Areas of interest

Bowel cancer Childhood cancer Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC)

Research group

Cancer Genetics and Functional Genomics

Biography

Rajithri (Dilru) Habarakada is the Biobank Specialist for the Next Generation Precision Medicine program.

In the collaborative Next Generation Precision Medicine program, scientists at Hudson Institute have established a ‘Living Biobank’ of childhood brain/CNS and solid cancers – including living organoids or lab-grown ‘mini-tumours’ – to trial and develop targeted treatments and improve clinical outcomes, survival rates and quality of life (limiting side-effects) for childhood cancer patients. As the program’s Biobank Specialist, Dilru brings technical and operational knowledge to the development of the ‘Living Biobank’ platform at Hudson Institute and oversees all biobanking activities for the program. She also coordinates the Monash Children’s Cancer Biobank led by Dr Peter Downie at Monash Children’s Hospital.

Dilru completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and Psychology at Victoria University, then joined Next Generation Precision Medicine in 2021. She is currently undertaking a Masters of Cancer Sciences at the University of Melbourne to expand her knowledge in the areas of quality of research, cancer care, prevention and education.