Courage is the CURE

12th December 2024

Hello Friends,

I have done a lot of soul searching over the years about what it truly means to be courageous…

If you spend years and years on a pursuit that may come to no fruition, wouldn’t it be great if you could put your time into something else. However, the problem with that mindset is if you lack the courage to take a risk, as a society we will never achieve anything new!

Over 30 years of trying to find a cure for brain cancer, I’ve been faced many times with the question of what is futile and what is worthwhile. What I’ve come up with is this…

12th December 2024

Hello Friends,

I have done a lot of soul searching over the years about what it truly means to be courageous…

Over 30 years of trying to find a cure for brain cancer, I’ve been faced many times with the question of what is futile and what is worthwhile. What I’ve come up with is this…

When you are faced in life with the dilemma of futility, or whether you should be courageous to pursue a goal… well it’s all about the greater good and the worthiness of what you are pursuing. It’s all about a non-selfish attitude to approaching the problem you wish to solve.

If you’re doing it for yourself, for personal or financial gain, for fame or because you fear failure or seek perfection, you will come a buster. But if you’re being courageous for the right reasons: for the community’s greater good and the betterment of mankind, then your pursuit of courage can never be considered futile.

I could have sat back and never tried to find a cure for brain cancer – but there is nothing remotely futile about the Charlie Teo Foundation’s pursuit of this goal.

I learnt immense courage and strength from my patients, and it is this courageous mindset that the Charlie Teo Foundation has adopted in our approach to funding research.

Without courage, there would be no progress at all. This is why courage is the CURE!

I could have sat back and never tried to find a cure for brain cancer – but there is nothing remotely futile about the Charlie Teo Foundation’s pursuit of this goal.

I learnt immense courage and strength from my patients, and it is this courageous mindset that the Charlie Teo Foundation has adopted in our approach to funding research.

Without courage, there would be no progress at all. This is why courage is the CURE!

My Recent Global Work

Outside of our quest for a cure through the work of the Charlie Teo Foundation, I continue to use and hone my skills around the world operating on some of world’s most difficult brain tumours and teaching my techniques to neurosurgeons who are incredibly thirsty to learn!

Two weeks ago I ran my very first outpatient clinic with Prof Ling Feng in Wuzhishan, China.

I then spent time teaching in Cambodia, which was extremely satisfying. The local surgeons are hungry for knowledge. Despite the lack of dedicated equipment, they offer a very compassionate and skilful level of service to their patients… and there’s no lack of patients!

Pictured is me teaching them minimally invasive keyhole surgery for a patient with two metastatic tumours from a primary lung cancer. The patient felt so much better after surgery that everyone was impressed with the revolutionary technique, and he was discharged from the hospital the next day.

I was invited to give a talk last week at the International Federation of Neuroendoscopy (IFNE) held in Dubai. I was so proud to see several of my previous fellows now on the program as speakers and leaders in the field of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery.

The Chairman of the meeting was Dr Aneela Darba, who is now Chief of her department in Abu Dhabi. One of the most impressive talks was given by Prof Chris Profyris, who is now a leading figure in the field of keyhole trans-orbital approaches to the Skull Base.

Prof Samy Elhamadi gave a very impressive presentation on the management of carotid artery injuries when performing endonasal surgery. There is nothing more satisfying than to see your students become better surgeons than oneself.

From there I travelled this week to Debrecen in Hungary, where arguably the best hands-on cadaver course in the world is run by Prof Nikolai Hopf and Prof Robert Reisch. They combine didactic lectures with cadaver dissection labs with live surgery demonstrations to up-skill both trainee and senior surgeons in the field of keyhole neurosurgery. I was honoured to be invited to be part of the faculty and to perform live surgery on a patient with a very difficult brain tumour. The course was attended by neurosurgeons from Australia, Serbia, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland.

Building our World-Class Research Program

It is with pride that I say that Charlie Teo Foundation is Australia’s leading brain cancer charity funding research globally. In just six years, we have achieved more than I could imagine – $15 million committed to brain cancer research across 35 projects in eight countries, supporting some of the world’s most courageous brain cancer researchers!!!

Our world-class proactive research strategy sets us apart. Our in-house international cancer research expert, Dr Peter Truong, collaborates with our international Scientific Advisory Board to identify grand challenges and emerging trends in brain cancer. We also engage directly with researchers worldwide to align their projects with our identified knowledge gaps, ensuring that every dollar is well spent, and strategically invested.

As part of our mission, we are the proud sponsor of the Brain Tumour Biobank, one of the largest collections of brain tumour biospecimens for research.

Recognising that the scarcity of human brain tumour specimens limits scientific progress, we have recently expanded our biobanking operations to empower brain cancer research teams in Australia!

This expansion is crucial for advancing research and developing new treatments for the benefit of patients in Australia.

As a testament to our world-class research program, Charlie Teo Foundation was awarded the 2024 Perpetual Impact Grant to invest in our biobank resources.

With this funding, we are excited to welcome Alisha Mila as our Biobank Officer. She will work with our Head of Research to oversee the Brain Tumour Biobank.

We are very proud this year to have appointed three new expert clinicians and scientists in the field of brain cancer to our pro bono Scientific Advisory Board:

Dr Anoop Patel, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Research Laboratory Head at the Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies, Duke University, U.S.
Markus Bittl, Head of Paediatric Neurosurgery at the Department of Neurosurgery, Klinikum Stuttgart, Germany.
Dr Kristina Cook, Research Fellow at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney and Translational Radiation Biology and Oncology Group, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Australia.

The role of our Scientific Advisory Board is to peer review and make recommendations to the Charlie Teo Foundation on scientific matters relating to our research program. Read More…

Grant Announcements

I am proud to say we have awarded over $1 million in new brain cancer research grants over the past 6 months across Australia, North America and the UK!

These scientists have been proactively identified by Charlie Teo Foundation’s Head of Research, Dr Peter Truong, and peer-reviewed by our Scientific Advisory Board. I am honoured to introduce you to our courageous scientists taking us one step closer to a CURE!

I learnt courage from my patients, and we are proud to support, empower and fund tenacious scientists who emulate this quality in their outside the box approach to brain cancer research.

Dr Charles Teo AM

DIPG research at Westmead Kids in Sydney

Grant Amount: AU$222,900

As the Head of the Children’s Cancer Research Unit at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Prof Geraldine O’Neill’s mission is to transform childhood brain cancer into a thing of the past. Her research has defined how cancer cells interact with their surrounding tissue environment.
With support from the Charlie Teo Foundation, her team is developing advanced pre-clinical models for DMG/DIPG, the most lethal childhood brain cancer.
Despite hearing about promising treatments resulting from laboratory research, these often fail in real patients because our evaluation tests are not informative and stringent enough.
Prof O’Neill’s project aims to develop better tests by using lab-grown brain structures and patient-derived cancer cells. This approach offers a more realistic and rigorous evaluation platform for potential DIPG treatments, potentially leading to better treatment strategies for children with DIPG. Read More…

International collaboration with major U.S. research teams

Grant Amount: AU$372,335

We are excited to announce our first major collaborative grant, awarded to A/Prof David Nathanson at UCLA and A/Prof Scott Dixon at Stanford University.
Their groundbreaking research focuses on GBM, the most lethal adult brain cancer. Traditional chemotherapies often fail because GBM cells resist apoptosis, a common cell death process.
To tackle this challenge, A/Prof Nathanson, a seasoned veteran in drug development and clinical translation for GBM, and A/Prof Dixon, a world leader in identifying unconventional approaches to drive GBM cell death, have teamed up. Their labs have identified a novel mechanism called palmoptosis, a process where fat molecules are disrupted leading to cell death. Preliminary findings suggest that GBMs are more vulnerable to palmoptosis. They have identified a drug, already safe for human use, that can trigger palmoptosis.
This world’s-first research aims to understand palmoptosis in GBM and identify patients who could benefit most from this exploratory therapy. Read More…

Our first ever UK research grant

Grant Amount: AU$495,500

Dr Simona Parrinello is a Professor of Neuro-oncology and Head of the Research Department of Cancer Biology at UCL. Inspired by her physicist father and a lifelong passion for biology, she has dedicated her career to advancing cancer research.
Current standard-of-care treatments for GBM often leave behind resilient tumour cells, known as minimal residual disease (MRD), which can regrow into deadly tumours. There is currently no standard-of-care for recurrent brain tumours.
Her research grant will be focused on developing advanced laboratory models to better understand MRD. Her team will use patient tumour samples and cutting-edge Mass Cytometry technology to study how resilient tumour cells within GBMs survive initial treatments.
By uncovering how these residual cells survive and re-grow into tumours, these insights will contribute towards identifying new therapeutic targets to help prevent tumour regrowth. Additionally, implementing this model for drug-testing in GBM will potentially result in more effective treatments long-term. Read More…

Donate for a CURE

Donate for a CURE

Research Progress & Impact

We are immensely proud to have supported some of the most innovative and impactful research in the fight against brain cancer! With your support, our dedicated donors and partners, we are bringing new hope to patients and families.
We are excited to share remarkable outcomes from our grants, showcasing the transformative progress made by our courageous researchers. Their tireless efforts are paving the way for new discoveries and advancements that hold the promise of brighter futures for those inflicted by this devastating disease.

Adult Brain Cancer Research

Imaging Technologies Revolutionise our Understanding of Brain Tumour Microenvironment

Funding provided: AU$200,000

We are thrilled to report that our funding to Prof Joyce under her Research Rebel grant awarded in 2021 has been highly impactful.
Her lab’s work has resulted in six high-impact papers on novel brain cancer tumour microenvironment (TME) biology and imaging methodology development.
Prof Joyce’s research focuses on the brain cancer TME, which can be imagined as the “neighbourhood” where cancer cells live. Her lab leads in developing high-resolution imaging techniques to literally ‘look inside’ the brain of living animals over time. This approach has allowed them to understand how brain tumours develop and how the TME contributes to cancer growth.
Her research has uncovered crucial brain cancer biology that will inform new treatment strategies. Additionally, her lab has developed advanced microscopy methodologies for the broader research community to collaboratively advance the field. Read More…

We published a total of six papers from this research program, supported thanks to the generosity of the Charlie Teo Foundation. Thank you for advancing knowledge to help the treatment of brain cancers.

Professor Johanna Joyce, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Breakthrough in GBM Therapy Using New Hydrogel and FLASH Radiotherapy

Funding provided: AU$295,278

We are proud to report that the funding to A/Prof David Cormode and A/Prof Jay Dorsey at the University of Pennsylvania has resulted in important translational findings for GBM.
The team developed a cutting-edge technique called FLASH radiotherapy combined with a radiation-responsive drug-loaded hydrogel. This hydrogel, administered directly to the tumour site after surgery, acts like a sponge, slowly releasing the drug over time and in response to radiotherapy.
Pre-clinical trials in GBM animal models showed significant improvements in survival rates with this combination therapy. This method ensures high drug concentrations at the target site, reducing systemic side effects. A key achievement was demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of this therapy in a model that closely mimics the human immune system, making the findings highly relevant for future clinical applications.
We congratulate their teams for their courage in innovating new treatment options for brain cancer! Read More…

Donate for a CURE

Donate for a CURE

Childhood Brain Cancer Research

Australian Superstar of STEM making strides in the fight against childhood brain cancer

Funding provided: AU$199,455

We are honoured to report that the funding provided to Dr Jessica Buck and her team has led to significant clinical discoveries for childhood brain cancer.
Current treatments for childhood brain cancer often fall short because they are first tested on adult models, ignoring crucial differences between adults and children. To address this, Dr Buck’s team developed the world’s first paediatric mouse models that mimic the way children’s bodies and immune systems develop.
Using these models, the team identified new immunotherapy options that boost children’s immune systems to fight brain cancer more effectively. This research has attracted over $2 million in additional funding and established collaborations with international experts!
Dr Buck’s team aims to use this research as the foundation for paediatric brain cancer-specific immunotherapy clinical trials, offering new hope to children and their families.
We congratulate Dr Buck and her team on their outstanding advancements to the field. Read More…

Under my Charlie Teo Foundation Grant, I developed world-first techniques to more accurately evaluate new childhood brain cancer therapies. Our pipeline enables testing of new immunotherapies in paediatric models for the first time. We desperately need more research into this devastating disease to develop better treatments. This is why charities like the Charlie Teo Foundation are SO important. Better research can provide HOPE to kids with brain cancer and their families.

Dr Jessica Buck, The Kids Research Institute Australia

Pioneering Blood Test for Non-Invasive Detection of Paediatric

Funding provided: AU$275,860

We are excited to report the latest progress from Prof Craig Horbinski’s research into developing new ways to diagnose paediatric brain cancer non-invasively. His team’s recently published findings bring hope for more accurate and less invasive ways to detect brain tumours in children.
The team uses a method called liquid biopsy, which searches for tiny bits of DNA that tumours shed into the bloodstream. By analysing this DNA, doctors can gain important clues about the tumour without requiring surgical biopsy.
Prof Horbinski’s team has successfully developed a blood test that can detect different types of childhood brain tumours by identifying tumour-specific DNA patterns. This test showed significant promise, accurately distinguishing children with brain tumours from those without. While the test is not yet perfect, it could become a valuable tool in presurgical evaluations.
We congratulate Prof Horbinski and his team for their dedication to improving non-invasive paediatric brain cancer detection! Read More…

Donate for a CURE

Charlie Teo Foundation will help us reach new heights in medical research and care. Thank you again for your exceptional support and belief in our people to bring life-changing innovation to medicine.

– The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, U.S.

This holiday season let’s bring hope to those living with brain cancer. Your generosity fuels life-changing, courageous research and drives the pursuit of better treatments – turning hope into action.

Thanks to our corporate partner, Cooks Plumbing Supplies, your generosity will be DOUBLED this holiday season – meaning your impact is twice as strong!

Cook’s Plumbing Supplies is a family owned and operated business, with doors first opening to Sydney’s plumbing trade in 1969. They have been a loyal, regular donor to the Charlie Teo Foundation since 2018, having contributed over $600,000 dollars to crucial brain cancer research.

I am proud to call the Managing Director, Mick Dover and Peta Dover, my dear friends!

The human spirit is stronger than anything it faces. Even in the shadow of brain cancer, patients show us the extraordinary power of COURAGE, resilience and determination, reminding us that life’s toughest battles are fought with heart and mind as much as with the body.

This December, join me in empowering these brave warriors. Together, we can make an impact that lasts a lifetime.

With heartfelt gratitude for your continued support!

Love Charlie

Love Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

Our Global Impact

Charlie Teo Foundation is proud to announce $2.68 million in global grants this Brain Cancer Awareness Month!

In his letter and video, Charlie reflects on our global impact and the qualities we look for in the courageous scientists we seek out around the globe.

With your support, we continue to push boundaries in science. Please make your tax-deductible donation by 30 June to keep this momentum going.

Together we can make a global impact!

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Make your tax-deductible donation today

30th May 2024

Hello Friends,

When I founded the Charlie Teo Foundation in 2018 I made a public pledge that we would be incredibly transparent with where the money was going, try our best to run as lean as possible, and we would fund disruptive brain cancer thinkers.
I wanted to find scientists who had the same approach to brain cancer research that I have to my brain cancer patients.

30th May 2024

Hello Friends,

When I founded the Charlie Teo Foundation in 2018 I made a public pledge that we would be be incredibly transparent with where the money was going, try our best to run as lean as possible, and we would fund disruptive brain cancer thinkers.
I wanted to find scientists who had the same approach to brain cancer research that I have to my brain cancer patients.

In other words, not caring so much for your own needs, reputation or standing in the community. But caring instead for the patient needs and always putting the patient first.
I knew that operating on so-called ‘inoperable’ brain tumours was going to raise the chagrin of my colleagues because if I was successful it would make them look bad. I knew it was not good for my standing in neurosurgery and knew that I was putting myself at political risk by doing this. But after all, what was I in medicine for? For myself or for the patients?
We set out at the Charlie Teo Foundation to find scientists with the same sort of approach. People who are truly in science to find treatments and cures, not just to give themselves a name.
Our job was to find these disruptive thinkers, these courageous scientists, who were boldly willing to go where no other scientist went. Maybe with egg on their face, but maybe with a great success story. Either way they needed courage, and to be totally focused on brain cancer, without fear of failure.

I knew that operating on so-called 'inoperable' brain tumours was going to raise the chagrin of my colleagues... but after all, what was I in medicine for? For myself or for the patients? - Dr Charles Teo AM

Grant Announcements

I am proud to say we have found and funded these people. Our heroes of the science world as I call them. These scientists have been proactively identified by Charlie Teo Foundation’s Head of Research, Peter Truong, PhD. Through social media, reading the literature and his immense background knowledge, Peter passionately and vehemently scours the world looking for these people.
Our latest global grants are funding seven incredible scientists over the next two years across Australia, North America and Europe. These grants have been peer-reviewed by our Scientific Advisory Board. I am honoured to introduce you to our heroes from across the world and their bold ideas!

Grant Announcements

I am proud to say we have found and funded these people. Our heroes of the science world as I call them. These scientists have been proactively identified by Charlie Teo Foundation’s Head of Research, Peter Truong, PhD. Through social media, reading the literature and his immense background knowledge, Peter passionately and vehemently scours the world looking for these people.
Our latest global grants are funding seven incredible scientists over the next two years across Australia, North America and Europe. These grants have been peer-reviewed by our Scientific Advisory Board. I am honoured to introduce you to our heroes from across the world and their bold ideas!

THE INVESTIGATORS

Prof Gelareh Zadeh
University of Toronto, Canada

Grant Amount: AU$591,665

Gelareh Zadeh is a Professor and Dan Chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Head of Neurosurgery at Toronto Western Hospital, Co-Director of the Krembil Brain Institute, and Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Research Institute. She was the recipient of the highly prestigious 2023 Canada Gairdner Award for her work on the classification and treatment of brain tumours. The Gairdner is Canada’s most prestigious award for health-related research and approximately a quarter of Gairdner recipients go on to win a Nobel prize.

While she was completing her Neurosurgery residency training, she saw the need for more research to address problems that could not be effectively managed with neurosurgery alone to improve outcomes for patients. This led her to complete a PhD so that she could pursue clinically relevant research in the laboratory. Since then, she has gone on to lead international efforts to define the genomic landscape of brain tumours.
In partnership with the Charlie Teo Foundation, the Zadeh Lab aims to use advanced genomics to identify and characterise the resisting cells that survive standard of care treatment in patients with GBM, as these are the populations that contribute to tumour re-growth. There is currently no standard of care for patients when the tumours have returned and the Zadeh Lab are committed to addressing this issue.

Source: Top 25 Women of Influence®

Professor Zadeh was the first woman to hold the position of Dan Family Chair in the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, and the first female neurosurgery chair in Canada.
This made her the first woman to helm one of the largest neurosurgical programs in the world. She was recognised in 2021 as one of the Top 25 Women of Influence.
She is known to be courageous and emanates a ‘not giving up’ ethos. When it comes to research, the word “Setback” does not exist in her dictionary.

If we obtain results that are not anticipated, I don’t see that as a setback, I see it as an opportunity. It enables us to learn and redirect our attention - Prof Gelareh Zadeh

Prof Peter Fecci
Duke University, U.S.

Grant Amount: AU$1,090,495

Peter Fecci is a Professor of Neurosurgery, Director of Surgical Neuro-oncology, Director of Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis, and Director of the Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program at Duke University.
Peter Fecci is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and immunologist. He completed his MD-PhD program at Duke University and was Prof. John Sampson’s first graduate student, a giant in Neurosurgery and Neuro-oncology. Peter went on to complete his neurosurgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, before returning to Duke University.

The Fecci Lab focuses on improving immunotherapy success for patients with brain tumours. While immunotherapy has been game-changing for many cancer types, this success has not translated well to brain tumours due to the unique biology and clinical presentation of these tumours. In 2018 his laboratory published in Nature Medicine the world’s first discovery that T cells, an important type of immune cell required for immunotherapy success, are trapped and unavailable in the bone marrow of patients with brain tumours.

This game-changing discovery led to a Charlie Teo Foundation funded collaboration with Duke Nobel Laureate Robert Lefkowitz to derive a new class of anti-cancer therapy to address this immunological phenomenon. In his second More Data grant with the Charlie Teo Foundation, the Fecci lab will continue to develop this new class of drugs that aim to enhance the success of immunotherapies against GBM by restoring T cell number and function in patients.
Like the Charlie Teo Foundation, Peter truly believes that a co-operative and multi-disciplinary effort is required to provide patients with the best outcomes.

“I hope to play some role in ushering in a period where the science and treatment arms of brain tumour therapy suffer no disjoint, but instead represent the convergent efforts of researchers, neuro-oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, biomedical engineers, and neurosurgeons alike. I hope to see such synergy become standard of care.” – Peter
Beyond his academic and clinical passions, Peter has a profound appreciation for food and wine. He is an advanced sommelier and part owner of a wine bar and restaurant in Boston.

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Make your tax-deductible donation today

THE REBEL AWARDS

Dr Giulia Silvani
University of New South Wales, Australia

Grant Amount: AU$199,505

Giulia is an emerging scientist in brain cancer and UNSW Women in Maths and Science Champion. As a Biomedical Engineer, she brings a different lens to solving brain cancer.

Giulia is tackling one of the biggest challenges in the field of oncology – glioblastoma or GBM – the most aggressive type of brain cancer. She is working to physically engineer the tumour microenvironment to mimic what is really happening around the tumour. Giulia hopes these more accurate brain tumour models will lead to optimised drug discovery.

Giulia strongly believes that adversity breeds innovation, and that the challenges she has faced have taught her resilience and determination. That is what drives her unconventional approach to pursue new horizons.

In what Giulia describes as her ‘parallel life’, she is also an international documentary photographer and accomplished pianist.
Giulia trained under the mentorship of one of Charlie Teo Foundation’s first ever Research Rebels, exploring space biology to treat brain cancer.
It is challenging for early-career researchers to secure support from traditional funding bodies. Charlie Teo Foundation empowers emerging talent at this crucial stage in their career.

Once upon a time there was a curious, stubborn little girl whose dream it was to become a scientist - Dr Giulia Silvani, UNSW

A/Prof Tal Danino
Columbia University, U.S.

Grant Amount: AU$200,000

Tal Danino is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. His lab focuses on engineering bacteria as a cancer therapy. Our Research team at the Charlie Teo Foundation proactively reached out to Tal to apply his novel methods to brain cancer.
What makes Tal unique is his multi-disciplinary scientific curiosity. He completed an ambitious triple major at UCLA in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics, before going on to complete his PhD in Bioengineering. He did his post-doctoral research at the prestigious MIT before joining Columbia University in 2016, securing tenure in 2023.
Tal has created a culture of adventurous lab members who are ‘outsiders’ to the field of cancer research, offering unique expertise to treating GBM.

© Tal Danino Art

Tal is a celebrated scientist. His work has been published in high-impact journals including Nature, Science, and Nature Medicine. He has been featured by many media outlets including The New York Times, WIRED and TEDx. He is the recipient of awards including the NSF CAREER Award, DoD Era of Hope Scholar Award, CRI Lloyd J Old STARs Award, Pershing Square-Sohn Prize and is a TED Fellow.
Not only this, Tal is an interdisciplinary artist transforming cancer cells from the laboratory into art works exhibited all around the world including in the U.S., Austria, South Korea, China, Norway and France.

A/Prof Xi Huang
University of Toronto, Canada

Grant Amount: AU$200,000

Xi is an Associate Professor in Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, Canada. Xi completed his PhD in the development of brain cancer at Vanderbilt University.
Xi recently developed the first ever drug in its class in the world to disrupt communication between neurons and brain cancer cells.
In pre-clinical work, this innovative designer peptide had a trifecta of promising results – 1) robust efficacy to treat GBM; 2) outperforming the current chemotherapy regime for brain cancer; and 3) minimally toxic in that it doesn’t damage the surrounding brain tissue.
Xi’s work was published on the front cover of the prestigious journal Nature Cancer in October 2023. He hopes this drug will be the next generation therapy on a global scale to benefit brain cancer patients in the future. That thought makes Xi the happiest man alive!

Beyond this recent discovery, he has a superstar track record of pursuing unorthodox brain tumour research that has led to innovative discoveries. This includes the use of precision magnetics to destroy GBM cells from within, how brain tumours become stiff and why this is important, and how brain tumours escape chemotherapy.
His excellence is illustrated with prestigious awards including a Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award. Xi was also a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco – awarded to emerging scientists with highly novel and impactful ideas. He holds the highly respected Government position of Canada Research Chair in Cancer Biophysics.

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Make your tax-deductible donation today

ALEGRA'S ARMY AWARDS

in partnership with

Little Legs Foundation has partnered with Charlie Teo Foundation to fund the best brains to beat childhood brain cancer. In 2017 a courageous and beautiful little girl Alegra lost her battle with brain cancer at just six years of age. Her family pledged to help raise awareness and aid the fight to find a cure of childhood brain cancer. And so the Alegra’s Army grant awards were created by our two foundations working together, honouring Alegra’s life, her army making Alegra’s memory eternal.

Dr Anne Rios
Princess Maxima Centre, Netherlands

Grant Amount: AU$199,981

Anne is a tenured Group Leader of the Dream 3D Lab and Head of the Imaging Centre at the Princess Máxima Centre for Paediatric Oncology in the Netherlands.
Anne spent five years in Australia completing her senior post-doctoral fellowship at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne. During her time in Australia, Anne won the prize for most creative young scientist at Sydney Uni’s Centenary Institute Medical Innovation Awards.
The motto of her lab is to “visualise the unexpected”. Her lab uses tools like AI and advanced imaging to improve existing immunotherapies for DIPG. Universally fatal, DIPG is the most aggressive of all childhood cancers.

Anne has created one of the world’s first Organoids for DIPG – growing these deadly tumours in 3D. This technology platform can be used to drive DIPG drug discovery.
Anne is also a pioneer of high-resolution whole organ imaging and was the first to image the development of the mammary gland. Her research provided important biological insights for Breast Cancer and was published in the most prestigious biomedical journal, Nature.
Anne was an Expert member for the European Union’s Marie-Curie fellowships, and winner of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Woman in Science Award in 2021. She is the founder of the Art Foundation, The SuperNatural, using immersive art to tell the story of science.

A/Prof Marta Alonso
University of Navarra, Spain

Grant Amount: AU$195,231

Marta is the Director of the Advanced Therapies lab at the University of Navarra in Spain.
She specialises in the development of oncolytic viruses to treat childhood brain tumours, specifically DIPG (now known as DMG).
Children with DIPG have a median survival of only 9-11 months, which is simply devastating. DIPG originates from the brain stem, an eloquent and sensitive part of the brain. It controls your subconscious body functions like breathing, heart rate, concentration, and sleep.
Marta is an expert in engineering oncolytic viruses to infect and kill childhood brain cancer while protecting the surrounding healthy parts of a child’s developing brain. The virus is injected directly into the brain stem.

Her lab was the first in the world to bring oncolytic viruses to clinical trial in 2022 on 12 children with DIPG. The early results indicated the therapy is safe and there was a link to increased survival for children with DIPG. These groundbreaking results were published in the most prestigious clinical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine.
Charlie Teo Foundation in partnership with Little Legs Foundation are funding Marta to continue her work to refine this therapy, aiming to make it accessible it all children with DIPG.

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Being a mother has changed me. The worst thing that can happen to you is to lose a child. I would like to bring hope to families looking for answers. - A/Prof Marta Alonso

We will continue to raise money, millions of dollars I hope, and continue to fund more bold and courageous scientists. Charlie Teo Foundation does all this with a team of just three staff, with the backing of our global network of scientific leaders.
We cannot do this without your immense support. I urge you to make your tax-deductible donation, no matter how big or small, this end of financial year. Every dollar offers HOPE to people affected by brain cancer.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying the course with me, and for putting the cause of brain cancer research above all else!!!

Love Charlie

Love Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

The Gift of Time

Give the Gift of Time. Donate today.

14th December 2023

Hello Friends,

The meaning of ‘time’ and its impact on someone with brain cancer is quite telling…

Someone said to me once that when you are diagnosed with brain cancer it’s like having a use-by sticker placed on you. The need for more time to spend with loved ones and create memories becomes paramount.

I have a huge collection of clocks and watches that my patients have given me from all different walks of life as a token of their appreciation for giving them time.

Give the Gift of TIme. Donate today.

Dr Teo in 1997 with the paediatric neurosurgery team

We can all give those less fortunate the gift of our own time – time to listen, learn, impart our knowledge and skills to make the world a better place.
Charlie Teo Foundation was built on this premise with volunteerism being key to success!
For over 25 years, I have been giving the gift of my time through global pro bono work. Peru was my first foray into neurosurgical volunteering.
The pictures in which I have hair was 1997 when I first went to Lima, Peru. I then went every year and organised neurosurgeons from the USA to go on a regular basis to teach paediatric neurosurgery.

Dr Teo awarded Honorary Membership to the Peruvian Neurosurgical Society in 2007

I was mentored by a beautiful and visionary neurosurgeon from UCLA, who introduced me to the good and bad of pro bono work in developing countries.
The bad was the corruption. Custom officers helped themselves to the equipment and disposable and reusable products that we had gathered from medical supply companies and that we would donate to the impoverished public hospitals.
The good was the feeling that you were genuinely making a difference, not to a person or a family alone, but to a nation. “Don’t give them fish. Teach them how to fish.”

Dr Teo doing pro bono neurosurgery on a child in Peru over 20 years ago

Back in the 90s the operating rooms were extremely primitive. Air conditioning was by the window which meant when it was open, flies would get in. There were limited ventilators, so our anaesthetist had to hand ventilate the patient, sometimes for hours!!!
After a decade of multiple visits, teaching courses, and hundreds of demonstration operations, I moved on to concentrate on Vietnam, all the while wondering if I had made a difference… Any doubts that I may have had were dispelled with my trip back to Peru in November 2023.
But what I witnessed was a level of care, commitment, excellence and dedication that rivals any world-class institution in which I have worked around the world. Visionary and altruistic local neurosurgeons who have a thirst for knowledge and the drive to make dreams a reality. Together they have advanced neurosurgical care to Peruvian children to a level that I never thought possible in that period of time!

Charlie with the charge nurse of the neurosurgical ward for the last 26 years, and the Chief of Neurosurgery at the largest children's hospital in Peru

The Spanish edition of Dr Teo's book on keyhole neurosurgery

Dr Teo with the department of neurosurgery in Peru

Dr Teo reviewing patient scans on his recent pro bono trip to Peru

The neurosurgical team in Dr Teo's recent pro bono work in Peru

The month prior in October 2023 I toured through the North-East of Brazil without breaks. The quality of neurosurgery was world-class and I sometimes wondered if I was learning more than I was teaching!

I had fruitful discussions with Oncologists and Surgeons at leading hospitals dedicated to cancer treatment.

I also operated pro bono at public hospitals with limited resources and poor funding. It was inspiring to see their ability to improvise.

I was honoured to be an Invited Speaker in Sao Paulo at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Neurosurgical Society. It was well organised with very high-quality talks, lovely people and a beautiful country.

We can all give those less fortunate the gift of our own time – time to listen, learn, impart our knowledge and skills to make the world a better place - Dr Charlie Teo

Give the Gift of Time. Donate today.

Give the Gift of TIme. Donate today.

Leader of our research programs

I’d like to introduce our Head of Research who leads our brain cancer research programs. Peter proactively searches the world identifying brilliant brain cancer researchers for grant funding. It’s a HUGE task!

Peter Truong, PhD - Head of Research

Peter is pictured here together with the entire Charlie Teo Foundation team of staff!
Peter joined us in June this year following five years at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. Previously to that he was a scientist at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer in Montreal and Sanofi Pasteur Toronto.
As a researcher, Peter specialised in utilising genetic engineering approaches to discover novel therapies for leukaemia. Peter was awarded a prestigious abstract achievement award by the American Society of Hematology in 2022.
Peter has now turned his total focus to brain cancer! Read more below about Peter’s recent hard work to empower our funded scientists to advance treatments for brain cancer.

Grant Announcement

Brain cancer is a global issue that affects people from all walks of life, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity. It is a shared burden across continents that demands a collective, unified and global response.
We are proud to officially announce our newest grant recipient!

Professor Irina Balyasnikova, U.S.

We have just awarded Prof Balyasnikova from Northwestern University a better tools grant of $AUD 371,925.
Prof Balyasnikova is at the forefront of a revolutionary non-invasive imaging technique. This project aims to transform the monitoring of immunotherapy response in GBM patients.
Presently, evaluating how a tumour responds to therapy relies on standard imaging methods like CT scans and MRIs.
Unfortunately, these scans often fall short, leaving clinicians uncertain about whether a tumour is responding positively, progressing, or displaying pseudoprogression—where tumour features imitate progression but actually indicate positive therapeutic outcomes.

Distinguishing between pseudoprogression and real progression in cancer treatment is like navigating changing weather conditions. Pseudoprogression is like a passing storm, creating temporary illusions of disease progression. In contrast, real progression is more like a lasting shift in climate, indicating genuine and enduring progress. Just as a brief rain shower does not dictate long-term weather patterns, pseudoprogression may resolve without actual tumour growth. Recognising real progression suggests a substantial and potentially more significant transformation in the disease landscape.

Give the Gift of Time. Donate today.

Prof. Balyasnikova’s innovative imaging tool promises clinicians and researchers not only a more reliable but also an earlier indication of therapy effectiveness. This ensures timely adjustments to treatment plans, avoiding unnecessary delays. By incorporating an effective early monitoring program, we can provide patients with the gift of time, enabling a seamless transition to alternative therapies and enhancing the proactive and engaging approach to caring for brain cancer patients.

Give the Gift of TIme. Donate today.

Brain cancer is a global issue that affects people from all walks of life, regardless of nationality or ethnicity. It is a shared burden across continents that demands a collective, unified and global response.

Progress & Impact

Here’s a snapshot from our Head of Research, Peter Truong, PhD, of some recent progress showcasing the impact of Charlie Teo Foundation global mission to cure brain cancer!

Recent Brain Cancer Research Panel

Two weeks ago, Richard Wilkins AM, proud ambassador of the Charlie Teo Foundation, led an enlightening discussion with brilliant brain cancer researchers supported by funding from the Charlie Teo Foundation.

Insights were shared by Prof Joseph Powell and Dr Ashraf Zaman of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and Prof Jeff Holst and Dr Sylvia Chung from the University of New South Wales.

We loved hearing their message of HOPE to patients and families, about how scientists cope with failure, the need for global collaborations, latest technological advancements and what drives their quest for scientific answers.

Dr Kristina Cook, Australia

In 2020, we awarded Dr Cook from the University of Sydney a Research Rebel grant to investigate the relationship between circadian rhythms, hypoxia and GBM.
We were thrilled to hear from Kristina that thanks to our grant funding, we have empowered her to focus on brain cancer for the long run!
Consider circadian rhythms as the body’s daily symphony, orchestrating all bodily functions in perfect harmony and timing. Each cell adheres to an internal ‘molecular clock,’ synchronized by a ‘master conductor’ in the brain. GBM disrupts this symphony, acting as a rogue musician that capitalises on the resulting disharmony, making it more invasive and lethal. A key factor behind this disruption is the brain tumour’s creation of a low-oxygen environment known as hypoxia, comparable to how inadequate stage lighting affects an orchestra’s unity. If the lighting is too dim, musicians may miss cues from the conductor, causing them to fall out of sync.

Brain cancer resesarchers including Joseph and Kristina (first and second from left) with Charlie at our Bright Night Event

With our funding, Kristina’s research strived to restore harmony in this process by understanding how circadian rhythms and hypoxia contribute to GBM progression. She has unearthed novel insights into how GBM cells co-opt these rhythms to alter cell metabolism, allowing them to outgrow healthy tissue.
Collaborating with Charlie Teo Foundation funded researcher, Prof Steve Kay, she demonstrated that novel circadian rhythm drugs can reverse these metabolic advantages and offer a potential new modality of treating GBM.
By analysing large clinical datasets, she uncovered novel genetic findings explaining the observed circadian and metabolic dysregulation. These findings are significant as they could also explain how GBM develops from normal tissue, and offer a new framework for drug development.

I am very grateful for the Charlie Teo Foundation's support. My work in brain cancer would not have been possible without their funding and because of this, I plan to continue working in brain cancer for the long run - Dr Kristina Cook, Scientist

Prof Peter Fecci, U.S.

In 2021, we awarded Prof Fecci from Duke University a More Data grant in immunotherapy. A groundbreaking treatment using the body’s immune response to target tumours, immunotherapies have shown transformative potential, but impact on brain tumours remains limited.

Prof Fecci’s laboratory discovered a crucial obstacle. The essential immune soldiers – T-cells crucial for battling tumours – are confined within the bone marrow and absent from the brain tumour site. This revelation highlights a key factor hindering the effectiveness of immunotherapy advances in treating brain tumours.

Imagine the bone marrow as a bustling airport, where T-cells are eager travellers ready for a mission. Yet in GBM, these vital immune soldiers are redirected to an isolated and locked departure gate within the airport, away from the tumour battle. The brain, acting like an overprotective air traffic controller, signals to keep these T-cells confined, preventing them from boarding the ‘planes’ of immunotherapy waiting on the treatment runway.

With our funding, the Fecci laboratory unravelled the molecular pathways locking T-cells in the bone marrow. By liberating these immune warriors, they were able to transform previously ineffective immunotherapies into powerful weapons.
The team also discovered GBMs can manipulate the brain to release specific hormones causing T-cells to hide in the marrow. While efforts to develop specific drugs to free T-cells are underway, the Fecci laboratory are also exploring the usage of existing hormone-blockers to overcome this challenge, aiming to reopen the gates and unleash T-cell passengers, allowing immunotherapies to effectively combat GBM and offering the gift of time.

Prof Joseph Powell, Australia

Charlie Teo Foundation’s collaborative research with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research led by Prof Joseph Powell has gone from strength-to-strength over the last four years.
Think of brain cancer as a beehive, where different types of cells have different roles and functions, representative of the heterogeneity that underlies these complex tumours. Some cells are like worker bees, who do most of the work and are easy to kill. Some cells are like drone bees, who are only there for reproduction and are kicked out in winter. But the most dangerous cell is the glioma stem cell, which is like the queen bee. It can sustain the hive through producing more cells, resist traditional treatments, and escape to form new tumours. To cure brain cancer, we need more data to accurately identify and specifically target the queen bee of the tumour.

But the queen bee is hard to find, as it can hide and change among the other cells. We need advanced tools called single cell technologies, which can analyse each cell within a tumour and reveal its identity and features. Think of single-cell technologies as a detective meticulously examining every person in a bustling city crowd to find one elusive individual. This approach allows us to uncover the hidden identities and behaviors of glioma stem cells, paving the way for more effective and personalised treatments.

The Powell laboratory has successfully used single cell sequencing technology, on hundreds of brain tumours from Charlie Teo Foundation’s Brain Tumour Biobank to create one of the world’s largest brain tumour datasets. Through this impressive body of work, the Powell laboratory has uncovered individual cell identities within a brain tumour at an unprecedented resolution, including the highly elusive glioma stem cell, which will provide better insight on how we can develop more specific therapies for brain cancer.

Prof Matt Dun, Australia

We were honoured to attend the Dun Lab at the University of Newcastle in late November for a personal update from Prof Matt Dun. Scientists, DIPG families and philanthropic funders like the Charlie Teo Foundation all came together for a common goal – to give more time to children diagnosed with the most lethal childhood cancer in the world, DIPG.
In partnership with the Little Legs Foundation, we awarded Matt his first research grant in 2019 to study DIPG.
This grant was awarded in the same month that Matt’s daughter Josephine was sadly taken by DIPG. Since then, Matt has made it his life mission to find better treatments for this devastating disease.
Read our recent update on the outcomes of our first grant awarded to Matt.

Hundreds of brain tumours from our Brain Tumour Biobank have led to the creation of one of the world’s largest brain tumour datasets

Give the Gift of Time. Donate today.

Give the Gift of TIme. Donate today.

Australian cricket legends Steve Waugh & Gavin Robertson with Charlie Teo, Mick Dover, Peta Dover, Rugby League Legend Benny Elias and Charlie Teo Foundation Ambassador Richard Wilkins

This Giving Season, our corporate partner and regular donor, Cook’s Plumbing Supplies, are generously matching every donation up to $10,000 until my birthday on 24th December!!!
I am proud to call their Managing Director, Mick Dover and Peta Dover my great friends!!!
Cook’s Plumbing Supplies is an incredible family owned and operated business, with doors first opening to Sydney’s plumbing trade in 1969. They have been a loyal, regular donor to the Charlie Teo Foundation since 2018, having contributed over HALF A MILLION dollars to crucial brain cancer research.
I urge you to think of others less fortunate this December and Give the Gift of Time to people with brain cancer. By doing so, you’ll enjoy your down time, your families and your blessings so much more.
Lots of love to you all. Have a wonderful festive season.
Xx

Charlie

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

Unconventional thinkers & new world shapers

Charlie Teo Foundation is proud to share with you our latest letter showcasing the impact of our research and announcing over $2 million in new research grants!
In our first 5 years, the Charlie Teo Foundation has committed over $10 million to brain cancer research. We have found and funded unconventional thinkers who are reshaping the future for people with brain cancer.
With your support, we continue to forge ahead. Please make your tax-deductible donation by 30 June to keep this momentum going. Together we can truly make an impact!
Thank you for your generous support. It truly means the world to us.
x Alana & Charlie

Alana Phadke, CEO & Dr Charlie Teo, Founder of the Charlie Teo Foundation. Photography by Interdisciplinary Artist Alina Gozin’a

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Make your tax-deductible donation today

17th May 2023

Hello Friends,

Those of you who have been inflicted or have relatives inflicted by brain cancer, I know you understand how it’s just a terrible disease. You’re labelled with a use-by date as soon as you’re diagnosed and then you must try and get on with living life knowing that you’ve been handed a death sentence.
Charlie Teo Foundation has been designed to give you hope that other people care about your plight. That other people, scientists in Australia and all around the world, are trying desperately to find treatments and a cure. I call these people our unconventional thinkers and new world shapers. Why? Simply because we believe they are going to transform the future for people inflicted by brain cancer. They are going to reshape your world, and YOU can help make it happen.

17th May 2023

Hello Friends,

Those of you who have been inflicted or have relatives inflicted by brain cancer, I know you understand how it’s just a terrible disease. You’re labelled with a use-by date as soon as you’re diagnosed and then you must try and get on with living life knowing that you’ve been handed a death sentence.
Charlie Teo Foundation has been designed to give you hope that other people care about your plight. That other people, scientists in Australia and all around the world, are trying desperately to find treatments and a cure. I call these people our unconventional thinkers and new world shapers. Why? Simply because we believe they are going to transform the future for people inflicted by brain cancer. They are going to reshape your world, and YOU can help make it happen.

I have been busy operating and teaching neurosurgery around the world, as well as my grounding passions in Australia of seeing patients and giving my time to the Charlie Teo Foundation. Australia will always be where I call home. My family and heart is here, including my new grandson little Max, and the Charlie Teo Foundation has its roots here.
I feel saddened by my recent experiences at the hands of the Australian medical system. But at the same time, I am invigorated by the work I continue to do around the world. I continue to be intellectually aroused by truly incredible minds in science and medicine. These thinkers rebuff convention, and I have no doubt they are going to transform the future of brain cancer treatments in the not too distant future…

Dr Teo speaking at the 10th Academic Congress of International Chinese Neurosurgical Sciences

Dr Roel Verdaak of Yale University

Last month I was a keynote speaker at the 10th Academic Congress of International Chinese Neurosurgical Sciences. I was honoured to be recognised at the conference for injecting unlimited academic strength and firm forward belief in the field of brain cancer and for promoting the development of neurosurgery throughout the world.
Another international speaker at the conference was Charlie Teo Foundation funded researcher, Professor Roel Verhaak, who has recently joined the Department of Neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine. Prof Verhaak is a real out of the box thinker whose research contributed to the definition of clinical categories of brain cancer that are now used by the World Health Organisation. Thank you to Prof Verhaak for acknowledging the Charlie Teo Foundation in his fascinating talk!

We are committed to changing the outcomes for brain cancer patients within our lifetime! - Prof. Roel Verdaak, Yale University

Grant Announcements

We are proud to officially announce that the Charlie Teo Foundation has awarded over $2 million in new brain cancer research grants to scientists who epitomise unconventional thinking.

Dr Jacky Yeung – Removing roadblocks to immunotherapy for GBM

Dr Jacky Yeung, the first in the Yale Neurosurgery department to perform a type of minimally invasive spinal surgery in New London.

Dr Jacky Yeung is a fellowship-trained neurosurgeon AND scientist at Yale University. Not only is he an expert on the human brain connectome, but he also studied brain tumour immunology under world-renowned immunologist Dr Lieping Chen.
Dr Yeung is among the first to fully characterise the tumour immune microenvironment in a type of rare brain cancer, and identified how these tumours evade anti-tumour immunity.
We have awarded Dr Yeung a grant of $418k to work to resolve one of the greatest problems in brain tumour immunotherapy.
Recently Dr Yeung’s research group identified a new key molecule, which works together with another molecule to regulate the behaviour of blood vessels in tumours.

From preliminary data generated using advanced genetic analysis, the research team has determined that these two molecules exist in brain cancers, specifically GBM. This project aims to block these molecules, so immune cells can travel inside tumours and slow down growth.
Such a molecule has never been discovered before for changing the characteristic of a tumour blood vessel. Its potential for treating brain cancers is simply untapped.
We know in real world clinical trials, regular immunotherapy does not work in brain cancers, but this work may hold the key in unleashing the body’s immune system to battle brain cancers with minimal side effects.

Dr Jacky Yeung, neuroscientist & neurosurgeon

Prof Matt Dun – I-DIMENSIONS: New subtyping system for DIPG/DMG

Dun Lab with DIPG patient, Maddie Suy

Today is a very special day as 17 May is DIPG/DMG Awareness Day. It is therefore serendipitous that today we are announcing this significant grant to Prof Matt Dun in the amount of $1.65M to create a new subtyping system for DIPG/DMG. This is the second grant we have awarded to Prof Dun.
Prof Dun is a DIPG/DMG researcher – the most aggressive childhood brain cancer. He personally knows the hopelessness of hearing that his own daughter’s brain cancer was ‘untreatable’, and losing her at age 4 to this devastating disease. Through his brain cancer research, Prof Dun will not stop until he has changed the ‘go home and make memories’ message that DIPG/DMG families currently face, just as he faced.

I-DIMENSIONS is an ambitious project aiming to characterise the genomic, proteomic, methylomic, epigenetic and spatial transcriptomic features of aggressive brain tumours such as DMG. With this information, the research team will develop a classification system based on the biological drivers of tumour growth and therapy response/resistance.
I-DIMENSIONS will be developed thanks to the Dun Lab’s analysis of more than 200 tumour samples (including samples from the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank), with additional samples to be analysed and the data included as they become available.
This project aims to provide medical and research scientists with new data that unlocks effective treatment strategies for DMG. By looking at tumours as a sum of their biological systems (rather than via a single-featured lens), we hope that the developed subtyping system will inform the creation of a therapy selection tool used by clinicians to extend the survival of children diagnosed with brain cancer in the future.

Alana Phadke, CEO of the Charlie Teo Foundation with Prof Matt Dun of Uni of Newcastle and Alan Suy, DIPG father

This is the largest research grant ever awarded by the Charlie Teo Foundation to date.
You can watch Prof Dun on ABC News recently calling for more funding for this terrible disease.
DIPG/DMG research is significantly underfunded in this country. To date, Charlie Teo Foundation has awarded $2.7 million into DIPG/DMG specific research. Compare this to the Australian Federal Government that has awarded $970,000 to DIPG/DMG research over the same period. It is therefore being left up to research foundations like us and scientists like Prof Dun to change the future for these children and families.

We are working to change the status quo for research, transforming all that has held back innovation and progress in brain cancer

Progress & Publications

Here’s a snapshot of some recent progress and publications of Charlie Teo Foundation funded projects.

Harnessing the power from within to tackle DIPG/DMG

Alegra's Army photo by Bokeh & Co. From left: DIPG dads Alan Suy & Tamer Daher, Sue-Ellan & Marino Vasiliou, Alegra's parents and co-founder of Little Legs Foundation together with Prof Matt Dun, our ambassador Marcella Zemanek & Dr Charlie Teo

Prof Matt Dun was the first ever recipient of the Alegra’s Army Research Grant awarded in partnership with the Little Legs Foundation. This grant was awarded in December 2019, with Prof Dun’s daughter Josephine taken by DIPG/DMG within the same month at age 4. Ever since, Prof Dun and his Dun Lab have been entirely dedicated to moving towards a cure.
Through the Alegra’s Army Grant, Prof Dun and the Dun Lab have been studying the surface of DIPG/DMG cells to find tumour-specific features that may be used to develop an immune-based therapy, as DMGs do not get detected by the body’s own immune response without being directed to do so. CAR T treatments involve modifying the patient’s immune system to recognise tumour cells as “foreign”, and subsequently launch an immune response to fight tumour growth and survival.

The work of the Dun Lab has identified a promising, tumour-specific, CAR T target. Their ongoing studies are testing whether this protein is indeed tumour-specific (to not cause harm to non-tumour/healthy cells) and will progress to development of a CAR T therapy upon confirmation.
Today, more than 100 children worldwide have received therapies that Prof Dun has discovered for DIPG/DMG. This is all thanks to generous philanthropic support from charities like the Charlie Teo Foundation, and the brave and selfless donations of tumour cells/tissue by the families of children diagnosed with brain cancers including from the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank.

DIPG families together at the Dun Lab

Biobanking for the Future

Close to 450 biospecimens spanning 15 years of brain tumour patients are being shared by the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank with Australian brain cancer researchers.
Biospecimens in the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank (CTFBTB) have been collected from Dr Charlie Teo’s patients over the last 15 years. This makes it an incredibly important and unique resource for brain cancer research and tracking tumour progression.
Take a deep-dive into the latest progress of the CTFBTB including a summary of the research projects where biospecimens have been approved or accessed from the CTFBTB.

Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank is sharing crucial high-grade brain tumour material, enabling scientists to understand how these deadly tumours are programmed so we can finally develop new treatments. – Prof Jeff Holst, University of New South Wales – Sydney

Many major breakthroughs in medical science and cancer research have been made by left-field thinkers like Dr Jacky Yeung and Prof Matt Dun. These people think outside the box and are disruptive in their approach. But sadly, they are often not funded.
So I encourage you to make your tax-time gift today to fund these unconventional thinkers in their pursuit of a cure. Being a low-cost charity, we run lean so that your tax-deductible donations go straight to funding brilliant, original minds to go where no brain cancer researcher has gone before.
Even better, become a new world shaper by giving a regular monthly gift. A regular gift helps us better prepare to transform the future.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your ongoing support.
Xx

Charlie

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

It takes a collective force to make an impact

Charlie Teo Foundation is proud to share with you our latest video and letter from our founder showcasing the impact of our research.
In our first 4 years, the Charlie Teo Foundation has committed over $9 million to game-changing brain cancer research. We have connected disruptive brain cancer thinkers across the globe, encouraging collaborations and the sharing of new ideas.
With your support, we continue to forge ahead. Please make your tax-deductible donation by 30 June to keep this momentum going and allow us to fund more research. Together we can truly make an impact!

Make your tax-deductible donation today

Make your tax-deductible donation today

2nd June 2022

Hello Friends,

I am at the coal face. It’s very easy for me to be passionate about a disease where I see beautiful people dying every day.
But what I know more than ever is that the answers to brain cancer aren’t going to be found alone. It will take a collective force to make an impact.

2nd June 2022

Hello Friends,

I am at the coal face. It’s very easy for me to be passionate about a disease where I see beautiful people dying every day.
But what I know more than ever is that the answers to brain cancer aren’t going to be found alone. It will take a collective force to make an impact.

Recently I was in Bogotá, Colombia at the 17th World Congress of Neurosurgery. It was incredibly inspiring and stimulating to have 1,600 neurosurgeons and scientists gather from about 85 countries to learn from each other and rekindle connections. I was asked to give several talks each day, and felt reassured from other experts that the projects the Charlie Teo Foundation is funding are unique and promising.
I continue to operate overseas on the world’s most difficult tumours and have been welcomed and celebrated by every country visited. I have recently been Visiting Professor to Johns Hopkins University, Cedars-Sinai Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. I have been doing pro bono work in Africa, Asia and India and lecturing, teaching and advising on almost every continent.
I am also proud and honoured to have just been made an Honorary Member of the Spanish Neurosurgical Society for my development and dissemination of minimally invasive techniques in neurosurgery, contribution to neurosurgical education in developing countries and promotion of research into brain cancer.

Research Symposium

Charlie Teo Foundation held our first ever Brain Cancer Research Symposium in March 2022.
Every scientist funded by the Charlie Teo Foundation had the opportunity to present their projects, and patients and families shared their heart-breaking stories. As a testament to how engaged and dedicated they were, not a single person exited the virtual meeting until its completion.

The presentations were exciting, innovative, scientifically robust, novel and readily translatable to the bedside. The scientists were equally passionate about their projects as they were to share ideas and collaborate with each other.
The symposium gave me an incredibly positive feeling about the worth of the Charlie Teo Foundation. Everything that I had set out to achieve, I felt was coming to fruition… and at a much more accelerated rate than I ever imagined! It honestly made me as proud as the day my first child was born.

The goals of Charlie Teo Foundation were to be disruptive, transparent, fiscally lean and tenacious in our pursuit of finding treatments for Australian patients specifically, and all brain tumour patients.
I felt incredibly emotional and confident listening to all these disruptive thinkers and urge you to watch the highlight video of our symposium at the top of my letter. I know that the Charlie Teo Foundation is carrying out on exactly what we set out to achieve when we opened our doors 4 years ago.
View the Symposium program

The answers to brain cancer aren’t going to be found alone

Grant Announcements

We proactively seek out who we consider to be the best brains from around the globe to study brain cancer for the benefit of Australian patients. Let me introduce you to our newest researchers:

Profs David Cormode and Jay Dorsey – Treating GBM in a FLASH

We have awarded a grant of $295k to Profs Cormode and Dorsey of the University of Pennsylvania to investigate an emerging technique called FLASH Radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) in combination with a drug-loaded gel (called a hydrogel) to treat and kill GBM tumours.
This treatment approach works by first injecting the hydrogel into the cavity where the GBM tumour was surgically removed and then treating with a rapid, high-dose radiotherapy technique called FLASH-RT. Using this approach means the treatment time is dramatically shortened, whilst also minimising damage to the healthy surrounding brain. FLASH-RT also triggers the release of the GBM-killing drug contained within the hydrogel. This project hopes to show that this two-pronged attack will kill the residual cancer cells that could not be surgically removed and will prevent the cancer from coming back.

Prof Craig Horbinski – Diagnosing childhood brain cancer using a simple blood test

At our research symposium, a mother shared her daughter’s brain cancer journey and raised the urgent need to improve early diagnosis of childhood brain cancer. Our foundation immediately sought out researchers leading the charge in the diagnostics space to tackle this critical community need.
In our search, we identified Prof Craig Horbinski at Northwestern University as a pioneer. He is currently evaluating a blood test to diagnose brain cancer in adults. We have awarded Prof Hosbinski $276k to now set his sights on developing a similar test for children. This test works by pulling out DNA floating in blood and analysing DNA patterns. It is hoped this technique will identify cancer type and allow for early diagnosis of childhood brain cancer, all from a simple blood test.

We are bringing together the best brains to beat brain cancer

This tax-time I want you to think of people with brain cancer. They are thrust totally out of their comfort zone, facing the biggest challenge of their life.
I’d like you to support our Challenge 4 Brain Cancer and make your tax-deductible donation today. Typically, I push myself to the edge – radical brain surgery, riding a motorbike, never giving up fighting for people with brain cancer and what I believe in. Put simply, I never stop. This is why I am taking the personal challenge to pause, and take some time each day to appreciate the beauty of life. To get outside every day, walk the dogs and get back to nature. And to do these things all while continuing my hard work in brain cancer.
Join me in taking the challenge, or make your tax-deductible donation this June. The funds raised this year will go directly to fund more rebellious scientists thinking outside the box.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your ongoing support.
Xx

Charlie

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

Stimulating new thinking

Charlie Teo Foundation is proud to announce over $2.3 million in new brain cancer research grants! We fund radical research backed by strong scientific merit. We believe that new thinking is critical to finally uncovering the key to curing brain cancer.
We are excited to share our research progress and future plans with you in the latest letter from our founder, Dr Charlie Teo.

8th December 2021

Hello friends,

Sabbatical leave was designed to stimulate new thinking in academics who typically became set in their ways when confined to the same intellectual environment for years.
I am happy to say that the concept works.
The last 3 months have been incredibly stimulating, refreshing, intellectually challenging and revitalising. I have met with, lectured to and learnt from neurosurgeons and neuro-scientists across the globe.

Starting in Germany in August followed by Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, I have given 35 presentations in Europe, 56 in North America and met with over 860 surgeons and scientists from some of the most prestigious institutions in the world.
From Europe I travelled to Canada for 2 weeks where I continued my academic tour visiting famous centres such as McGill University and the University of Toronto. In the USA I have been in deep discussions with brain cancer scientists in New York, Houston, Austin and Miami. I taught a cadaver course at Henry Ford School of Medicine, followed by New Orleans to teach a seminar on keyhole neurosurgery.
I spent the last month in India, learning and teaching where I encountered novel projects being pursued in a country that is typified by industrious and innovative thinkers.

Starting in Germany in August followed by Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, I have given 35 presentations in Europe, 56 in North America and met with over 860 surgeons and scientists from some of the most prestigious institutions in the world.
From Europe I travelled to Canada for 2 weeks where I continued my academic tour visiting famous centres such as McGill University and the University of Toronto. In the USA I have been in deep discussions with brain cancer scientists in New York, Houston, Austin and Miami. I taught a cadaver course at Henry Ford School of Medicine, followed by New Orleans to teach a seminar on keyhole neurosurgery.
I spent the last month in India, learning and teaching where I encountered novel projects being pursued in a country that is typified by industrious and innovative thinkers.

We scour the world for industrious and innovative thinkers who aren’t afraid to break the mould.

Progress and Publications

Brain cancer is an intelligent cancer. It teaches itself how to beat therapies and develop resistance. It builds its scaffolding – it has its own blood supply and self-supplies with oxygen and nutrients. Put all this together and this is why it’s been so hard to beat brain cancer. But there absolutely is hope. It will take some time, and we have seen some recent progress that can improve survival but only by a matter of months.
We must hold hope that by taking our focused and radical approach to research funding, of all the different types of therapies we’re pursuing, one of them will eventually come out as a definitive, good treatment for brain cancer.
Here’s a snapshot of some recent progress and publications of Charlie Teo Foundation funded projects.

GBM-on-a-Chip

Dr Chou was one of our very first ‘Teo Research Rebels’. With our funding, he has successfully built the world’s very first, fully functional brain tumour on a microchip. This ‘chip’ consists of multiple layers including a blood brain barrier, blood vessels and a 3D printed brain tumour. This has never been done before. Dr Chou’s work was recently published in Advanced Therapeutics – you can read it below.
Dr Chou’s team built Australia’s first-ever microgravity device for looking at cancer cells. They have already shown that under microgravity, the most aggressive type of brain cancer is disrupted. The brain cancer is unable to form and stops growing.

As he moves into the second year of his grant, Dr Chou also discovered how to ‘open’ the blood brain barrier, to allow more drugs to get through to treat the brain cancer. The experiment his team are working on now is how to properly control and time this. I’ll keep you updated of Dr Chou’s progress.

Citation: Silvani G, Basirun C, Wu H, Mehner C, Poole K, Bradbury P, Chou J. A 3D-Bioprinted Vascularized Glioblastoma-on-a-Chip for Studying the Impact of Simulated Microgravity as a Novel Pre-Clinical Approach in Brain Tumor Therapy. Advanced Therapeutics.2021;2100106.

Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank

The Open Journal of BioResources recently published about the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank (CTF biobank). It is a NSW Health Pathology certified biobank. We established the CTF biobank to produce and share high-quality, well-annotated, biological and clinical data that has the potential to drive further innovation and scientific breakthroughs.
With my patients’ consent, we have collected samples of human tissue, live cells, DNA and blood. Researchers can apply to use the valuable specimens and data to be used for brain cancer research. I was doing this for 10 years – so the CTF biobank is an incredibly important data resource!

We are open and transparent about our biobank processes in the paper

including consenting and material handling procedures, quality assurance measures and processes for accessing materials.

Citation: Caixeiro, N.J., Po, J.W., Zaman, A., Sughrue, M.E. and Teo, C., 2021. Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank. Open Journal of Bioresources, 8, p.3.

Single-cell RNA Sequencing

At our first ever Rebel Ball in 2019, I officially announced the brain cancer collaboration between the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Charlie Teo Foundation. We brought together two teams with unique genomics expertise and data resources to tackle brain cancer.
The collaboration is led by Prof Joseph Powell, Director of the Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics. Our aim was to generate high-quality data from my patients with high-grade brain tumours, collected from the CTF biobank. I am pleased to report that we succeeded!
Led by Joseph, the team generated single-cell (RNA and DNA) sequencing and spatial transcriptomics on over 100 brain cancer tissue samples. This is now fast and possible with advancements in technology. Bioinformatics experts

analysed the data to detect patterns and trends. What they found means we can now predict how cell states transform into lethal brain cancer cells.
And this is just the beginning…

Progress and Publications

Brain cancer is an intelligent cancer. It teaches itself how to beat therapies and develop resistance. It builds its scaffolding – it has its own blood supply and self-supplies with oxygen and nutrients. Put all this together and this is why it’s been so hard to beat brain cancer. But there absolutely is hope. It will take some time, and we have seen some recent progress that can improve survival but only by a matter of months.
We must hold hope that by taking our focused and radical approach to research funding, of all the different types of therapies we’re pursuing, one of them will eventually come out as a definitive, good treatment for brain cancer.
Here’s a snapshot of some recent progress and publications of Charlie Teo Foundation funded projects.

GBM-on-a-Chip

Dr Chou was one of our very first ‘Teo Research Rebels’. With our funding, he has successfully built the world’s very first, fully functional brain tumour on a microchip. This ‘chip’ consists of multiple layers including a blood brain barrier, blood vessels and a 3D printed brain tumour. This has never been done before. Dr Chou’s work was recently published in Advanced Therapeutics – you can read it below.
Dr Chou’s team built Australia’s first-ever microgravity device for looking at cancer cells. They have already shown that under microgravity, the most aggressive type of brain cancer is disrupted. The brain cancer is unable to form and stops growing.
As he moves into the second year of his grant, Dr Chou also discovered how to ‘open’ the blood brain barrier, to allow more drugs to get through to treat the brain cancer. The experiment his team are working on now is how to properly control and time this. I’ll keep you updated of Dr Chou’s progress.
Citation: Silvani G, Basirun C, Wu H, Mehner C, Poole K, Bradbury P, Chou J. A 3D-Bioprinted Vascularized Glioblastoma-on-a-Chip for Studying the Impact of Simulated Microgravity as a Novel Pre-Clinical Approach in Brain Tumor Therapy. Advanced Therapeutics.2021;2100106.

Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank

The Open Journal of BioResources recently published about the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank (CTF biobank). It is a NSW Health Pathology certified biobank. We established the CTF biobank to produce and share high-quality, well-annotated, biological and clinical data that has the potential to drive further innovation and scientific breakthroughs.
With my patients’ consent, we have collected samples of human tissue, live cells, DNA and blood. Researchers can apply to use the valuable specimens and data to be used for brain cancer research. I was doing this for 10 years – so the CTF biobank is an incredibly important data resource!
We are open and transparent about our biobank processes in the paper including consenting and material handling procedures, quality assurance measures and processes for accessing materials.
Citation: Caixeiro, N.J., Po, J.W., Zaman, A., Sughrue, M.E. and Teo, C., 2021. Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank. Open Journal of Bioresources, 8, p.3.

Single-cell RNA Sequencing

At our first ever Rebel Ball in 2019, I officially announced the brain cancer collaboration between the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Charlie Teo Foundation. We brought together two teams with unique genomics expertise and data resources to tackle brain cancer.
The collaboration is led by Prof Joseph Powell, Director of the Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics. Our aim was to generate high-quality data from my patients with high-grade brain tumours, collected from the CTF biobank. I am pleased to report that we succeeded!
Led by Joseph, the team generated single-cell (RNA and DNA) sequencing and spatial transcriptomics on over 100 brain cancer tissue samples.
This is now fast and possible with advancements in technology. Bioinformatics experts analysed the data to detect patterns and trends. What they found means we can now predict how cell states transform into lethal brain cancer cells.
And this is just the beginning…

We fund radical research backed by strong scientific merit.

Grant Announcements

Charlie Teo Foundation funds radical research backed by strong scientific merit. We take a focused, disciplined and proactive approach to funding research. We scour the world for industrious and innovative thinkers who aren’t afraid to break the mould. We fund within key research themes of More Data, Better Tools and our Teo Research Rebels.
I believe this approach will drive us towards to achieving our ultimate goal – to beat brain cancer.
I am excited to officially announce that in the last 6 months since I last wrote to you, Charlie Teo Foundation has awarded 6 new brain cancer research grants totalling over AU $2.3 million. Let me introduce you to our newest grant recipients:

More Data

Prof Joseph Powell – Down to the single cell

Prof Powell will now use the data and bioinformatics insights gained under our collaboration to date, to find treatment targets for brain cancer patients.

His team will analyse further brain cancer tissue samples from the CTF biobank, then fine tune the machine learning algorithms. Using real-world patient characteristics, the team will be looking for any critical treatment opportunities. We have awarded a further grant of $897k for this exciting work.

Better Tools

Dr Jessica Buck – New ways to treat kids

Dr Buck is an early career childhood brain cancer researcher, one of Australia’s Superstars of STEM in 2021 and a proud Kamilaroi woman. She is the first Aboriginal woman to graduate with a doctorate from Oxford University.
Dr Buck is a fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth and her focus is on finding more effective, less harmful treatments for children with brain cancer. We awarded Dr Buck a grant of $199k to develop new laboratory techniques to determine which immunotherapy drugs are most effective in childhood cancers. Dr Buck’s work will aim to fast-track immunotherapy drugs into the clinic.

Prof Amy Heimberger – Brain cancer takes the STING

Immunotherapy has really been giving us hope with many other cancers but not so much in brain cancer. The body cannot detect the brain tumour, making it ‘invisible’ to the immune system. We have awarded a grant of $499k to Prof Heimberger of Northwestern University to investigate the effectiveness of a new drug called STING (stimulator of interferon genes) that will kickstart an immune response.
The aim is to turn non-responsive tumours – known as ‘cold tumours’ – into a ‘hot’ tumour that the body can now see to attack the cancer. Prof Heimberger is also a life-long dog lover and has already helped to treat dogs suffering from brain cancer with this new treatment approach.

Prof Michael Keidar – A new wave to treat GBM

We have awarded $374k to Prof Keidar at George Washington University to build a new kind of helmet device to treat GBM patients. You might remember me talking about a helmet device in our Ask Charlie series as a promising advancement in GBM treatments in recent years. However, the existing FDA-approved treatment can be invasive for patients – the helmet may be worn for up to 22 hours per day, requires regular head shaving and can cause skin irritation and disturb sleep.
Prof Keidar plans to use his 25 years’ experience in plasma-based nanotechnology, cold plasma physics and applications in biotechnology to make significant improvements to the existing treatment.

So how will it work? Like pores of the skin, cells have pores too. Using high frequency electromagnetic waves that emit from the helmet, Prof Keidar aims to open the ‘pores’ of the brain cancer cells only, making them more responsive to chemotherapy, and leaving the healthy cells intact. His helmet device only needs to be worn for a short time by patients, making it much less invasive than the existing FDA-approved method. We desperately need better treatments like this for GBM!

Teo Research Rebels

Dr Guillermo Gomez – A novel combination of AI and invention

We have awarded a grant of $200k to Dr Gomez, an Argentinian cancer cell biologist with a laboratory at the University of South Australia. He’s harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse vast volumes of brain tumour images. Dr Gomez is bringing this powerhouse of data together with a tool he helped to invent for growing 3D brain tumours, known as an organoid.
With this novel combination, he strives to find new GBM treatments. Dr Gomez is definitely thinking outside the box here!

Prof Johanna Joyce – Real-time live imaging

Prof Joyce started her own laboratory in 2005 in New York, USA. She is someone who always likes to go against convention in her research, which is what makes her a ‘rebel’. Her lab, now at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, has recently developed a unique technology to live image brain cancer in preclinical models in real-time.
We have awarded a grant of $200k for the team to literally look directly inside the tumour itself to study how brain cancer develops and is altered by exposure to different treatments over time. This is exciting progress, and the strategy is a first in the cancer field.

Charlie Teo Foundation plans to far outlive me, and not cease until it has achieved our shared goal – to beat brain cancer.

I want to give you my assurance that I will never give up the fight against brain cancer until the day I die. Charlie Teo Foundation has a strategy in place and plans to carry out its work funding brain cancer research for years into the future. Whilst I would love to see a cure for brain cancer in my lifetime, and I am hopeful that progress WILL occur in my lifetime, I concede that I may not be living on this Earth to see a cure. Charlie Teo Foundation plans to far outlive me, and not cease until it has achieved our shared goal – to beat brain cancer.
Lots of love to you all, have a wonderful festive season, think of and give to those less fortunate at this time, and by doing so, you’ll enjoy your down time, your families and your blessings so much more.

Please Donate

Please Donate

Finally, I invite you to make a donation to the Charlie Teo Foundation this festive season. Bianca is someone less fortunate, diagnosed with brain cancer in October 2020 at the age of 45. She now has an average survival of just 15 months. Bianca is in the prime of her life. A mother to 5 beautiful children and a police officer. She has dedicated her life to serving her community, and it just isn’t acceptable or fair the fate that Bianca and so many others face.
So please, read Bianca’s Battle and consider making a donation to help fund brain cancer research so desperately needed to extend and save lives.
Xx

Finally, I invite you to make a donation to the Charlie Teo Foundation this festive season. Bianca is someone less fortunate, diagnosed with brain cancer in October 2020 at the age of 45. She now has an average survival of just 15 months. Bianca is in the prime of her life. A mother to 5 beautiful children and a police officer. She has dedicated her life to serving her community, and it just isn’t acceptable or fair the fate that Bianca and so many others face.
So please, read Bianca’s Battle and consider making a donation to help fund brain cancer research so desperately needed to extend and save lives.
Xx

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

Let’s make sure Bianca and the many people that will follow are not just another statistic.

Donate today to fund radical research at the cutting-edge of scientific discoveries.

Thank you for your support!

Read More

When the exception becomes the rule

May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month. To all our brain cancer community, this month we honour you. We are in awe of the courage, strength and tenacity displayed by so many of you when facing a diagnosis with brain cancer.
At the Charlie Teo Foundation we continue to work hard to offer you hope. You are at the centre of our quest to find and fund brain cancer researchers who think outside the box. We are looking for the answers that you need to live a long life and fulfil all your dreams and life’s ambitions.
In his latest letter, Charlie shows you what potentially game-changing research we have been working on to finally uncover the answers needed to better treat this devastating disease.

5th May 2021

Hello friends,

When you turn on the TV and the news, invariably you see a story about death and disaster, particularly at the moment. It would be easy to get a sense of hopelessness and futility. Yet everyday people approach life with a sense of perseverance.
As a neurosurgeon, I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from my patients what it means to demonstrate that kind of perseverance, even when the odds are against you. People diagnosed with brain cancer are forced to face an unimaginable fate. Their lives are measured in months and weeks, and their hopes and dreams may never be achieved. Sometimes they are told to go home and make arrangements for end of life.
When you are staring down the barrel at death, suddenly your grip on life becomes a whole lot tighter. It is at this time that people display incredible courage, driven by the hope that they may be the exception to the rule.

When you are staring down the barrel at death, suddenly your grip on life becomes a whole lot tighter. It is at this time that people display incredible courage, driven by the hope that they may be the exception to the rule.

Emma (pictured) is the exception to the rule. I was delighted to recently receive this beautiful message from Emma, enclosed with a Christmas card that I had sent to Emma and her parents in December 1991, 30 years ago.

“Charlie, when I was 4 years old you operated on me and I thank you for removing the brain tumour I had then. It recurred when I was 12 years old & was removed after 2 more operations. I’m now healthy and married with 3 healthy children. After 3 operations and a few permanent side effects, I am so grateful that I am alive and I’m able to celebrate 21 years Brain Cancer free with my family.”

Emma (pictured) is the exception to the rule. I was delighted to recently receive this beautiful message from Emma, enclosed with a Christmas card that I had sent to Emma and her parents in December 1991, 30 years ago.

“Charlie, when I was 4 years old you operated on me and I thank you for removing the brain tumour I had then. It recurred when I was 12 years old & was removed after 2 more operations. I’m now healthy and married with 3 healthy children. After 3 operations and a few permanent side effects, I am so grateful that I am alive and I’m able to celebrate 21 years Brain Cancer free with my family.”

Charlie Teo Foundation focuses on research as we want to make the exception become the new rule. We want to make high-grade brain cancers survivable, so never again does a patient have to hear, ‘we can’t cure you, we can only buy you time’.
So how do you make the un-survivable, survivable? There are plenty of real-life examples of scientific discoveries where things we never thought possible, are now possible. They did it by going against the grain, by pushing boundaries, by rebuffing groupthink. This is what we are trying to achieve, and COVID-19 has not halted our efforts.

Grant Announcements

We proactively seek out who we consider to be the best brains from around the globe to study brain cancer for the benefit of Australian patients. Let me introduce you to our newest researchers:

Prof Eran Elinav – Could gut health be the key to brain cancer?

We’re exploring uncharted territory

We now know there is a link between the gut microbiome, aka your ‘gut health’, and the brain. What has been recently discovered is that the gut microbiome could actually be the cause of some other neurological conditions and cancers. I’ve always wondered whether this link extends to brain cancer, and so we’ve sought out an expert to study this for the first time!
Prof Elinav is a gastroenterologist and guru in gut health at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He and his team were the first to show that the gut microbiome could not only trigger the neurogenerative disease, ALS, but also affect its severity. We have awarded $200,000 to find out if such a link exists to the cause, prevention, or even treatment of brain cancer. If a link is found, harnessing the microbes and their secreted products may lead to new biological therapies to prevent and treat brain cancers.

Prof Steve Kay – Blocking the biological clock of GBM stem cells

We’re going after the root of the problem

A Provost Professor of neurology, biomedical engineering and biological sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California in the U.S., Prof Kay is a pioneer in the study of circadian rhythms (body clocks) that regulate hundreds of activities, from sleep to digestion to body temperature. His team examined the biological clocks of glioblastoma (GBM) stem cells. These are the stubborn cancer cells which are currently impossible to eradicate even after surgery, chemo and radiation therapy. The team found the GBM stem cells are “on overdrive” making them stronger and more resistant to treatment and able to divide and multiply rapidly.
A small-molecule drug has already been developed by his team to target the proteins in the biological clock of the GBM stem cells to disrupt their activity and cause the cancer cells to die. We have awarded $273,000 to Prof Kay to further test and compare this new drug with the current standard of care. This is a really promising discovery and if successful, would become part of and improve standard of care for patients.

Program updates

Not only do we award research grants, but we run our own research program too.

Biobank

Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank (biobank) is the largest, certified, biobank of its kind in the southern hemisphere, collecting brain tumour samples from surgery and making them available for researchers to access and use in their research. By doing this, we’re making it possible for brain cancer to be studied faster giving hope to brain cancer patients.
Since it became operational, we have added brain cancers to the biobank to now house samples from over 600 patients. Below is a summary of the work of the biobank in the 2020 calendar year

Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank

2020 Impact

Brain cancer samples from 95 patients Collected by Charlie Teo Foundation
179 brain cancer samples Accessed by brain cancer researchers
4 brain cancer projects Supported by Charlie Teo Foundation

Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank

2020 Impact

Brain cancer samples from 95 patients
Collected by Charlie Teo
Foundation
179 brain cancer samples
Accessed by brain cancer
researchers
4 brain cancer projects
Supported by Charlie Teo
Foundation

Charlie Teo Foundation focuses on research as we want to make the exception become the new rule.

This Brain Cancer Awareness Month I want you to think of people with brain cancer. They are thrust totally out of their comfort zone, facing the biggest challenge of their life.
This May I am inviting you to join me in a personal challenge, and together we can tackle brain cancer head-on. I would like you to do something that displays a sense of spirit, focus or courage, just like I see in my patients. I have set myself the challenge to learn a new skill – something that inspires me creatively and is good for my brain health. I am learning to play the guitar!
Find out more about how to join me and take the challenge at the end of my letter. Together, with your support, we can see the exception become the rule.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Xx

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder
P.S. Read more about our game-changing research strategy and grants. Review our latest financials.

Take the Challenge

Our future is our youth

The festive season is a time to celebrate with friends and family. It can also be a hard time, where we cherish the memory of loved ones lost.
This December, the Charlie Teo Foundation (CTF) will be sharing the stories of our children and young who have been taken from us too soon, and how we are working to change the future for patients with brain cancer and their families.
In his latest letter, Charlie takes a moment to remember those who have lost their lives to brain cancer and to show you how CTF is fighting for the future of our youth.

8th December 2020

Hello friends,

As 2020 draws to an end, I find myself looking ahead… I see a brighter future on the horizon for the world, and for everyone who has been touched by brain cancer. That future may not be immediate, but I have hope in humanity that we will get there.
What is our future? It is our children and our youth. They are the ones that hold the destiny of this earth and our species in their hands.
Nothing destroys our destiny more than the death of a child. It is a combination of the incongruity of a parent out-living their offspring, the innocence of a child, the injustice of a disease where the victim is blameless and the unfairness of taking someone before they get to experience all that life has to offer. As a neurosurgeon I sadly see this all too often. I never forget the loss of a child.

What is our future? It is our children and our youth. We fight for their future.

Harry (pictured) was a patient of mine many years ago, yet I recall his story almost on a daily basis. He died of a brainstem glioma at the tender age of 7. In his 7 short years he demonstrated amazing personality traits. Extreme compassion. Nurturing and kindness to his younger brothers. Phenomenal courage and maturity in his approach to his terminal disease. A positive attitude that was contagious to his family and carers.
I often ponder on how the world would have been a better place if Harry could have lived a full life. He may have been a motivational speaker, a respected leader or a diplomat. He may have found the cure for cancer or invented a sustainable energy source. How sad that we will never know the potential contribution that Harry may have made to our humanity.
Our children are our future. They are our hope. How then does a disease that kills more children in Australia than any other disease, receive very little funding from our Government? Brain cancer is ranked NUMBER 1 for its socio-economic impact on society because it not only kills children, but it is also the most common cause of cancer-related death in young adults (AIHW 2017). It knocks our young out of the workforce and society in the prime of their life.

Harry (pictured) was a patient of mine many years ago, yet I recall his story almost on a daily basis. He died of a brainstem glioma at the tender age of 7. In his 7 short years he demonstrated amazing personality traits. Extreme compassion. Nurturing and kindness to his younger brothers. Phenomenal courage and maturity in his approach to his terminal disease. A positive attitude that was contagious to his family and carers.

I often ponder on how the world would have been a better place if Harry could have lived a full life. He may have been a motivational speaker, a respected leader or a diplomat. He may have found the cure for cancer or invented a sustainable energy source. How sad that we will never know the potential contribution that Harry may have made to our humanity.
Our children are our future. They are our hope. How then does a disease that kills more children in Australia than any other disease, receive very little funding from our Government? Brain cancer is ranked NUMBER 1 for its socio-economic impact on society because it not only kills children, but it is also the most common cause of cancer-related death in young adults (AIHW 2017). It knocks our young out of the workforce and society in the prime of their life.

When funds and resources are allocated to the right people and right projects, miracles can happen.

My soul is more ablaze than ever with fierce determination to change this. I am confident that CTF is on the right track to achieve change. When funds and resources are allocated to the right people and right projects, miracles can happen.

Despite the challenges of this year, COVID-19 has not halted our efforts. I am pleased to announce that over the last 6 months since I last wrote to you, we have awarded 3 new brain cancer research grants totalling over AU$800k to those we have found and consider to be the best brains from Australia and around the globe. Let me introduce you to our newest researchers:

Dr Y. Alan Wang - A new experimental drug

We’re bringing new treatments to the table

We’ve encouraged the collaboration of an Australian pharmaceutical research company, Pharmaxis, and a cancer biologist at one of the most prestigious comprehensive cancer centres in the U.S., MD Anderson, to test new experimental drug PXS-5505. The Pharmaxis drug has already received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for treating myelofibrosis, a type of blood cancer. The drug has the potential to treat brain cancer, by breaking down the tumour’s surrounding environment to enhance the effect of treatments. We have awarded the team $187,000 to conduct the experiments it needs to prove that the drug will facilitate the killing of brain cancer cells. This work will fast track PXS-5505 to potentially being tested in clinical trials of brain cancer patients.

A/Prof Jeff Holst - Starving brain cancer

We’re cutting off its energy supply

A biomedical scientist at the University of New South Wales, we have awarded $136,500 to Jeff to find a way to stop the growth of brain cancer by cutting off its energy supply. We will provide fresh brain tumour samples from the Charlie Teo Foundation Brain Tumour Bank for his team to look at starving cancer cells of the essential nutrients needed for their growth and survival. This research will build upon the work of our Cancer Genomics – The Next Level project as the metabolomics data collected on the energy sources feeding brain cancer cells will be integrated and matched with the genetic data, creating the ultimate roadmap for destroying brain cancer.

A/Prof Peter Fecci - Unshackling the immune system

We're sending in the troops

After decades of failures, scientists finally found effective ways of turning the immune system against cancers (known as immunotherapy) with spectacular results – except for in brain cancer. Peter, a neurosurgeon from Duke University in the U.S. is an expert on T-cells. These T-cells are part of our immune system that locate and eliminate potential threats to keep you healthy. The problem with brain cancer is that the T-cells are often trapped in the bone marrow. Peter was one of the first to identify this T-cell dysfunction in brain cancer. Working alongside 2012 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Prof Robert J. Lefkowitz, we have awarded the team $477,343 to find out how we can release the T-cells from the bone marrow so they can travel through the body to fight the brain cancer.

We also have some exciting new projects in the pipeline that I will announce in 2021.
Further, my pledge to you remains strong that we will stay lean and transparent. Our costs remain at under 20% of total income (which include both admin costs & fundraising costs) since we launched in 2018. To our loyal volunteers and companies that support us pro bono – you know who you are – I thank you wholeheartedly.

My soul is more ablaze than ever with fierce determination to change the future for people diagnosed with brain cancer.

This month we are sharing the stories of families who have felt the heart-breaking loss of a loved one to brain cancer. These stories demonstrate the tremendous courage that people show when facing diagnosis with a terminal disease.
Whether you have been personally affected by brain cancer or simply are shocked by the statistics, I invite you to join me. Read these stories. Share them with your friends. Stand up and act. Spread the word about brain cancer. Give by clicking the donate button below. Join me and do whatever you can to help us offer a future to people with brain cancer.
Thank you to all our supporters. Your continued generosity is a blessing and something we never take for granted. You believe in our approach to funding brain cancer research and I am humbled to carry the torch with you into the new year and beyond.
Let’s keep working together to ensure that our children just like Harry get to experience all that life has to offer.
Xx

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder

P.S. Read more about our game-changing research strategy and grants. Review our latest financials.

Please Donate

How hope keeps us going

Today, in brain tumour awareness month, we take a moment to celebrate over 2 years of the Charlie Teo Foundation (CTF) with the release of Charlie’s letter.
On the 1st of March 2018, Charlie officially launched CTF to shake-up the way brain cancer research is funded. Charlie has never been satisfied with the status-quo. That’s why CTF is all about radical thinking to find a solution to brain cancer.
In this letter, Charlie reflects on the challenging times we face and how through this, CTF stands strong in our fight against brain cancer.

5th May 2020

Hello friends,

This week I operated on a courageous 29-year-old. She had a rapid recurrence of her brain cancer despite best standard treatment. Her devoted and loving husband held her hand throughout the pre-operative visit and gave nothing but unconditional support. Her eyes betrayed any outward pretence of bravado… she knew this would be her last chance of life. He knew it too.

All my patients are kind enough to show appropriate concern for the current pandemic. I am acutely aware, however, that deep within their souls I’m sure they are wondering why society appears to have forgotten their disease that carries an almost 100% mortality and for which governments contribute very little funding. I have pledged to stay the course, beat their drum, be their voice and relentlessly pursue funding opportunities by raising awareness and lobbying the government.
Death and dying are not unfamiliar to me. Although we are facing a global challenge never before witnessed, it is a reminder of how fragile life is, how important our health is, how home and family are paramount and how hope keeps us going.
My promise to you is that CTF will not lose sight of our purpose. We will continue to be transparent about our financials and disruptive in our approach to research.

“Although we are facing a global challenge never before witnessed, it is a reminder of how fragile life is, how important our health is, how home and family are paramount and how hope keeps us going.”

Of the $11 million raised for CTF over the last 2 years so far, we have committed $4 million to brain cancer research and our total costs are 19% of total income.
But we are not spending for the sake of spending. We measure our success on impact. CTF has a clear strategy that I really feel is going to move the needle. I want to finally see an improvement to brain cancer survival rates, something that hasn’t happened in over 35 years.
Let me introduce you to some of our newest impassioned, left-field and unconventional researchers and their grants that we are awarding in 2020.

Dr Joshua Chou – Out of this world!

We’re on a space mission

A biomedical engineer at the University of Technology Sydney, Joshua is the first in Australia to develop a microgravity device. Inspired by a chance encounter with Stephen Hawking who told him to “remember that nothing defies gravity”, Joshua has shown that altering gravitational forces causes cancer cells to stop growing. We’re funding him to study this in brain cancer. He’s also sending brain cancer cells into space to the International Space Station for 7 days to further study this phenomenon at ZERO GRAVITY.

A/Prof Hong Chen – Nasal drug delivery

We’re breaking down barriers

A biomedical engineer at Washington University in St Louis in the U.S, Hong is tackling a serious problem with treating brain cancer. The blood brain barrier protects the brain. It also makes it extremely difficult to get drugs through it to treat the cancer. She is using a novel approach to bypass the barrier and carry the drugs to release at the cancer site by combining three different techniques – nasal delivery – nanoparticles – focused ultrasound.

Dr Kristina Cook – The body clock

We’re giving the gift of time

I have always been fascinated with the circadian rhythm and how it impacts how we treat brain cancer. A cancer biologist, cancer survivor herself and up and comer brain cancer researcher at the University of Sydney, Kristina has worked with the 2019 Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine and is applying her learnings to brain cancer. She is our very first recipient of a Teo Research Rebels grant, exploring whether the body clock can be used to synchronise brain cancer cells to a time of day where they are most vulnerable to attack.

Dr Roel Verhaak – Saving kids & man’s best friend

We’re looking for the key driver

What drives brain cancer is currently unknown. Roel’s computational brain cancer biology team at the Jackson Laboratory in the U.S has helped to treat dogs diagnosed with brain cancer. What they discovered in trying to help sick dogs is that they develop brain cancer very similarly to brain cancer in children… So, we’re funding the lab to study those similarities to uncover the potential driver of childhood brain cancer.

And this is just a glimpse into our research. If you find it fascinating like me, you can find out more about our Research Projects.
All of these incredible researchers are thinking outside the box, and that’s exactly what I want to encourage. Let’s break-down silos! Let’s work together! Let’s share data, knowledge and experience!

“My plea with all our supporters is to approach brain cancer with determination, community spirit and a humanistic attitude.”

COVID-19 has underscored the importance of dealing with a serious illness as a community and with a humanistic approach, not individualistic. My plea with all our supporters is to take those very principles and continue to approach brain cancer with the same determination, community spirit and humanistic attitude.
I want to thank all those incredibly kind and generous people and organisations who have continued to donate to CTF despite hard financial times and to wish everyone all the very best for the year to come. You are offering hope to people with brain cancer, and that is a beautiful gift.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I would like to personally invite you to join me on Facebook Live this May to hear me talk more about how hope keeps us going and to have the opportunity to chat with me. Further details will be announced shortly.
Xx

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder