Australia’s premier biomedical precinct in Melbourne, Parkville, has received a further boost with the opening of the new $75 million National Drug Discovery Research Centre at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

The researchers will use world-class drug discovery equipment at the Centre to screen hundreds of thousands of chemicals to swiftly identify the chemicals that can alter processes in the body implicated by a disease or condition.

The Centre will help researchers find medicines for cancer immunotherapy and Type 2 diabetes, with Professor Matthias Ernst from the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and Associate Professor Anthony Don from the Centenary Institute leading some important work.

The establishment of the Centre cements Melbourne’s position as a world-class research destination, and further boosts the Parkville precinct’s world-leading concentration of research facilities, hospitals and universities.

Victoria’s thriving medical technologies and pharmaceutical industry which employs more than 23,000 people and generates more than $12.7 billion in revenue per year.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute