New Dean Bowman Brain Tumour Research Lab Opened

Dean Bowman Brain Tumour Research Lab will help identify causes of brain cancer.

A new brain tumour research lab will open at the University of Adelaide in May to investigate the causes behind one of Australia’s most aggressive and least understood cancers.

The NeuroSurgical Research Foundation (NRF) has received a generous donation from Santos and with additional funding received from the South Australia Police. The Dean Bowman Brain Tumour Research Laboratory will focus on reducing the impact of brain cancer, which kills one Australian every six hours.

The laboratory is named in honour of one of Santos’ senior executives who died from a brain tumour in 2010.

“Brain cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in people aged under 40, yet research into this area is badly needed as survival rates have not improved in two decades,” according to Professor Bob Vink, the NRF Chair of the Neurosurgical Research and Head of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

Professor Vink says the new laboratory, to open on Wednesday 25 May, will provide world-standard equipment and fund much-needed research into brain cancer, which has an almost 100% fatality rate.

“More than 1400 people die of brain cancer each year in Australia and it accounts for more than one third of cancer deaths in children aged under 10,” Professor Vink says.

“The establishment of this research laboratory will allow us to really focus our research on brain tumours, and more specifically how brain tumours enter the brain and subsequently gain a foothold”.

“By preventing cancer cells from other parts of the body entering the brain, we hope to reduce the impact of brain cancer and save lives in the process.”

“Having the latest equipment is vital if we want to remain at the cutting edge of medical research and maintain our 5-star world rating in clinical health research,” Professor Vink says.