Future Fund really allows us to do that.

[Image changes to show Helen talking to the camera and text appears: Professor Helen Christensen AO, Director and Chief Scientist, Black Dog Institute]

I sit on the Million Minds Advisory Committee.

[Image shows Helen talking to the camera and then the image changes to show Helen and three other staff members sitting around a boardroom table in conversation]

Our role is to help shape the way in which the Medical Research Future Funds will be used in the cause of mental illness.

[Images move through to show an open pamphlet showing a suicide prevention research chart, a Black Dog brooch on Helen’s suit jacket, and then Helen talking to the camera]

Many young kids in their early teens start to develop mental health problems like depression, anxiety and so on.

[Images move through to show Helen talking to the camera, a “Creating a mentally healthier world” booklet on a desk, and then Helen in conversation with a group of young people at a table]

However, we do know that around 22% of those young people could be prevented from developing these disorders in the first place.

[Camera pans around Helen and the group at the table and then the images move through to show Helen talking to the camera and Helen and her colleagues sitting around a boardroom table]

The Medical Research Future Fund has contributed $125 million over ten years to try and make a difference to the lives of people who have mental health problems.

[Camera zooms in on a male listening and then the image changes to show Helen talking to the camera]

At the moment we have three different areas of particular interest.

[Image changes to show a female giving a presentation to a group of people and the camera zooms in on their faces]

One is mental health issues in young people and adolescents.

[Images move through to show Helen talking to the camera, Helen working at a laptop, and then Helen scrolling through the Million Minds Mission Grant Opportunity website]

A second issue is around eating disorders. They cause so much suffering and severe disablement.

[Images move through to show Helen talking to the camera, three females in conversation, a group of people in conversation sitting around a boardroom table, and then Helen talking to the camera]

And the third one is indigenous mental health because we know for example the suicide rate in indigenous young people and adults is two or three times higher than that of non-indigenous people.

[Image changes to show scientists working in a busy laboratory and then the image changes to show Helen talking to the camera]

The Medical Research Future Fund aims to focus on translational research.

[Image changes to show scientists working in a busy laboratory and then the image changes to show Helen talking to the camera]

Australia is very good at discovery but we’re not so good at getting our innovations into practice.

[Image changes to show Helen and a male scientist in conversation while conducting tests on a male’s brain activity and then the image changes to show the “I Had a Black Dog” book on a table]

In fact, we rank much lower than comparable countries around the world and I think the Medical Research Future Fund is a way in which we can bring that investment to make sure that our discoveries are kept here in the country and actually lead to major transformative health care change into the future.

[Camera pans along the Black Dog Institute corridor showing a painted mural of a male next to a dog and the camera zooms in on the mural]

The Medical Research Future Fund is really important for Australian health.  I’m totally committed to mental health.

[Image changes to show a rear view of Helen walking up a flight of stairs and then the image changes to show Helen talking on a mobile phone while looking out of a window]

Like many people I’ve experienced mental health problems myself. I’ve had family members with mental health problems.

[Images move through to show a Black Dog Institute logo on a window, Helen talking to the camera, and then Helen smiling at the camera]

I think there’s a lot of stigma associated with it but I actually think science and research is the answer both to reduce stigma but also to make the innovations that we need in this space.

[Music plays and a blue, red and white hexagon pattern appears over the screen and then the image changes to show the Coat of Arms and text appears on a blue screen: Australian Government, Department of Health, Medical Research Future Fund]

[Music plays and images move through of a male walking into the UNSW Children’s Cancer Institute, and a sign on the side of the building]

[Images move through to show a Zero Childhood Cancer brochure, and then Professor Michelle Haber talking to the camera and text appears: Professor Michelle Haber AM, Executive Director, Children’s Cancer Institute]

Professor Michelle Haber: The Zero Childhood Cancer program is directed only towards the children who are at serious risk of dying from their disease.

[Music plays and images move through of various views of the inside of the UNSW Children’s Cancer Institute]

[Images move through of a Zero Childhood Cancer brochure, Michelle and two colleagues talking at a desk, Michelle holding up the brochure,  and then Michelle talking to the camera]

The Medical Research Future Fund have supported, specifically through the Australian Brain Cancer Mission, so that ultimately we can achieve our goal of zero children dying of cancer.

[Music plays and images move through of Michelle and another female in a laboratory walking towards the camera, and then through the laboratory]

[Images move through of researchers at work in the laboratory]

The Zero Childhood Cancer program is at the absolute forefront of child cancer precision medicine programs internationally.

[Images flash through of a laboratory worker drawing liquid up into a syringe and squirting into a test tube, Michelle talking, researchers working in a laboratory, and Michelle talking to colleagues]

It’s one of the most comprehensive, personalised medicine programs worldwide because it combines extremely comprehensive molecular profiling with the responses of the child’s tumour cells

[Camera zooms in on laboratory workers squirting liquid into a test tube and the camera zooms in on the syringe and the test tube]

that are being grown in the laboratory and actually tested empirically for their response to anti-cancer drugs.

[Image changes to show Michelle talking to the camera]

Their tumour cells will be flown here to Children’s Cancer Institute.

[Images move through of workers inside the laboratory, a worker removing a container from a fridge, Michelle talking to the camera, and a researcher studying a liquid in a clear container]

We will extract the genetic material from those tumour cells and in collaboration with our partners that data, the whole genetic sequence of both the tumour and for comparison the normal DNA of that child’s cells, will be sequenced within two weeks.

[Image changes to show Michelle talking to the camera and then the image changes to show a laboratory worker looking through a microscope and the camera zooms in on her face]

And we have been able to turn around that data and give answers back in real time to children who would otherwise have died of their disease and it has fundamentally changed their life.

[Images move through to show the liquid in the container on the microscope stand, the researcher looking through the microscope, Michelle talking, and then holding up a brochure]

The funding from the Medical Research Future Fund has allowed us to address three major challenges in the area of treating these most resistant childhood cancer brain tumours.

[Camera zooms in on the brochure and then images move through of a female listening to Michelle talking, and then Michelle talking to the camera]

The first is to have sufficient funding to actually roll out this program nationally and ensure that every child in the country with high-risk brain tumours has access to this precision medicine platform.

[Images move through of labelled bottles on a shelf in a laboratory, boxes of samples being gently rotated on a machine, Michelle talking to the camera, and researchers working in the laboratory]

The second challenge is having access to the clinical trials of the latest treatments and a significant proportion of this funding is focussed specifically on more, newer, innovative clinical trials for children with brain tumours.

[Images move through of a male looking through a microscope, a hand adjusting the microscope slide, Michelle talking, and then with a colleague in the laboratory]

And the third focus of the MRFF funding is to develop new immunotherapies for children with cancer, to find new ways of treating these children who have such limited opportunities for cure.

[Images move through of Michelle and a colleague in conversation, Michelle talking to the camera, Michelle and the colleague looking at a sample in the lab again, and Michelle talking]

So, this is genuine translation of bench to bedside research and then back again where the responses that we see in the clinic then inform the next experiments in the laboratory.

[Images move through of Michelle and a female colleague in the laboratory looking at data on a screen and talking]

And this is the sort of funding that the MRFF was committed to supporting.

[Image changes to show Michelle talking to the camera]

These are the ways that we will take on this challenge and beat it.

[Images move through of Michelle and a researcher at a microscope, a close-up of a sample under the microscope, the researcher looking through the microscope, and an area outside of a building]

We’ve seen the results of research, the impact of improvements in survival rate from zero to 80% for kids with cancer.

[Image changes to show Michelle talking to the camera]

That’s hundreds of thousands of children who are alive today who would not have been without medical research.

[Camera zooms in on Michelle’s face as she talks to the camera]

That is the power of what we do.

[Music plays and the image changes to show Michelle standing in a laboratory and smiling at the camera and then the image changes to show a hexagonal blue, white and red pattern on the screen]

[Coat of Arms and text appears on a blue screen: Australian Government, Department of Health, Medical Research Future Fund]