A legacy of trust
Mr Gregory Dean Campbell didn’t have a connection to Monash. He just knew our researchers would make sure his gift had the maximum impact.
When Mr Gregory Dean Campbell generously left a Gift in Will to Monash University, he specified that his bequest should be used to study glaucoma and other eye diseases causing gradual loss of eyesight. He did not tell us why he chose Monash to carry out this vital research – and we were unaware of his generous gift until after his passing.
But he clearly knew Monash. He knew that his legacy would be safe with us. And he trusted Monash researchers to use every cent of it to drive the treatment of eye disease forward, just as he intended.
Early adoption
The eye is a hugely complex organ: and it’s an area where much more fundamental research is needed to find new treatments and improve existing ones. Early career researchers play a crucial role in the research pipeline. For example, immunologist and medical oncologist Associate Professor Vivek Narabhai is using Mr Campbell’s bequest to test a better treatment for eye tumours known as uveal melanomas (Australia has the highest rate of melanoma in the world).
“These tumours happen in young people, and they tend to be very aggressive and devastating,” says Narabhai. “Often, they result in loss of sight or the need to remove the entire eye. And despite removal, they often spread to the liver and other parts of the body.”
Narabhai says that early career researchers can often find it very hard to test innovative thinking due to the very fact that both the researcher and the ideas are new. “Yet we know that historically the most innovative and disruptive ideas come from younger investigators. That’s true across technology and biology.”
Bequests like Mr Campbell’s give young innovators like him a jump-start.
They can be transformative. You can have an idea in your head for many years, but unless you can test it out and do that first experiment, it's just an idea in your head. It’s the nature of science that unless you start testing things, you have nothing. Leaving a Gift in Will helps make that idea a reality.
Now, thanks to Mr Campbell’s gift, the team are planning to put their new versions of an existing drug to treat uveal melanomas into animal models shortly.
And the impact of Mr Campbell’s bequest could go far beyond its original target, points out Narabhai. “It’s probably more likely than not that we’ll make progress in the eye space. Then we’ll realise that there’s another disease that may be more imminently addressable, and we’ll pivot to that. Because of the support of donors, we can go where the science and the data take us.”
A far-sighted approach
Research Fellow Charles Bayly-Jones is another early-career researcher benefiting from Mr Campbell’s bequest. “Gifts like these are so important to someone like me because I’m not an established senior researcher,” he says. “I can’t point towards a vast track record of grants when I’m seeking funding. So when someone takes a leap of faith, that’s incredibly important to me.”
Bayly-Jones is investigating the role that a molecule known as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) might play in eye disease. If this molecule is mutated, it can lead to eye conditions such as tumours on the retina or diabetic retinopathy. Currently, nobody knows why – and there is no cure for these conditions.
The funding Bayly-Jones’ team has received from Mr Campbell’s gift has enabled them to use an advanced form of microscopy. “Now, we can actually visualise this molecule,” he says. “That will help us understand how it’s able to switch cell growth on and off. And that will give us a foundation from which we can start to design therapies.”
He agrees that gifts like these, which can be used for foundational research, can have huge benefits in both the short and long term. “In the short term, we gain knowledge. But in the long term, that knowledge leads to other insights which help us in ways we might not anticipate. Nature likes to throw out wild cards!”
Mr Campbell clearly knew that the many young, bright researchers who choose to start their careers at Monash can make an extraordinary contribution if they’ve given the funds – and that impact is just as important if it comes today, tomorrow, or in 20 years’ time. As Bayly-Jones points out, a gift to this kind of research is a gift to the future: indeed, we are now reaping the benefits of research funded by philanthropists 20 years ago.
“A lot of modern medicine that we benefit from today has come about because of the fundamental research that was done before,” he says.
For example, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, our knowledge about the coronavirus family came from research done two decades ago. I just can't put into words how important it is for us to be prepared for what might come and get as many people tackling problems in as many ways as possible, with different thinking and perspectives. Gifts such as Mr Campbell’s make a huge difference.