Published on: Nov 06, 2025
Five researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) have secured more than $1.34 million in grants from the Western Australian Future Health Research & Innovation (FHRI) Fund, recognising their potential to deliver breakthrough health outcomes for the community.
The funded projects cover a wide range of fields — from improving cancer diagnostics to promoting healthy ageing — and reflect ECU’s growing contribution to solving some of Western Australia’s most pressing health challenges.
Professor Elin Gray, Deputy Director of ECU’s Centre for Precision Health (CPH) and Head of the Translational Melanoma Research Group, received funding under the Innovative Solutions – Precision Health division. Her project, Extracellular Vesicles-derived Signature of response to Immuno-ONcology (EnVISION), aims to develop a prototype diagnostic test that can accurately predict how patients with melanoma, lung, and renal cancers respond to immunotherapy.
Under the WA Near Miss Awards (WANMA) Emerging Leaders program, four ECU early-career researchers were also recognised:
Dr Claire Pulker (Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute) – for her study on how supermarket advertising affects population diets, with a goal to promote healthier food marketing.
Dr Vivian Chua (CPH) – for identifying new therapeutic targets in high-risk uveal melanoma.
Dr Abadi Kahsu Gebre – for his project Getting to the heart of healthy ageing, which seeks to reduce falls among older adults with cardiovascular disease.
Dr Cassandra Smith – for My heart matters, a project co-designing strategies to empower women through improved cardiovascular education, screening, and prevention.
The WANMA Emerging Leaders program supports Western Australian researchers who narrowly missed out on National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants. It provides 12-month project grants and three-year fellowships, requiring recipients to strengthen and resubmit their proposals to the NHMRC.
Additionally, Dr Leslie Beasley from the CPH has been named among the 2026 Cancer Research Project Grant recipients. Her project, cEVsig: a blood test for predicting and enhancing response to immunotherapy, investigates whether a new genetic marker found in extracellular vesicles can predict and improve outcomes for stage III and IV melanoma patients receiving immunotherapy.
The Cancer Research Project Grants provide up to one year of funding for early-stage cancer research and are jointly supported by the FHRI Fund and the Cancer Council WA.
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