Fostering collaboration among researchers, clinicians, and industry partners to accelerate research translation into clinical practice.
Illumina-University of Melbourne partnership
Partnering to provide the infrastructure, expertise, systems and analysis to translate and implement genomics into routine clinical care.
In 2019, the University of Melbourne and Illumina, one of the world’s leading biotech companies, announced a partnership to enhance Melbourne’s reputation as a world-class biomedical precinct.
Genomics-driven personalised care presents an incredible opportunity to transform patient outcomes and create substantial efficiencies for the healthcare system.
The two organisations are combining affordable, scalable next-generation sequencing with the research expertise, infrastructure, systems and analysis needed to implement genomics into routine clinical care.
The Advanced Genomics Collaboration
The key initiative of the partnership is The Advanced Genomics Collaboration (TAGC). This hub was established with a $60 million investment in 2021 by the University of Melbourne and Illumina with support from the Victorian Government’s Invest Victoria and Department of Education and Training.
TAGC has three core infrastructure platforms, based within the Collaborative Centre for Genomic Cancer Medicine, enabling multi-disciplinary collaborations to use the power of genomics to make healthcare more effective, efficient and affordable for everyone.
- The Clinical Genomics Platform, led by Professor Sean Grimmond, delivers rapid, affordable sequencing of whole genomes on a scale that provides timely insight for collaborating researchers and clinicians.
- The Bioinformatics Platform, led by Professor Oliver Hofmann, is creating, storing and analysing national and global-scale cloud-based genomic datasets.
- The Health Economics Platform, led by Professor Gang Chen, uses this analysis to provide evidence-based guidance for public policy and further investment to embed genomics in healthcare.
These three platforms are underpinned by cloud-based informatics infrastructure enabling the delivery of genomics at scale for flagship and future innovation projects.
VCCC Alliance
In the genomics era, partnerships are critical to advancing cancer research. Both the University of Melbourne and Peter Mac are proud partners of the VCCC Alliance, facilitating the sharing of infrastructure and supporting collaboration between 10 leading medical research, academic and clinical institutions.
VCCC Alliance partners work strategically together, integrating cancer research, clinical trials and education to enable and accelerate the translation of scientific evidence into patient and community benefit.The Centre for Cancer Research is located in the VCCC building along with alliance partner Peter Mac.
Melbourne Biomedical Precinct
The Collaborative Centre is located in the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct, home to more than 40 leading hospitals, research, teaching and biotechnology organisations.
Together the Precinct's partners have established a reputation as one of the leading biomedical precincts in Australia, and is known around the world. The Precinct employs close to 50,000 of the state’s brightest minds, including 10,000 researchers, and educates over 7,000 biomedical, health and medical students each year.