LEUKAEMIA MICROENVIRONMENT & HIGH RISK CHILDHOOD LEUKAEMIA
With
Associate Professor Laurence Cheung
Curtin University
& Research Lead, Curtin Medical Research Institute,
Western Australia &
Research Lead,
The Kids Research Institute,
Western Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Western Australia | February 2026
Associate Professor Laurence Cheung is an exemplary pharmacist-scientist whose research is focused on improving outcomes in children with high-risk leukaemia.
He obtained his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree with First Class Honours from the Curtin University in 2000 and have been a registered pharmacist since 2001. In 2014, he completed the PhD studies at The Kids Research Institute Australia (The Kids) in the area of haematopoiesis and paediatric leukaemia.
He is now an Associate Professor at the Curtin Medical School as well as Curtin Medical Research Institute, and a Co-head of the Leukaemia Translational Research Laboratory at The Kids.
He has attracted over $8.7 million in research funding, including 16 awards as CIA (over $6.1 million). Assoc Prof Cheung was named the 2019 Cancer Council of WA Early Career Cancer Researcher of the Year and received the STEM Early Career Research Award at Curtin University in 2019.
Assoc Prof Cheung enjoys nurturing and motivating the next generation scientists and HDR students and he believes that the true success is about influencing others to achieve their own greatness.
He has supervised two PhD and one Masters students to completion, and is currently supervising 4 PhD students as a Primary Supervisor. In 2023, Assoc Prof Cheung received the Faulty of Health Sciences Teaching Excellence Individual Award for Honours, Postgraduate, or HDR supervision at Curtin University.
Funding sources include: Toby for Childhood Cancer, Cancer Council Western Australia, WA Government
Source: Supplied and adapted
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6298-5288
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Mental health research on first responders in regional, rural and remote Australia
Dr Rikki Jones has been awarded to date a total of over $430,000 in research funding. She is currently leading four large national research teams focusing on rural health and sustainable rural health workforce (include mental health of first responders, sexual violence in rural Australia, virtual simulated nursing placements, and nursing students experience with online learning, connection and transitioning to practice).
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Health and economic burden of interstitial lung diseases
Dr Cox’s main research interests focus on respiratory diseases and primarily on the economic burden and economic evaluation of interventions and treatments for their management. She earned her PhD from the University of Tasmania where her doctoral research examined the health and economic burden of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in Australia, one component of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence for Pulmonary Fibrosis, a national project implemented alongside the Australian IPF Registry and the Lung Foundation Australia. This research provided the first epidemiological profile and first costing estimates of the economic burden of the disease in Australia, providing essential evidence for health service reimbursement policies.
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Professor Alex Fornito
PROFESSOR ALEX FORNITO
HEAD OF THE BRAIN MAPPING AND MODELLING RESEARCH PROGRAM
TURNER INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN AND MENTAL HEALTH, MONASH UNIVERSITY
VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
