Monash Melanoma Multiplex 

Australia is well-known to have the highest skin cancer rate worldwide and presents a burden to the healthcare system. In 2019, among the deaths that occurred due to skin cancer, 71% was purely from melanoma and the rest was non-melanoma skin cancer. According to Cancer Council, melanoma is one of the most expensive cancers to treat, costing the Australian Health System $357 million. These highlight the importance of having this dire issue pertaining to melanoma skin cancer addressed.

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As such, we believe that early detection of melanoma will reduce its toll on the healthcare system and benefit clinicians and patients alike. We intend to achieve this by detecting the presence of upregulated miRNAs associated with melanoma through the utilisation of CRISPR Cas13 and fluorescent probes. The potential clinical implications in extension to this project would be to provide point of care testing to the public. This would ultimately enable a product that is easily accessible, provides rapid results, efficient and accurate for early detection of melanoma.