Professor Eric Morand receives Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research Enterprise

Professor Eric Morand

Head, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) Professor Eric Morand has been recognised for his highly successful research, receiving the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (Enterprise).

Professor Morand leads clinical and basic research in systematic erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) at the Monash Health Translation Precinct. Professor Morand also established and leads the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration (APLC), a collaboration of expert lupus clinicians and researchers from 21 centres, aiming to improve outcomes for patients with the disease.

“Measuring patient outcomes, and understanding biological variation in lupus has been historically highly problematic, leading to difficulty in design of clinical trials and contributing in part to the failure to develop major breakthrough new treatments,” Professor Morand said.

“Thanks to the APLC collaboration, we have developed a new way to measure outcomes in Lupus clinical trials”.

Professor Morand also leads basic and translational research into lupus, funded by NHMRC and prestigious international awards. This work has resulted in research collaborations with several international biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including CSL, Australia’s largest biopharma company, and has raised more than $2M in industry support for his research over the last five years. 

In addition, his collaborative work with other Monash and Hudson Institute researchers, on the biology of an anti-inflammatory protein in lupus, including a new treatment approach, has led to a new Monash spinoff company that aims to produce biological therapeutics for patients.

Head, Department of Medicine Professor Peter Ebeling said Professor Morand’s major role in our partnerships with Novartis and CSL have resulted in global level interactions that will bring more enterprise engagement in the future.

“These have involved the promotion not of Professor Morand’s own work but rather of Monash University at large,” Professor Ebeling said.