Centre of Research Excellence for the Study of Naevi

Conducted by Professor H Peter Soyer (UQ DRC), Professor Adele Green (QIMR Berghofer), Professor Joanne Aitken (CCQ), Professor Scott Menzies (USyd), Associate Professor Rick Sturm (UQ DRC), Dr David Duffy (QIMR Berghofer), Professor Monika Janda (QUT), Professor Tarl Prow (UQ DRC) and Associate Professor Helmut Schaider (UQ DRC)

This study has received funding for 5 years (until the end of 2020) from the NHMRC for a Centre of Research Excellence for the Study of Naevi

Aim of study: To study the development and transformation of naevi to generate new knowledge that leads to improved health outcomes.

Description: Naevi are benign neoplasms of the skin derived from melanocytes.  They vary in number, size, shape and colour, depending on a multitude of endogenous and exogenous factors.  Naevi are the strongest predictor of melanoma risk and potentially precursor lesions for melanoma.  This collaborative study brings expertise together to generate new knowledge on the naevus life cycle, correlate phenotypic characteristics to genetic markers (BNMS study), direct consumer facilitated naevi monitoring, build a fully annotated naevus image database, and to ultimately direct the research findings into early detection of melanoma and translate into clinical practice guidelines.

Status: This collaborative study is well established with progress for each research theme.