Professor Graham Lieschke is a clinical and research haematologist. He is internationally recognised for his research into blood disorders and cancer using zebrafish and mice. He is also a clinical haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he treats people with leukaemia and lymphoma.

Prof Lieschke received his medical science and medical degrees from the University of Melbourne in 1983. He undertook his specialist clinical training in medical oncology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), obtaining his FRACP in 1991.

His undergraduate laboratory and clinical research cultivated his interest in haematology, and as the first Ludwig Institute/RMH Clinical Fellow, he was part of the team that introduced the white blood cell growth factors into clinical practice.  In his PhD project at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Melbourne Branch), he undertook one of Australia’s first gene knockout projects, proving that G-CSF was a key physiological regulator of granulocyte production.

His postdoctoral training was at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, in tumour immunology.  He returned to Australia in 1997 as an independent investigator. He established his zebrafish-based research program while at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, and continued this as a Laboratory Head in the Cancer and Haematology Division of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

His work seeks to exploit the unique strengths of the zebrafish model in genetics, embryology, and for visualizing cell behaviour in vivo to understand blood cell development and diseases.

His awards include: the John Maynard Hedstrom Research Fellowship of the Cancer Council of Victoria, a Howard Hughes Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Physicians, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. The Ludwig Institute awarded him its inaugural George Hodgson Medal for Medical Science.

He has published over 100 scientific papers and co-edited 2 books. Prof. Lieschke is also passionate about the organ and choral music of J.S. Bach, an interest for which he was awarded the 2004 Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship.