BioGrid Australia: Celebrating 20 Years

Our story

Discover the history of BioGrid


2003

Molecular Medicine Informatics Model (MMIM) pilot project funded by Victorian Government. Peter Gibbs (then at Royal Melbourne Hospital and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research), Peter Colman (Royal Melbourne Hospital) and Terry O’Brien (then at Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne), saw the potential benefits of creating a way to safely and securely access distributed clinical data sets for research, which resulted in BioGrid’s unique federated model.


2004

IBM wins tender to establish a federated data technology model for MMIM project.


2005

MMIM pilot project expands to include additional disease areas and hospitals, with funding from Federal Government for two years.


2006

Australian Cancer Grid project is funded under Victorian Government’s Healthy Futures Initiative.


2007

MMIM project is renamed and branded BioGrid Australia. 

SAS upgraded to Business Enterprise for querying and reporting data.


2008

BioGrid Australian Cancer Grid project under Melbourne Health is named a Computerworld Honors Laureate.


2009

BioGrid Australia becomes a company limited by guarantee with 18 founding members. 

Led by Peter Gibbs, BioGrid partners with Roche on a prospective study into clinical outcomes of Bevacizumab use in metastatic colorectal cancer (TRACC). 

Led by Terry O'Brien, multigenetic predictive model for treatment of epilepsy (developed with support of BioGrid) is patented.


2010

Sir Gustav Nossal launches CART-WHEEL.org, world’s first ethically approved website questionnaire for consumer driven research into rare tumours and molecular sub-types of common tumours. CART-WHEEL was developed by and is hosted and managed by BioGrid.


2011

Australian Cancer Grid project completed including three major cancer research projects in collaboration with CSIRO. BioGrid membership expands to 25 members and collaborators.


2012

BioGrid wins People’s Choice Excellence in Business Intelligence Award.


2013

One million individuals linked through BioGrid’s platform and 99 publications produced from studies utilising data linked to BioGrid. 

AIHW National Death Index data becomes available through BioGrid on a project-specific basis.


2014

BioGrid’s 10th anniversary celebration combined with launch of Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre (HaBIC) at University of Melbourne.


2015

Bupa Health Foundation funds a collaboration between VCCC Alliance, University of Melbourne and BioGrid to link primary care and hospital data for the first time in Australia. 

Led by Peter Gibbs and colleagues, BioGrid partners again with Roche to develop a registry to support a study into HER2 positive breast cancer (TABITHA).


2016

Led by Ben Tran, the ePAD prostate cancer registry is sponsored and developed by BioGrid is initially funded by Astellas, AstraZeneca and Janssen. 

CART-WHEEL questionnaire is expanded for global WhiMSICAL study, led by Judith Trotman.


2017

BioGrid submits and links adult Type 1 diabetes data to Australian Diabetes Data Network funded by JDRF. 

Led by Belinda Lee, the PURPLE pancreatic cancer registry is developed and linked by BioGrid for WEHI.


2018

VCCC Alliance strategic research plan funds a Data Linkage Capability program, focussing on linkage of primary care and VCCC hospital data. 

BioGrid links and curates data for first Closing the Gap on Indigenous cardiovascular health project led by Luke Burchill, funded by the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health. 

Led by Ben Tran, BLADDA registry is developed by BioGrid for WEHI, collecting data and biospecimens in patients with muscle invasive and advanced bladder cancer.


2019

ARC Portal, a referral program for doctors with rare cancer patients, launches with a five year funding program under Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre (now known as Omico). ARC Portal is developed, hosted and managed by BioGrid.


2020

BioGrid achieves its first success working with a project team to secure an MRFF grant, awarded to Karin Thursky of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for Invasive Fungal Infections Surveillance project.

BioGrid membership expands to 42 members and collaborators.


2021

Led by Miranda Smith, BioGrid develops for Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity first virtual biobank in Australia under APPRISE program. 

BioGrid develops and hosts Australia’s first thoracic surgery registry, ANZTHOR for Australian & New Zealand Society of Cardiac & Thoracic Surgeons.


2022

Led by Ben Tran, BioGrid develops KRAB, Australia’s first kidney cancer registry and biobank, and iTestis, Australia’s first germ cell tumour cancer registry and biobank. 

BioGrid develops and hosts the National Antibiotic Allergy Network’s database for inpatient antibiotic allergy testing led by Jason Trubiano.


2023

ePAD project expands into Asia (Singapore and South Korea), led by Ben Tran and funded by MSD. 

Australasian Dermatology Registry developed and hosted for Skin Health Institute. 

Three successful MRFF grant partnerships: national cancer cohorts platform, AI infection surveillance and federated learning infrastructure.


2024

Six million individuals linked through BioGrid’s platform and 377 publications produced to date from studies utilising data linked to BioGrid. 

BioGrid’s 20th anniversary celebration event highlighting BioGrid’s journey as a leader in Australian health informatics. 

View the BioGrid Australia 20th Anniversary videos, screened at BioGrid's 20th Anniversary Celebration on 
26 November 2024, featuring interviews with key people in BioGrid's 20 year journey to becoming a leader in Australian health informatics

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