Jack
News Stories
Jack was an all-action kid. Bubbly and energetic, he was always doing something and willing to try anything; he would never sit still.
When Jack turned nine, he lost his energy and began to get absent and dazed. An MRI showed a large brain tumour, classified as a low-grade glioma. After a successful operation, Jack was given a positive prognosis and returned to school within three months.
Just over a year later, Jack woke up with a terrible headache and started vomiting. The tumour was back. This time it had a devastating effect on his young body. This bright, energetic young boy was bedbound, going blind and in constant pain. The tumour was aggressive, inoperable and would not respond to any conventional treatment. His parents were forced to face the reality that they may lose their precious boy.
Jack was enrolled on the Zero Childhood Cancer Program (ZERO), where his tumour was analysed by the computational biology data team (established by Luminesce Alliance) to determine its specific genetic make-up. A genetic mutation called BRAF V600E was identified as driving the cancer’s growth, and there was a drug that would target it. Jack quickly improved and is now back at school – as active as ever.
The team were Highly Commended in the prestigious Research Australia Health and Medical Research Awards 2024 -Digital and Data Health Innovation category. The award nomination is validation of the team’s extraordinary efforts in creating the digital infrastructure that allows us to conduct real-time analysis of precision medicine data for Australian children with cancer.
ZERO is underpinned by the ability of the computational biology team to interpret vast quantities of data. The computational biology team is currently undertaking the Advanced Genome and Transcriptome Analytics project as part of the Luminesce Alliance Data Enabling Platform, which will help increase our capacity to deliver more precisely targeted treatments that can help children like Jack.
Find out more about how computational biology big data analysis is helping cure childhood cancers:
- Making Sense of Big Data to cure childhood cancers
- A new weapon is helping to fight childhood cancer (NSW Health)