An emerging leader at Mater Research, clinician-researcher Dr Joshua Tobin, has been awarded the 2025 Future Leaders Fellowship to advance personalised immunotherapy for follicular lymphoma.
The fellowship scheme, which is now in its second year, provides $300,000 over two years to support and retain high performing mid-career researchers to undertake impactful biomedical, clinical or health services research at Mater.
The fellowship will allow Dr Tobin to reduce his clinical hours and dedicate more time to research, expanding his capacity to lead innovative projects in cancer immunotherapy.
Mater Research Executive Director Professor Allison Pettit said that promoting ongoing research excellence at Mater Research is only possible through strategic investment in the next generation of scientific leaders.
“This fellowship is part of Mater Research’s commitment to fostering the next generation of research leaders by supporting mid-career researchers to deliver high-impact, aspirational projects that address critical health challenges,” Prof Pettit said.
“There was an outstanding pool of candidates for this fellowship, and I look forward to seeing what this support enables Josh to achieve.”
Dr Tobin’s project, “A Translational Pipeline to Develop Personalised Immunotherapy Trials in Follicular Lymphoma”, aims to revolutionise treatment for this common but incurable cancer of the immune system.
Dr Tobin said that while some patients with follicular lymphoma require urgent treatment, others remain stable for years without therapy—kept in check by their own immune system.
“My research has shown that it’s the immune system’s ability to recognise cancer mutations, not just the mutations themselves, that drives outcomes in follicular lymphoma,” said Dr Tobin.
The study will investigate how immune responses differ between dormant and aggressive forms of follicular lymphoma, focusing on how immune cells recognise unique proteins found only on cancer cells (cancer-specific neoantigens).
Dr Tobin will use these insights to develop personalised cancer vaccines, using samples from an ongoing immunotherapy trial.
Dr Tobin completed a Doctor of Medicine in Surgery in 2014. He completed his internship and physician training at Mater Hospital Brisbane and while training as a physician, he undertook a PhD which he completed in 2021. Since 2023, he has balanced a near full-time clinical role at Princess Alexandra Hospital with ongoing research at Mater Research.
“This funding provides the protected time I need to build an independent research program focused on personalised neoantigen therapies that could be applied beyond blood cancers into other diseases like breast and ovarian cancer or infectious disease,” he says.
