Centre for Endocrinology and Metabolism

Centre Head Professor Peter Fuller

Overview

The Centre for Endocrinology and Metabolism (CEM), the preeminent Australian endocrinology research centre, is closely aligned with specialist clinics in the Endocrinology Unit at Monash Health, providing opportunities to explore key research questions including hormone actions, bone disorders, male reproductive health, hypertension resulting from adrenal tumours, disorders of sexual development, sexual dimorphism in diseases, and the molecular basis of thyroid and ovarian cancers.

The Centre for Endocrinology and Metabolism’s goals are to

• Understand the molecular and cellular determinants of endocrine diseases
• Discover targets to treat hypertension, male reproduction disorders, and endocrine cancers
• Improve recognition, management and patient outcomes in endocrine hypertension, bone diseases, and disorders of sexual development.

The Centre’s research groups undertake basic and clinical research, co-located alongside clinicians, state-of-the-art technologies, and a clinical trials centre, enabling research into a wide range of human conditions.

Scientists and clinicians in the Centre for Endocrinology and Metabolism focus on areas of unmet patient need including bone disorders in cerebral palsy and thalassemia patients, diagnosis and clinical management of a potentially curable hypertension type, novel treatment strategies for rare ovarian granulosa cell and thyroid cancers, male reproductive health, molecular causes of aberrant sexual development and gender incongruence.

Research in the Centre for Endocrinology and Metabolism has directly led to

• Changes to Australian hypertension management guidelines, assisted reproductive technology protocols, bone disease assessments and therapeutic guidelines.
• The development of a diagnostic test used Australia-wide and a website for communication of findings with the intersex community.

Collaborations and partnerships are active with national and international researchers and policy bodies including Healthy Male, FSANZ, CP Alliance, PA Foundation, University of Alberta, ESA, VCA, MPCCC, OCRF, ROC Inc, GCT Survivor Sisters, Washington Children’s National Hospital, MCRI and many others.