‘Together, we will get to zero’: The extraordinary work of a childhood cancer researcher.

Dr. Orazio Vittorio - a scientist at the Children’s Cancer Institute.

As we dive headfirst into the second month of our Wanna Win a Pool competition, we want to introduce you to Dr. Orazio Vittorio. A researcher at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Orazio is leading the fight against childhood cancer and when we were lucky enough to catch up with him, we were simply blown away by both his dedication and passion for his work.

When we kicked off the campaign in July, there is no question we were pretty keen beans. But this chat with Orazio has inspired us to go bigger, better and harder for this incredible cause as we lead up to the draw date. We just loved hearing all about Orazio’s job at the Institute, and we know you will too.

“Being a researcher is not only a job, but a lifestyle,” Dr Orazio Vittorio says. “I like to say that I am a scientist – which means I am a scientist both at work and outside of work.”

Team Leader in the Metal-Targeted Therapy and Immunology Group at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Dr. Orazio Vittorio’s research focuses on investigating the role of metals such as copper in the growth of brain tumours.

“My research focuses on the devastating childhood cancers neuroblastoma and glioma (brain cancer), which have very poor survival rates,” Orazio says. “My goal is to develop drugs that specifically target cellular pathways involving these metals, thereby halting tumour progression.”

A typical day for Orazio kicks off at 6am with emails over breakfast. At 7am he wakes his three kids – 15 months, 5 years, and 10 years – and gets breakfast organised, prepares lunch boxes, and hustles them off to school. Orazio’s lab work starts at 9am, when he touches base with each one of his Research Assistants, Post-docs and PhD students to review their experimental plan of the day, then it’s coats on and into the lab. Over a lunchbreak Orazio and his team discuss the progress of their experiments and any challenges they might be facing, then it’s back into the lab until around 6pm. It sounds like a ruthless schedule, but Orazio says the team approach and the importance of the work makes it all worthwhile.

“The thing I love the most is our strong connection with clinicians,” he says. “We work closely together so that we can clearly understand how our discoveries can translate to treatments for patients. I also love being part of the team curing childhood cancer. I know that together, we will get to zero children dying of the disease.”

A cancer survivor himself, Orazio was one of the first scientists worldwide to discover the important role of copper in contributing to cancer immune evasion, highlighting the potential for repurposing copper chelators as enhancers of anti-tumour immunity. An award-winning researcher, he says that a particular discovery stands out from the rest.

“My team was the first in the world to discover how cancer cells use copper to hide from the immune system. This is a breakthrough discovery which can change the future of immunotherapy. Currently, treatment drugs aren’t designed to specifically kill cancer cells. That’s why we need to target cancer cells specifically, so we create less problems for healthy cells in the body.”

Central to his work at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Orazio says, is community fund-raising – meaning every dollar you generous people have already contributed to this cause goes to helping him and his colleagues do their life-saving work.

“The majority of our research is supported by fund-raising and community events,” he says. “We use these funds very wisely, to hire a junior scientist or a research assistant, and to buy materials. These funds are vital for the progression of our project. They give us the possibility to run the experiments using the most advanced techniques. Basically, without your support, I cannot do my job.”

Orazio says that while the work of a cancer researcher is incredibly rewarding, the devastating incidence of childhood cancer is a constant driving force.

“The hardest part of my job is seeing children still dying from this terrible disease. Tragically, three children will die from cancer every week in Australia – there is lots of work to be done to get to zero but we know we can get there.”

Help Orazio and his team by entering our Wanna Win a Pool competition here. You could win a pool!

And hey, maybe you don’t need a pool but you would love to support the cause. You can donate here.

To find out more about the work of Children’s Cancer Institute click here.