SVI’s 2025 Research Report defined by pioneering discoveries and enduring partnerships

Director Professor Tom Kay presented the 2025 SVI Research Report at our Annual General Meeting, highlighting the Institute’s most impactful achievements this past year. The report reflects a year of scientific excellence and purpose-driven progress, celebrating research advancements that are not only innovative, but deeply aligned with real-world health needs.

Tom showcased our key milestones, including more than $6.5 million in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding. This included prestigious Investigator Grants awarded to Tom himself, Associate Professor Davis McCarthy and Dr Sarah Henrikus, fuelling research into type 1 diabetes, cancer, and DNA repair.

A major focus of the report was SVI’s commitment to translating discovery into impact. The establishment of a Microbiome Lab and the advancement of the Heart, Exercise and Research Trials (HEART) Lab—led by Professors Michael Kamm, Mark Morrison, and André La Gerche—demonstrate SVI’s strategic expansion into areas with urgent public health needs. Notably, Associate Professor Liz Paratz joined the HEART Lab to accelerate research into sudden cardiac arrest.

Outgoing Board Chair Tony Reeves praised the Institute’s collaborative culture and long-standing relationships with partners such as St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and the University of Melbourne. He also welcomed the growth of SVI’s Rising Stars Program and the enduring success of the Discovery Fund, which has now distributed more than $2 million to early-career researchers.

Incoming Chair Michael Burn expressed enthusiasm for the Institute’s future, particularly its move into the state-of-the-art Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD) mid-year. “With our researchers joining a multidisciplinary hub, we are poised to tackle real-world healthcare challenges in bold new ways,” he noted.

The 2025 Research Report reaffirms SVI’s enduring commitment to improving lives through science with purpose. As the Institute looks ahead to its next chapter, the path forward is clear: to continue pushing the boundaries of medical research and to turn discovery into lasting impact.