Professor Andrew Roberts is a blood cancer researcher and haematologist who has led groundbreaking research to improve blood cancer treatments for nearly 30 years.

He is a WEHI Deputy Director, as well as a clinical haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Metcalf Chair of Leukaemia Research at the University of Melbourne.

What inspired you to study hematology?

As a junior doctor, I was exposed to the emotional highs and lows of caring for patients with leukaemia. There were moments of profound joy that came from watching someone recover and reclaim their life. But those moments were often contrasted by watching others deteriorate despite our best efforts. I was troubled by how poor many of our treatments for blood cancers were.

Soon after finishing my clinical training, I started my PhD under Professor Don Metcalf – regarded as the ‘father of modern haematology’ for his devotion to studying how the body generated blood cells.

He is best known for his pioneering discovery of colony stimulating factors, which have helped tens of millions of people worldwide.

This really opened my eyes to how research could provide the solutions we needed, which I found inspiring.

That encounter played a significant role in pushing me towards lab-based research. I developed a relentless determination to uncover new treatments by exploiting basic research discoveries about the biology of these diseases.

What is your most notable research accomplishment?

I have been privileged to work in collaborative teams that have shared my passion for wanting to improve the lives of people living with blood cancers.

In partnership with many colleagues – including Professor Suzanne Cory – the team made critical discoveries about how a protein, known as BCL-2, helps keep leukaemia cells alive.

These findings ultimately led to the development of venetoclax – a blood cancer drug that is now clinically approved in Australia and internationally for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia.

It was incredibly exciting to have led the first-in-human trial and the first combination trials of this drug, which was subsequently co-developed for use by US pharmaceutical companies Roche, Genentech (a member of the Roche Group) and AbbVie.

To know that research you worked on is now saving thousands of people around the world – there’s truly nothing more meaningful or rewarding as a scientist.

What is one thing that most people would probably be surprised to learn about you? 

Other than Blood (where I’ve been moonlighting as Editor-in-Chief since 2025), my favourite thing to read is Australian outback noir crime novels – it’s dangerous out there!

Professor Suzanne Cory is one of Australia’s most distinguished molecular biologists, with a record of significant achievements in immunology and cancer research.

She served as director of WEHI from 1996-2009, where she made dedicated efforts to promote science policy and elevate the institute’s profile on a global scale. She is currently Honorary Professor Emeritus at WEHI and a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow of The University of Melbourne.

What inspired you to study hematology?

In the mid-1970s, two American researchers named Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus made a groundbreaking discovery that revealed cancer-causing genes (oncogenes) found in viruses actually originate from normal, healthy cellular genes.

Their discovery revolutionised understanding of cancer as a genetic disorder and was aptly awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize.

Prior to this finding, I was working on immunogenetics – itself a very exciting field. But as soon as my team read about the oncogene discovery, we immediately started exploring this new field to find an entrée.

This sparked two key research interests in me: understanding the fundamental cause of different kinds of cancer (molecular genetics) and how cell death can contribute to cancer development (apoptosis regulation).

Working at WEHI with its rich history of haematology under Don Metcalf, it was natural that we then gravitated towards blood cancers.

What is your most notable research accomplishment?

I am most proud of two findings – both made jointly with my scientific and life partner, Jerry Adams.

In 1983 we became amongst the first in the world to discover that chromosome translocations involve a known cancer-provoking oncogene called MYC. We went on to show that MYC deregulation is the fundamental cause of Burkitt’s lymphoma, by generating one of the first transgenic mouse models of cancer in collaboration with US scientists Ralph Brinster and Richard Palmiter. These findings advanced the view that many of the DNA alterations found in tumours have contributed to cancer development.

Subsequent research by Professor David Vaux and Professor Andreas Strasser – then PhD students – led to the surprising discovery that Bcl-2, the oncogene activated by chromosome translocation in human follicular lymphoma, helps keep cells alive. This was a groundbreaking discovery that transformed the study of oncogenes and apoptosis, underpinning the development of venetoclax.

What is one thing that most people would probably be surprised to learn about you?

Growing up, I dreamed of being a novelist. Science sort of crept up on me. Hearing about the discovery of the DNA helix made a deep impression – I fell in love with DNA and have never lost the wonder and excitement of wanting to understand the molecular basis for the life process and how it goes awry in disease.