Hudson Institute of Medical Research

Hudson Institute of Medical Research is a leading Australian medical research institute recognised internationally for discovery science and translational research.

It is an independent, not-for-profit medical research institute, based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton in Victoria hosting approximately 450 researchers, postgraduate students and support staff. Hudson Institute strives to improve human health through groundbreaking, collaborative, medical research discoveries and the translation of these to real world impact. Its scientists research five areas of medical need: Inflammation, Reproductive Health and Pregnancy, Infant and Child Health, Cancer, and Hormones and Health.^[1]

The current director and CEO is distinguished researcher and international authority on microbiology and immunology, Professor Elizabeth Hartland.^[2]

The institute is partnered with Monash University and Monash Health, and is co-located with both organisations at the Monash Health Translation Precinct in Clayton.^[3]

The Institute's purpose is stated as ‘unravelling the mysteries of nature to cure disease’.^[4]

Hudson Institute of Medical Research is organised into five specialist research centres :

• Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases
• Centre for Reproductive Health
• The Ritchie Centre
• Centre for Cancer Research
• Centre for Endocrinology and Metabolism

Within these centres, 45 research groups undertake basic, translational and clinical research into a range of diseases.

• The body's innate immune responses and their role in cancer, autoimmune diseases and inflammation; infectious diseases including HIV, herpes and influenza.^[5]
• Fetal and neonatal health from conception to a baby's first breath of life to prevent and treat adverse events such as birth asphyxia, premature lung disease and ectopic pregnancy.^[6]
• The human placenta, embryo implantation and a woman's endometrium to improve reproduction and development and better treat and diagnose women's health conditions such as endometriosis.^[7]
• The molecular,^[8] genetic,^[9] endocrine^[10] and mitochondrial^[11] processes underlying cancer tumour development to identify and develop more effective cancer diagnostics and treatments.^[12]

• Antimicrobial resistance
• Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)
• Birth asphyxia
• Blood cancer
• Bowel cancer
• Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)
• Cerebral Palsy
• Childhood cancer
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• COVID-19
• Endocrine hypertension
• Endometriosis
• Female infertility
• Fetal growth restriction (FGR)
• Gastroenteritis
• Inflammation and cancer
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Influenza
• Intersex conditions
• Lung cancer
• Lupus
• Male infertility
• Microbiome in health and disease
• Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC)
• Osteoperosis
• Ovarian cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Pelvic organ prolapse (POP)
• Pneumonia
• Preterm birth
• Stillbirth
• Stomach cancer
• Testicular cancer

Hudson Institute of Medical Research was formed in January 2014 through a merger of the Monash Institute of Medical Research and Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research.^[1]

Hudson Institute of Medical Research was named in honour of the late Professor Bryan Hudson, the founding Professor of Medicine at Monash University and first director of the Prince Henry's Hospital Medical Research Centre, which later became Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research.^[13]

Professor Hudson was one of Australia's leading endocrinologists, and a renowned physician-scientist responsible for early work on the male reproductive hormone, Inhibin.^[14]

The Institute has a large student population, predominantly enrolled through Monash University, and hosts more than 170 postgraduate (Honours, Masters, BmedSci, and PhD) students each year.^[15]

A new federally-funded $87.5 million Monash Health Translation Precinct Translational Research Facility (TRF) was officially opened by then Australian Health Minister Sussan Ley MP in March 2016.^[16]

The facility contains research laboratory space, a platform technologies floor and a dedicated clinical trials centre, with eight beds and 21 chairs for the purpose of translating research into patient treatments.^[16]

The Institute's scientists and students have access to the MHTP Technology Platforms, which contain the following capabilities:^[17]

• Medical Genomics
• Mass Spectrometry
• Flow Cytometry
• Histology
• Micro Imaging
• Bioinformatics
• Cell Therapies
• Monash Biobank
• Immunoassay Facility

• Health in Australia

• Official website
• Hudson Institute of Medical Research annual reports