To know that research you worked on is now saving thousands of people
In the long arc of medicine's effort to understand and defeat cancer, two Australian researchers have been honored for work that moved from molecular curiosity to life-saving treatment. Professors Andrew Roberts and Suzanne Cory of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute received major American Society of Haematology awards in recognition of decades spent tracing the biology of blood cancers down to a single protein — and then turning that knowledge into venetoclax, a drug now keeping thousands of patients alive around the world. Their story is a reminder that the distance between a laboratory insight and a human life saved is measured not in meters but in years of patient, collaborative science.
- Blood cancers once left clinicians watching helplessly as patients failed to respond — the gap between what medicine knew and what it could do was the wound that drove this research.
- The discovery that a protein called BCL-2 acts as a survival switch for leukaemia cells reframed the disease as something that could, in principle, be switched off.
- Translating that molecular insight into an approved drug required partnerships across continents, first-in-human trials, and decades of iterative scientific risk.
- Venetoclax is now clinically approved in Australia and internationally for two forms of leukaemia, with thousands of patients in remission as a direct result.
- The ASH awards land as both personal recognition and a signal of Australia's standing as a genuine force in global cancer therapeutics.
Two researchers at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have received prestigious honors from the American Society of Haematology — Professor Andrew Roberts the Helen M. Ranney Clinical and Translational Science Medal, and Professor Suzanne Cory the Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize — for work that has fundamentally reshaped how blood cancers are treated.
Roberts arrived at leukaemia research through the emotional dissonance of clinical practice: the relief of patients who recovered set against the helplessness of watching others fail. That contrast drove him toward laboratory science, and a PhD under the legendary Don Metcalf deepened his conviction that research could solve what medicine alone could not. Cory's entry came through a different door — the 1970s discovery by Bishop and Varmus that cancer-causing genes originate in normal cells reframed cancer as a genetic disorder and opened a frontier she moved quickly to explore.
Their careers converged around BCL-2, a protein that functions as a survival signal for cancer cells. Cory's team demonstrated how BCL-2, activated by chromosomal changes in follicular lymphoma, kept malignant cells from dying. The implication was profound: block BCL-2, and cancer cells might be forced into the programmed death they were evading. That insight became venetoclax, developed in partnership with Roche, Genentech, and AbbVie, with Roberts leading the first-in-human and combination trials.
The drug is now approved internationally for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia. Thousands of patients are alive because of research conducted in Melbourne. Cory, who led WEHI as director for over a decade, is now Honorary Professor Emeritus; Roberts holds the Metcalf Chair of Leukaemia Research and continues practicing as a clinical haematologist. The awards honor not only two individuals but a scientific culture willing to follow a discovery all the way to the bedside.
Two researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have been recognized by the American Society of Haematology for work that has fundamentally changed how blood cancers are treated. Professor Andrew Roberts received the Helen M. Ranney Clinical and Translational Science Medal, while Professor Suzanne Cory was awarded the Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize—honors that reflect three decades of collaborative discovery and the translation of that discovery into a drug now used globally.
Roberts came to blood cancer research through the emotional weight of clinical practice. As a junior doctor, he witnessed both the profound relief of patients recovering from leukaemia and the helplessness of watching others fail to respond to available treatments. The contrast troubled him. After completing his clinical training, he pursued a PhD under Don Metcalf, the foundational figure in modern haematology, whose own work on colony stimulating factors had already helped tens of millions of people. That apprenticeship crystallized Roberts's conviction that laboratory science could solve the problems that clinical medicine alone could not.
Cory's path into the field began with a different spark. In the mid-1970s, two American researchers named Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus discovered that cancer-causing genes found in viruses actually originated from normal cellular genes—a finding that won them the Nobel Prize in 1989 and reframed cancer as a genetic disorder. Cory, then working in immunogenetics, recognized immediately that this opened a new frontier. She and her team began investigating the molecular genetics of cancer and the role of cell death in cancer development. Working at WEHI, with its deep roots in haematology, they naturally turned their attention to blood cancers.
The breakthrough that would define both their careers came through collaboration. Roberts and Cory, working with colleagues including Jerry Adams, made critical discoveries about a protein called BCL-2 and its role in keeping leukaemia cells alive. Cory's team had shown that BCL-2, activated by chromosome translocations in human follicular lymphoma, functioned as a survival signal for cancer cells. This insight was transformative—it suggested that blocking BCL-2 might kill cancer cells by forcing them to undergo programmed cell death, or apoptosis. The theoretical understanding led to a drug: venetoclax, developed in partnership with the pharmaceutical companies Roche, Genentech, and AbbVie.
Roberts led the first-in-human trials and the first combination trials of venetoclax. The drug is now clinically approved in Australia and internationally for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia. Thousands of patients around the world are alive and in remission because of research conducted in Melbourne laboratories. For Roberts, that fact—that work he touched is now saving lives—represents the deepest reward a scientist can know.
Cory served as director of WEHI from 1996 to 2009, a period during which she worked to elevate the institute's global profile and advance science policy. She is now Honorary Professor Emeritus at WEHI and a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Roberts holds the Metcalf Chair of Leukaemia Research at the University of Melbourne, serves as Deputy Director of WEHI, and works as a clinical haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Both continue to shape the field they entered decades ago.
The awards from the American Society of Haematology are recognition not only of their individual brilliance but of a particular kind of scientific culture—one in which basic research discoveries are pursued relentlessly until they become treatments that work in human bodies. The path from understanding how a protein functions to developing a drug that saves lives is long, uncertain, and collaborative. These two researchers have walked it, and in doing so have changed what is possible for patients with blood cancers.
Citações Notáveis
There were moments of profound joy that came from watching someone recover and reclaim their life. But those moments were often contrasted by watching others deteriorate despite our best efforts.— Professor Andrew Roberts, on his early experience as a junior doctor
To know that research you worked on is now saving thousands of people around the world – there's truly nothing more meaningful or rewarding as a scientist.— Professor Andrew Roberts
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What made you decide to move from understanding the basic biology of blood cells to actually developing treatments?
For me, it was watching patients suffer from treatments that barely worked. I saw the gap between what we knew in the lab and what we could offer in the clinic, and I couldn't accept it. Don Metcalf showed me that basic research could close that gap.
And Suzanne, you came at it from a different angle—you were drawn to the genetics of cancer itself, not the clinical side first.
That's right. When I learned about oncogenes, I became obsessed with understanding how normal genes become cancer genes. But the real power came when we realized we could use that understanding to find a weakness in cancer cells—a way to kill them.
The BCL-2 discovery seems like it was the hinge point. How did you know that blocking it would actually work as a treatment?
We didn't know, not at first. We knew BCL-2 kept cells alive. The leap was asking: what if we could force cancer cells to die instead? That's where apoptosis came in. It took years of work to turn that idea into venetoclax.
And now thousands of patients are on that drug. Does that change how you think about your work?
It validates everything. The long hours, the failed experiments, the uncertainty—it all means something when you see a patient walk out of the hospital alive because of research you did. That's the whole point.
Do you think about the patients when you're in the lab?
Always. That's what keeps you going when the science gets hard.