MedChem Australia is delighted to announce the four projects selected through its competitive Round 3 application process.

Chosen by the independent Selection and Review Committee (SRC), these projects will advance the discovery of new medicines for childhood cancer, endometriosis, epilepsy and infectious disease.

The successful Round 3 projects span a diverse range of therapeutic areas and innovative drug discovery approaches and unmet medical need:

Developing a Novel Therapeutic for Endometriosis

Leads: Dr Thomas Tapmeier, Associate Professor Celine Valant and Prof Beverly Vollenhoven, Monash University

This project will develop a non-hormonal treatment that blocks a protein on inflammatory cells involved in endometriosis. By reducing inflammation without disrupting menstrual cycles, ovulation or fertility, it could offer an important alternative to current hormone-based treatments.

First-in-Class Inhibitor for the Treatment of Neuroblastoma

Leads: Dr Keith Sia, Children’s Cancer Institute; Dr Richard Bujaroski, Monash University

This project will develop a new treatment that blocks an enzyme that helps neuroblastoma cells grow and survive. By targeting this enzyme, researchers aim to create a more effective and less toxic treatment for children with high-risk neuroblastoma.

Novel Allosteric Modulators for the Treatment of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy

Leads: Dr Lauren May and Dr Joanne Baltos, Monash University

Around one in three people with epilepsy continue to have seizures despite available medications. This project aims to develop a new treatment that boosts the brain’s natural ability to prevent seizures, offering hope for people living with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Antivirulence Agents for the Treatment of Urinary Tract Infections

Leads: Professor Martin Scanlon, Monash University; Professor Begoña Heras, La Trobe University; and Professor Charlene Kahler, The University of Western Australia

This project will develop compounds that prevent harmful bacteria from producing the proteins they need to cause urinary tract infections. By disarming bacteria rather than killing them, this approach could preserve beneficial bacteria and reduce the likelihood of antibiotic resistance.

The addition of these projects brings the MedChem Australia portfolio to ten active drug discovery programs. Across this nationally coordinated portfolio, MedChem Australia provides medicinal chemistry and DMPK expertise to help transform promising research discoveries into high-quality drug candidates. By advancing projects through key development milestones, MedChem Australia helps position them for further investment and future clinical development.

Supporting the translation of Australian discoveries into medicines

MedChem Australia Director, Professor Brendon Monahan, congratulated the successful applicants and highlighted the importance of supporting Australian researchers to translate promising discoveries into new medicines.

“Congratulations to the teams selected in Round 3. These exciting projects have the potential to deliver new therapeutic approaches for patients living with significant unmet medical needs,” Professor Monahan said.

“Australia has a world-class biomedical research community, but transforming promising discoveries into medicines requires access to specialised drug discovery expertise. Through our medicinal chemistry and DMPK capabilities, MedChem Australia is helping researchers progress innovative ideas towards high-quality drug candidates and key value-inflection milestones that can attract further investment and support commercialisation.”

Connecting Australia’s drug discovery infrastructure

MedChem Australia is a key component of Australia’s coordinated national drug discovery ecosystem, alongside nationally supported capabilities including the National Drug Discovery Centre (NDDC), the Monash Fragment Platform, the Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility (ATMCF), the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation (CDCO), and other facilities supported by Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA). Collectively, these complementary capabilities provide researchers with a more connected pathway for translating Australian biomedical discoveries into high-quality drug candidates. Many MedChem Australia portfolio projects already draw on this integrated ecosystem, accessing multiple national capabilities as they progress through drug discovery.

The Round 3 projects further strengthen MedChem Australia’s growing national portfolio and demonstrate the value of coordinated investment in Australia’s drug discovery capability. By supporting researchers to progress promising discoveries towards high-quality drug candidates, MedChem Australia is helping build a stronger pipeline of future medicines for patients.

About MedChem Australia

MedChem Australia helps researchers overcome critical capability gaps by providing heavily subsidised access to expert medicinal chemistry and DMPK resources to accelerate drug discovery project progression and enhance commercial and clinical value. Through a competitive and independent application process, selected projects receive expert medicinal chemistry and DMPK support at 80% subsidised cost. A collaboration between Monash University, the University of Sydney and WEHI, with additional funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA), MedChem Australia operates across the hit-to-lead and lead optimisation stages of drug discovery.