Professor Brandon Wainwright AM appointed Director and CEO of QIMR Berghofer

Professor Brandon Wainwright AM, who leads the Hub's cancer program in paediatric brain cancer, has been appointed Director and CEO of QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. The appointment was announced on 25 August 2026 and he commenced in the role on Monday 7 September 2026.

Professor Wainwright is a geneticist whose work has shaped the understanding of the genetic pathways behind medulloblastoma and other cancers, including the role of Hedgehog signalling. He is Co-Director of the Children's Brain Cancer Centre and has been a professor at the University of Queensland since 1990, leading the Institute for Molecular Bioscience until 2019. He studied at the University of Adelaide and carried out postdoctoral research at Imperial College London.

On the appointment he said it is a great privilege to be joining QIMR Berghofer, an institute with an extraordinary history of research that improves human health.

QIMR Berghofer is a partner in the Australian mRNA Cancer Vaccine Hub, and several of its researchers are Hub chief investigators, including Professor Nicola Waddell, Dr Olga Kondrashova and Associate Professor Vicki Whitehall. Professor Wainwright's paediatric brain cancer work connects directly to PaedNEO-VAX, the Australian trial of personalised mRNA vaccines for children with advanced brain tumours.

Everyone at the Hub congratulates Professor Wainwright on the appointment.

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