New Australian Center Will Develop Therapies for Future Pandemics

Launched with a $172 million philanthropic donation and funds from the state of Victoria, the Melbourne-based research institute aims to construct drug discovery platforms to speed the introduction of new therapies.

Written byShawna Williams

| 2 min read

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Australia’s largest-ever philanthropic donation for medical research will fund a new center dedicated to laying the groundwork for developing therapies to fight future pandemics, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity announced today (August 31). The new Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics (CGCPT) will be part of the Doherty Institute, which is a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The newly announced center is named for Geoffrey Cumming, a businessman who lives in Melbourne and, according to Science, made his fortune in energy. He is contributing 250 million Australian dollars (US$172 million) to the center, while the state of Victoria is chipping in AU$75 million (US$51 million).

Cumming, who was born in Canada and holds Canadian and New Zealand citizenship, has made donations to medical research before, notes The Guardian, including a CA$100 million contribution to the University of Calgary in 2014. ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
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Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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