Professor Mark Dawson is a clinician-scientist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, meaning he both treats blood cancer patients and leads cutting-edge cancer research in the lab. After working as a doctor for some time, Professor Dawson wanted to know why some patients responded better to treatment than others.
Video transcript
[Image shows Professor Mark Dawson in a laboratory type setting standing next to a female colleague who is looking through a microscope]
Professor Mark Dawson: My major area of focus is haematology, and I see mainly patients with blood diseases.
[Image changes to show Professor Mark Dawson, Peter Mac, talking to the camera]
My research is aimed at understanding how leukaemia’s emerge, how they evolve and how they escape some of the therapeutic challenges we throw at them.
[Image has changed back to show Professor Mark Dawson in a laboratory type setting standing next to a female colleague]
About a thousand Australians get diagnosed with this disease every year. About 70 per cent of them will succumb to the disease, ultimately.
[Image changes back to show Professor Mark Dawson talking to the camera]
It is very frustrating to see patients for which there is little we can do. That, by itself, is the most inspiring aspect of my research.
[Image has changed back to show Professor Mark Dawson in a laboratory type setting standing next to a female colleague]
The NHMRC is instrumental to everything we do, they are the main funders of my research program, but I would say that they’re fair more valuable than just the monetary value.
[Image changes back to show Professor Mark Dawson talking to the camera]
The fact that we have achieved some NHMRC funding means that our peers feel that our work is both valuable and respected in the field.
[Image has changed back to show Professor Mark Dawson in a laboratory type setting standing next to a female colleague]
We know more about this disease than we’ve ever done before and we now have the capacity to be able to address some of the major limitations that has held us back in transforming the treatment of this disease.
[Music plays and NHMRC logo appears on screen with text beside it: Building a Healthier Australia]
End of transcript.