Children's Medical Research Institute

University of Sydney
The Children's Hospital at Westmead

Websitecmri.org.au

Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) is an Australian medical research institute located in Westmead that conducts research into children's genetic diseases. As of 2019^[update], current research is focused on cancer, birth defects, neurological conditions such as epilepsy, and gene therapy.^[1]

Much of CMRI's cancer research focuses on telomeres (including telomerase) and the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) mechanism, which was discovered at CMRI in 1997.^[2]

History

The foundation was founded by Professor Lorimer Dods, who was Australia's first professor of children's health, and Sir John Fulton. The foundation raised a lot of money from early telethons in Australia.^[3] Dods eventually gave up his teaching role at the University of Sydney to work with the foundation.^[4] In 1968 one of the foundations supporters, Glynde Nesta Griffiths who was a writer, died and she left her estate of £300,000 to the foundation.^[5]

The director of the foundation is "the Lorimer Dods Professor".^[4]

References

^ "About Us". Children's Medical Research Institute.
^ Bryan, Tracy M.; Englezou, Anna; Dalla-Pozza, Luciano; Dunham, Melissa A.; Reddel, Roger R. (1997). "Evidence for an alternative mechanism for maintaining telomere length in human tumors and tumor-derived cell lines". Nature Medicine. 3 (11): 1271–1274. doi:10.1038/nm1197-1271. ISSN 1078-8956. PMID 9359704.
^ "Our Story". CMRI. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b Yu, John, "Sir Lorimer Fenton Dods (1900–1981)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 17 October 2023
^ Rutledge, Martha, "Gwendolin Winifred Griffiths (1886–1968)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 17 October 2023