Bone Marrow Research Laboratories

The Bone Marrow Research Laboratories (BMRL) were founded in 1994 as a joint initiative between The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The Bone Marrow Donor Institute. Their original charter was to research diseases curable by bone marrow transplantation. The research direction has broadened slightly over the years to include breast cancer and developmental defects, but a significant focus remains on the original diseases such as leukaemia, and the genetic blood disorders, thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia.

The BMRL is staffed by five principal investigators and a team of 30 scientists, students and technical support staff. Director of BMRL, Professor Stephen Jane, and his group work on gene regulation in the area of human embryonic development, and have a particular focus on haemoglobin production and skin and neural tube development. Dr David Curtis and Dr Matt McCormack study the origins of blood formation and how blood cells can be reprogrammed to repair other body organs. Dr Chris Slape's research centres around the establishment and characterisation of a mouse-model of a pre-leukemic syndrome known as Myelodysplasia. The fifth principal investigator, Dr Graham Lieschke and his group, work on the origins of white blood cells and leukemia.

Recent highlights have included the attraction of substantial peer-reviewed financial support from various national and international funding bodies, an excellent publication record in top international journals (with articles in Nature Medicine, EMBO Journal, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Blood, Development and others), and an increase in the level of community involvement through Rotary groups and schools. Dr Stephen Ting, a PhD student in the BMRL, had a manuscript published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine detailing the discovery of a gene involved in spinal cord closure. Again, this will open up many diverse avenues of research in developmental biology.

Click here to obtain information regarding current research projects being conducted at the BMRL.

Research Staff	Students
Professor Stephen M. Jane - Director	Ms Fiona Brown - PhD Candidate
Dr David Curtis- Principal Investigator	Mr Felix Ellett - PhD Candidate
Dr Graham Lieschke - Principal Investigator	Ms Nhu-Y Nguyen - PhD Candidate
Dr Matthew McCormack - Principal Investigator	Mr Nicholas Scott - PhD Candidate
Dr Christopher Slape - Principal Investigator	Mr Yuen Tan - PhD Candidate
Ms Ashleigh Clarke - Laboratory Manager	Ms Sylvia Mahara - Honours Student
Dr Charbel Darido - Postdoctoral Fellow	Ms Farrah El-Safin - Honours Student
Dr Sebastian Dworkin - Postdoctoral Fellow
Mrs Smitha Georgy - Research Fellow
Mr Luke Pase - Research Fellow
Dr Gerhard Rank - Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr Jessica Salmon - Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr Quan Zhao -  Postdoctoral Fellow
Ms Alana Auden - Research Assistant
Ms Loretta Cerruti - Research Assistant
Mr John Hayman - Research Assistant
Mrs Chayanica Nasa - Research Assistant
Ms Jesslyn Saw - Research Assistant
Ms Seema Srivastava - Research Assistant
Ms Sony Varma - Research Assistant

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