Snow Centre for Immune Health

Snow Centre for Immune Health

A new era for global immunology research

Snow Centre for Immune Health


Snow Medical has partnered with The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute to establish a centre for immune health by investing $100 million over 10 years – one of the largest and longest running philanthropic investments in Australian history.

Research at the Snow Centre for Immune Health will address the increasing “tidal wave” of immune disease in modern society:

  • Debilitating autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis affect 10% of the population and are some of our most significant chronic health problems.
  • One-in-five Australians live with some form of allergic disease including anaphylactic food allergies.
  • 10% of Australians live with asthma.

Co-led by WEHI and The Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Centre will bring together a team of leading Australian and international scientists in an ambitious 15-year research program. The research program will decipher what factors give us good or poor immune health, transforming and accelerate personalised diagnosis and treatment for people suffering from immune diseases and dysfunction.

The Centre commenced operations in mid 2024, and will employ more than 50 scientists, clinicians and staff within the first five years.

Snow Medical has chosen to partner with WEHI to lead this initiative with national and international collaborators. The partnership acknowledges WEHI’s leadership across important and broad dimensions. Built from strong philanthropic beginnings, WEHI has an outstanding track record in science and medical research, institutional leadership, and successful commercial development. WEHI’s culture encourages scientific curiosity, develops young researchers, empowers high performing teams and the institute has been a sector leader in advancing equity and equality.

Read more: Fact Sheet – Snow Centre for Immune Health

To help support and guide the Snow Centre for Immune Health, we have established a Provisional Science and Technical Advisory Committee (PSTAC). PSTAC provides independent advice to Snow Medical and WEHI on matters relating to the operation and strategic scientific direction of the Snow Centre for Immune Health. The PSTAC is chaired by Professor Sir John Savill.

PSTAC Committee Membership

Tom Snow, Snow Medical Chair

“We empower bold transformative research across Australia by backing the best and brightest researchers – and resourcing them with the tools they need to be world-class,”

“We searched the country to find the best teams with the brightest ideas, and we chose to home this project at WEHI as we are confident it will help transform the lives of so many Australians with immunological disease.”

    Funding bold research

    The Centre is being funded by an investment of up to $100 million by the Snow Medical Research Foundation – $10 million per year for 10 years.

    This substantial, long-term funding will allow researchers to collaboratively pursue a bold and far-sighted research program beyond the predominantly short-term research funding available in Australia.

    This philanthropic investment will help the Centre move towards solving the grand challenges of immunology to stem the wave of immune-related diseases.

    The $100 million commitment builds on the legacy of Snow Medical’s Fellowship program and other research funding, doubling the Foundation’s investment in medical research from $100 million over the four years since 2019 to over $200 million by the end of 2023.

      Meet the researchers

      The Centre will empower research leaders including WEHI laboratory head Dr Vanessa Bryant and her team to discover new treatments, and to predict, diagnose and even prevent immune disorders.

      WEHI division head, Professor Daniel Gray, believes the Centre’s single focus will help solve some of the biggest challenges in immunology.

      Terry Snow AM

      “Australia has some of the best researchers in the world. We want to get them out of short-term funding cycles and give them freedom to experiment and take risks – we’re here to back them,”

        Collaborators

        Led by Professor Phil Hodgkin (Joint Head of the Immunology Division, WEHI) and Professor Jo Douglass (Director of Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital), the Centre’s collaborators include researchers from leading Australian and international institutions including:

        University of Cambridge (UK)

        The Francis Crick Institute (UK)

        Northeastern University (US)

        Rockefeller University (US)

        Garvan Institute (Aus)

        University of Adelaide (Aus)