New $10.5 million medical research building opens at St Vincents

Melbourne's St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research has opened its new AUD$10.5 million medical research building on the St Vincent's Hospital campus.

Director Prof Tom Kay said it was a major landmark in the history of the 50 year old institute.

"You have to have excellent facilities because you want to attract excellent scientists -- you need both to make the leaps forward," Kay said.

The institute conducts research into juvenile diabetes, metabolism, bones, joints and cancer, structural biology, protein chemistry, virology and neurological diseases. A diabetes centre of excellence was recently established to coordinate diabetes research and clinical applications, including the new clinical technology of islet transplantation.

The Institute has seen a number of significant biomedical achievements including the development of the first automatic protein sequencer by the Institute's first research director Dr Pehr Edman, and the discovery of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) and its role in the spread of cancer to the bones by Prof Jack Martin.

More recently, another Institute scientist and Federation Fellow Prof Bruce Kemp discovered the AMP-activated protein kinase, which appears to play a role in regulating food intake and has become the target for a major drug discovery effort at the Institute.

The new building has been funded by both Victorian state government STII grant of $2 million and a Federal grant of $3.5 million, in addition to substantial support from philanthropic organisations. Kay said the Institute needed to raise an additional $2 million over the next few years to finish paying off the building.

Kay said the Institute currently had around 100 staff and students and expected to grow by at least half again over the next few years.

The new facility was opened by Victorian Minister for Innovation John Brumby who said it would help position the Institute and Victoria as a world-leading medical research hub.