It’s a special year for the team as we not only commemorate this important milestone, together we celebrate wins for the Clinical Trials Unit and PBI’s Research Team.

We celebrate a significant achievement for the Research Team as PBI and Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health Ltd (Burnet Institute), have entered into a Service Agreement for the validation of enhanced potency of Stellabody technology in primary tissues of patients with blood cancers. The PBI Research Team will perform flow cytometry at Murdoch University to assist in the rapid translation of the antibody discovery for this study. Stellabody is the Burnet Institute’s leading pre-clinical therapeutic platform technology asset.

We are pleased to announce On Ki Chan, a Research Scientist with significant experience and interest in flow cytometry, will join the team in September to lead the study. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of this important research for patients with blood cancers such as multiple myeloma and lymphocytic leukaemia.

I am pleased to provide an update on AstraZeneca’s SUPERNOVA clinical trial, the largest trial the Clinical Trials Unit has participated in. As a response to the ongoing pandemic, AstraZeneca is developing mAbs (a type of immunotherapy) to the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, which is the contributing agent in the COVID-19 virus.

Due to the growing prevalence of new variants, it is imperative to develop a treatment to help immunocompromised patients against the effects of COVID-19 (and new COVID-19 variants). This study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of AZD3152; and administration to prevent and/or treat COVID-19.

Our Clinical Trials Team Manager, Jarod Horobin and Senior Ethics & Start-Up Coordinator, Bibin George, attended the AstraZeneca SUPERNOVA APAC Investigator Meeting in Malaysia in early July. Following this, the trial has been formally activated, with the first patient recruited on the 7^th of July. We are screening patients for the trial with the goal of recruiting the 150 patients that have already registered their interest in participating.

These are two announcements among the many activities happening at PBI, with the Clinical Trials Team currently running 30 active trials. The buzz of energy and hum of patients have filled the organisation with a great vitality.

I am pleased to Chair an organisation with a mission of making blood disorders a thing of the past, working with a team dedicated to this outcome. I look forward to the next decade of providing outstanding care to our patients, all the while advancing treatment options for our blood disorder community.

Kind regards,

Professor Ross Baker

Chair, Perth Blood Institute