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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Stem cell therapies for enteric neuropathies
Dr Stamp is a Group Leader in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Stamp’s PhD research (with Prof Martin Pera, Monash University) focused on the derivation of hepatopancreatic progenitors from human embryonic stem cells. He then joined the lab of Dr Don Newgreen at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute where he began working on development of the enteric nervous system (ENS), before joining Prof Heather Young’s lab at the University of Melbourne, where he focused on developing a stem cell therapy to treat gut motility disorders such as the paediatric enteric neuropathy Hirschprung disease.
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Benefits of prehabilitation ahead of surgery
Dr Matthew Wallen PhD, AES, AEP is a Senior Research Fellow in Cancer Survivorship, the Deputy Lead of the Cancer Survivorship Program, and a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science and Clinical Exercise Physiology within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, in South Australia. His clinical interest focuses on improving outcomes for people requiring major surgery, specifically (1) lifestyle interventions, including exercise, nutritional, and psychological support to improve the health and wellbeing of people prior to surgery, termed ‘prehabilitation’, (2) novel physical function assessments aimed at identifying people at risk of treatment-related complications, and (3) implementation of new models of care in cancer.
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Paramedics in the Community
Dr Brendan Shannon is a registered paramedic and Head of Postgraduate Programs and Deputy Head of Department of Paramedicine at Monash University.
Brendan has a keen research interest in alternative care pathways, non-transport, referral services, paramedic practitioners and community paramedicine. His Doctoral research focused on investigating the experiences of health services when implementing alternative care pathways.
