2007
ARMI established after Founding Director, Professor Nadia Rosenthal moved from Europe’s leading life sciences lab – the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – to pursue her discoveries towards reversing damage in heart attacks and muscle disease.
2008
World leading medical scientist from Victor Chang Institute, Professor Peter Currie appointed as ARMI’s Deputy Director.
2009
ARMI officially opened, with its $153 million medical research centre based at the Monash University Clayton Campus in Victoria.
Professor Christophe Marcelle appointed as a Group Leader at the institute with a research focus on muscle stem cells.
2010
Two new research groups commenced. First two EMBL Australia Group Leaders recruited. ARMI hosted EMBL Australia launch. ARMI was part of a national consortium awarded a $21M Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative in Stem Cell Science. Funding awarded for the ARMIRat and AquaCore infrastructure initiatives. Leadership Advisory Board formed. Outreach science programs for primary and secondary schools, BioEYES pilot launched.
2011
Both ARMI groups from the partner network, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, commenced and recruited their research teams. Three new group leaders McGlinn, Kaslin and Plachta commenced bringing the overall total number of research groups to 10. ARMI now has 100 people; made up of researchers, students, affiliates, core facility support and administrative personnel.
2012
ARMI’s grant application success rate of 38% for the year was higher than the national average of just over 20%. Total income from grants was more than $4.8 million, an increase of 18% over the previous year. ARMI researchers published 53 papers (up from 26 in 2011) as well as four book chapters and one book. Highlights include papers in the high impact journals Cell and Science.
ARMI’s international linkages were further strengthened by the Systems Biology Institute’s (SBI) decision to open its first international node at Monash University. SBI Australia is hosted at ARMI. EMBL Australia launched a student travel grants program. The Australian Bioinformatics network was launched, in partnership with CSIRO and BioPlatforms Australia.
2013
ARMI’s grant application success rate of 30% for the year was higher than the national average of around 20%. ARMI researchers published 52 papers and 1 book chapter. Highlights include papers in the high-impact journals Science, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Materials, Nature Communications and The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Five more research Group Leaders and their teams move to ARMI. Three new group leaders were welcomed as affiliates, Prof David Haylock, Assoc Prof Andrew Laslett and Professor Susie Nilsson, who all have joint appointments at CSIRO and Monash University. At the end of 2013, the institute consisted of 194 people comprising academics and technical staff, students, administrative support and affiliate appontments.
Connections to local, national and international research grew. ARMI researchers were also involved in several large collaborative projects.
2014
ARMI’s second five-year strategic plan was delivered, guiding the Institute from establishment into an accelerated growth phase from 2014 – 2019.
ARMI now has 16 exceptional research groups, including joint appointments with CSIRO and the Department of Anatomy and Development Biology, each one led by a scientist renowned in their field, directing a team to explore a specific research challenge.
ARMI researchers published 54 papers and one book chapter. Highlights include papers in the high-impact journals Nature, Nature Medicine, Circ Res, Cell Stem Cell, Journal of Experimental Medicine and Cell. At the end of 2014 the Institute counted 216 people comprising academics, technical staff, students, administrative support staff and affiliate appointments. A total of 39 students are associated with ARMI making up almost 20% of the total staff at the Institute.
2015
Finalised an agreement and launched a new scientific journal in regenerative medicine. npj Regenerative Medicine is an open access, online-only journal published by ARMI in partnership with the Nature Publishing Group and demonstrates the Institute’s growing international leadership in the fast developing regenerative medicine research sector.
Founding Director, Prof Nadia Rosenthal, is appointed as Scientific Director at the prestigious Jackson Laboratory in Maine, USA. A new EMBL Australia Group Leader was recruited maintaining the total number of research group leaders at 16.
2016
Professor Peter Currie is appointed the new Director of Research of ARMI, and replaces Founding Director, Professor Nadia Rosenthal, who has moved to the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, USA as Scientific Director.
2017
Dr Harald Janovjak and Dr Alberto Roselló-Díez are recruited to the Institute as group leaders.
ARMI partnered with the Institute of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ITERM) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in a PhD exchange program.
Monash University Academic Board approved ARMI’s new Master of Biotechnology. In addition to our existing opportunities for students, this program is another important step towards our aim of developing Australia’s future workforce in regenerative medicine and biotechnology.
2018
Dr Gonzalo del Monte Nieto, Dr Jennifer Zenker and Dr Nadinath Nillegoda are recruited to the Institute as group leaders.
ARMI researchers and students travelled to Hong Kong in July 2018 to attend the first Chinese University of Hong Kong – Monash University Joint Symposium on Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering.
An exhibition at St Heliers Gallery at the Abbotsford Convent between May and June 2018 culminated the 2017 ARMI Artists in Residence Program. The exhibition, Regeneration: An exhibition, showcased the art of nine artists inspired by ARMI’s regenerative medicine research.
2019
Emeritus Professor Claude Bernard was awarded the 2018 ChunCheng Friendship Award in August 2019. The award, given by the Kunming Municipal People’s Government, People’s Republic of China is the highest honour for experts from outside of China who have made “outstanding contributions to the country’s economic and social progress.”
ARMI celebrated its 10-year anniversary with various events throughout the year, including a review of the research program. The review was conducted by a panel of scientific key opinion leaders from overseas and Australia with endorsement of the institute’s research program.
2020
ARMI Director, Professor Peter Currie, was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
In 2020, ARMI had more enrolled students than ever before, with 42 PhD students, 11 Masters students, 11 Honours student and 4 undergraduate students. Dr Giuseppe Lucarelli joined ARMI as a new lecturer to support students enrolled in the Master of Biotechnology.
npj Regenerative Medicine, an online journal created by ARMI in partnership with Nature Springer, passed two exciting new milestones. Impact factor (IF) data released by Clarivate Analytics revealed that npj Regenerative Medicine has a debut IF of 7.021 and is ranked in the first quartile for citations in both of the journal’s research categories- ‘cell & tissue engineering’ and ‘biomedical engineering’.
2021
The Australia Brazil Chile (ABC) Network expands, welcoming researchers from Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay.
Cartherics and ARMI, including commercialisation initiative CCRM Australia, announced agreements for closer cooperation and collaboration.
The FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) – Monash University Collaboration Seed Program is launched. The program will help fund up to 10 collaborative projects to foster or strengthen the scientific relationship between research groups and generate preliminary results that can support the development of longer-term projects.
2022
A three-year grant of $AUD857,800 from the Australian Research Council is awarded to multidisciplinary team led by Professor Peter Currie and Associate Professor Mikaël Martino at ARMI and Dr Ryan Hicks from AstraZeneca, strengthen the partnership between ARMI and industry.
A new Monash biotech company, Myostellar, led by ARMI researchers has received funding to develop novel therapies for treatment of muscular dystrophies.
New Leadership Advisory Board members expand our clinical links and help drive our research towards clinical impact.
New program, the Accelerator Fellowship Program, launched to accelerate opportunities for early-career researchers.
npj Regenerative Medicine, an online journal created by ARMI in partnership with Nature Springer, reaches new heights with an Impact Factor (IF) of 14.404. The journal has also ranked second in the “cell and tissue engineering” category and fifth in the “biomedical engineering” category.