Two Monash University researchers have been awarded the prestigious Viertel Fellowship, to advance pioneering research in AI-driven healthcare and cancer biology.
Today, the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation, in association with Bellberry – a not-for-profit organisation supporting research projects across Australia – announced the three recipients of the 2025 Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowships. Two of the three Fellowships were awarded to Monash University researchers.
Each Fellowship, valued at $1.375 million over five years, supports outstanding mid-career researchers to pursue innovative medical research projects with the potential to transform health outcomes in Australia and globally.
Associate Professor Zongyuan Ge, from the Faculty of Information Technology's AIM for Health Lab, has been named this year's Bellberry-Viertel Fellow and is the first ever AI scientist to receive this prestigious medical research Fellowship.
Associate Professor Ge is working to develop Australia's first Unified Phenotype Foundation Model, an AI system designed to integrate diverse patient data – such as images, scans, clinical notes and long-term medical histories – to enable earlier diagnosis, improved prognoses and personalised healthcare.
"It is an incredible honour to be recognised by the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation and Bellberry," Associate Professor Ge said.
"This Fellowship will allow us to build a new unified foundation for medical AI – one that learns from the full picture of a person's health and can drive earlier, more accurate and more equitable care for the diverse healthcare needs of the Australian population."
Dr Dustin Flanagan, from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, has been awarded the Viertel Fellowship to investigate how tissue damage contributes to the initiation and spread of gastric cancer.
His research will explore how inflammatory exposure and regenerative processes alter cell identity to drive cancer development, with the goal of uncovering new ways to prevent or slow the disease.
"Understanding how tissue damage triggers the earliest steps of cancer could open new avenues for prevention and treatment," Dr Flanagan said.
"It has taken us a few years to get to this point, but my team are now on the verge of understanding how common-place tissue damage changes the way pre-cancerous and established cancer cells behave.
"Because of the substantial support from the Viertel Foundation, we are now in a position to accelerate our research and identify new intervention points (drug targets) that could make a real difference to cancer patients."
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) and Senior Vice-President, Professor Robyn Ward AM, said the Fellowships reflect the depth and diversity of Monash's research excellence and its commitment to translating discovery into impact.
"Together, Associate Professor Ge and Dr Flanagan represent the interdisciplinary spirit that defines Monash research and enterprise," Professor Ward said.
"These Awards are a testament to the calibre of researchers at Monash who are shaping the future of healthcare to improve lives across communities through both scientific discovery and technological innovation."
Associate Professor Zongyuan Ge and Dr Dustin Flanagan at the Fellowship Awards ceremony in Canberra
Headshots of Associate Professor Zongyuan Ge
Headshots of Dr Dustin Flanagan
About the Viertel Foundation – making an impact in medical research
Managed in collaboration with co-Trustees the Honourable Justice Debra Mullins AO (Chair), Paul de Silva, and Peter Evans, the Viertel Foundation was established with an initial bequest of $60 million. The Foundation is now worth around $260 million and distributes approximately $9 million annually.
