When she was five years old, Associate Professor Kimberley Alexander already knew she wanted to be a medical scientist. “I loved blood,” she laughs. “If I fell over and there was no blood, I thought it was waste of pain.”
That early fascination with how the body works — and what happens when it doesn’t — set the direction for her career. Today, Kim is the Director of Brain Cancer Research at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and a member of Brain Cancer Australia’s National Consortium.
“The brain is one of the great unknowns. Even with all our modern tools, there’s still so much to learn about how it works and why it sometimes fails”
While completing a Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) at the University of Sydney, Kim worked with a brain bank — collecting and preserving donated postmortem brain tissue to study neurological disease. After completing her PhD, where she established methods to analyse thousands of proteins from human brain tissue, she turned her focus to translational melanoma research — but before long, she was drawn back to the brain.
Kim established and co-leads the Sydney Brain Tumour Bank — consolidating decades of collections and creating systems to capture and preserve tumour tissues, living cells, blood, urine and post-mortem samples from more than 1,300 consenting patients. She has invested heavily in building research infrastructure needed to advance brain cancer research.
“People often don’t realise how critical research infrastructure is until they need it,” she says. “High-quality biospecimens linked with clinical information are the foundation of scientific discovery. They’re essential for understanding how tumours spread, evolve and resist treatment — and for developing better therapies.”
“When we connect and standardise research infrastructure across institutions, we move from isolated efforts to a collective force — one capable of discoveries that can genuinely change lives.”
Kim is an investigator on Brain Cancer Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund infrastructure grant, which includes an initiative that links 20 biobanks and harmonises protocols and databases across Australia. It’s work she calls “not very sexy, but absolutely vital.”
“When we connect and standardise research infrastructure across institutions, we move from isolated efforts to a collective force — one capable of discoveries that can genuinely change lives.”
The Sydney Brain Tumour Bank also supports her own research program that aims to develop faster and less-invasive diagnostics for brain cancer patients. Her team is developing blood and urine tests that can accurately detect, diagnose and predict outcomes for people with glioblastoma, bringing us closer to real-time monitoring of disease and treatment response - and her dream “to invent a cancer-detecting toilet”.
“Behind every discovery are people and systems that need support — if we want breakthroughs, we must fund and build the foundations that make them happen.”
When asked what she wishes more people understood about brain cancer, Kim recalls a question her grandmother often asked her: “Why haven’t you fixed it yet?”.
“Glioblastoma is an extraordinarily complex disease,” she says. “Its diversity is staggering — it adapts, evolves and resists treatment. But understanding that complexity is also where the opportunity lies.
“We need fundamental research to unravel the biology, and to do that, we need investment in the infrastructure and resources that make it possible,” she adds. “Behind every discovery are people and systems that need support — if we want breakthroughs, we must fund and build the foundations that make them happen.”
Curiosity and a deep dislike of leaving things unfinished keep Kim motivated in the fight against brain cancer - and the science keeps her hopeful. “As do the people who believe in and support what we’re trying to achieve.”
