A Smart State grant of $2 million has been given to a QUT-based international alliance dedicated to the research of prostate cancer, which will be launched in November.
The newly founded Australian-Canadian Prostate Cancer Research Alliance is a $15 million network of scientists and clinicians that will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and resources across both countries.
Directed by QUT prostate cancer Professor Colleen Nelson, the Alliance will connect nearly 200 scientists and clinicians across Australia and Canada.
Professor Nelson, who is also the Chair of Prostate Cancer Research at QUT's Prostate Centre in the Princess Alexandra Hospital Biomedical Precinct, said the centre would form the main hub of the Alliance.
"In Queensland, the Alliance will engage with the state's world class research institutes, which will encourage technological advances to be applied to prostate cancer research," Professor Nelson said.
"The Alliance will achieve collaborations within and between Australia and Canada through short term exchanges of trainees, staff and faculty between sites.
"This will allow access to key expertise, unique resources and technologies.
"We will build a long-term data and network hub and electronic collaborative tool-set to support prostate cancer research across Australia and Canada, leveraging Queensland's extraordinary expertise in bioinformatics and health informatics."
Professor Nelson, who was a founding member of the Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, said Australia and Canada shared a collaborative spirit and had similar academic and clinical practices, which led naturally to an alliance between the nations.
This alliance will be launched with an inaugural clinical and scientific meeting in conjunction with the National Prostate Cancer Conference on the Gold Coast, November 15-17.
