The missing piece of the puzzle

What if the missing piece in diagnosing, and even treating, a rare disease was hiding in plain sight? For one such condition, mevalonate kinase deficiency, which affects at least one in a million people globally, that piece may now have been uncovered. In this episode, Garvan's Professor Mike Roge…

Calling killer cells to action

Immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of many blood cancers, harnessing the immune system so our bodies can fight back. But for solid tumours, like pancreatic cancer with a survival rate of just 13%, that breakthrough has remained frustratingly out of reach.  In this episode, we explore w…

Arthritis: uncovering pathways to better treatment

Arthritis affects millions of people, but the underlying causes are still not fully understood. What makes the immune system that normally protects us suddenly attack our joints? And why do arthritis flares seem to arrive without warning? In this episode, we explore how certain immune cells or sig…

Liver cancer: discovering the next generation of therapy targets

For decades, the fight against cancer has focused on killing the tumour cell. We treated cancer like an isolated entity that needed to be destroyed – but what if we’ve been looking at the wrong target? In this episode, we delve into the critical insight that cancer is not just a rogue cell – it’s …

Biologics- engineering tomorrow’s medicines

Therapies and drugs have evolved enormously in the last 30 years. For example, in cancer, where previously our options were limited to surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, we’re now hearing terms like cancer immunotherapy, targeted therapies and even cancer vaccines. Many of these are biologics.…

Breaking the barriers to treating pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the toughest cancers to treat – it’s aggressive, often diagnosed late, and doesn’t respond well to standard therapies. In this episode, we meet Professor Marina Pajic who is working at the cutting-edge of science to transform how we understand and treat this disease.

Accelerating discovery, empowering translation

Garvan is one of Australia's largest independent medical research institutes with a single focus: to make discoveries that will improve health for all. In this episode, you’ll hear from Executive Director Professor Benjamin Kile on how he came to be at Garvan's helm and his strategy for driving ext…

Trailer - Dr Kishore Kumar

Hope for Parkinson's, ataxia and dystonia

In Australia alone, 50 people are diagnosed with Parkinson's every day. Therapy options are limited, as they are for other movement and muscle disorders, such as ataxia and dystonia. In this episode of Medical Minds, we meet neurologist and researcher Associate Professor Kishore Kumar, who is worki…

Trailer - Professor Thomas Cox