Melanoma in Australia represents a major, unsolved public health challenge.

It remains one of the leading cancer killers, especially of young and middle-aged adults. This is partly because prognosis remains poor and largely unpredictable for all but early stage disease, and there are essentially no effective treatments for advanced disease.

However, after decades of stagnation, therapeutic advances in melanoma seem on the horizon. Investigation into the genetic basis of the disease has enabled the discovery of therapeutic agents that specifically target this cancer type. As ultra violet light, the causal agent of melanoma, is such a potent carcinogen this cancer type contains many different mutations. The generation of biomolecular datasets characterising melanoma tumours has aided in the determination of the ‘driver’ mutations behind this disease and aided in the development of further therapeutics.

Genome sequences from a large proportion of the melanoma patient cohort have been generated and have been made available as a public resource to scientists and clinicians.

This Bioplatforms Australia Framework Data Initiative is led by Professor Graham Mann from The University of Sydney in partnership with Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Melanoma Institute Australia, the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne Melanoma Project), Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research and Edith Cowan University.