ARMI awards 2026 Accelerator Grant to Dr Macsue Jacques 

The Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) has awarded its Accelerator Grant for 2026 to Dr Macsue Jacques, supporting her transition from postdoctoral researcher to independent research leader. 

The Accelerator Program, led by ARMI Group Leaders Dr Renee Chow and Dr William Roman, was developed to support early-to mid-career researchers as they move from postdoctoral roles into leadership positions. The program provides funding, mentorship and access to world-class research infrastructure. 

Dr Jacques was selected for the grant in recognition of her exceptional research outputs, scientific leadership and vision to establish an independent research program in the biology of ageing.  

Her research addresses a major unmet need in the field: moving beyond blood-only or single-tissue measures of ageing toward a systems-level understanding of how human tissues age, interact and respond to intervention. 

Dr Jacques has already demonstrated significant leadership in coordinating large, international and interdisciplinary research efforts. Her ageing and exercise multi-omics work has involved coordination across 12 cohorts, eight countries and more than 40 scientists, while her Heart, Muscle and Blood Ageing Study brings together clinicians, surgeons, biobanks and international research partners to investigate inter-organ ageing dynamics, supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grant. 

Alongside her research, Dr Jacques has mentored and supervised numerous students and trainees in bioinformatics, multi-omics analysis and critical data interpretation, including four masters students, more than six placement students, a PhD exchange student, and her current supervision of two honours students and one PhD co-supervision. 

Through the Accelerator Grant, Dr Jacques will pursue independent research focused on long-read DNA methylation, established through collaborations with Harvard and the Broad Institute, and through access to data from the All of Us Research Program. She said her work will focus on developing and applying analytical pipelines for long-read methylation data to address questions in ageing biology, disease prevention and translational biomarker discovery. 

“I’m incredibly grateful to receive the Early Career Researcher Accelerator Grant,” Dr Jacques said. “This support is much more than funding. It is an important recognition of my transition towards research independence and gives me the opportunity to turn an ambitious idea into a new research direction 

“I’ll use the grant to harness long-read DNA sequencing to uncover hidden changes in the epigenome that occur as we age, with the ultimate goal of identifying the earliest molecular signs that someone is shifting from healthy ageing towards disease. I hope this work will lay the foundation for new biomarkers that allow us to detect risk earlier and, ultimately, intervene before disease takes hold.” 

Dr Roman said the Accelerator Program played an important role in developing the next generation of independent academic leaders. 

“By giving emerging researchers the freedom and resources to begin exploring their own ideas, it provides a critical bridge between working within an established laboratory and developing a truly independent research program,” he said. 

“Macsue has demonstrated the scientific creativity, leadership and perseverance required to become an independent group leader. She has a clear vision for her research and the ability to bring people and ideas together to pursue important questions. This grant is a well-deserved recognition of her potential and an exciting step towards establishing her own research identity.”  

Dr Jacques’ award follows ARMI’s inaugural Accelerator Grants awarded in 2025 to Dr Samuel Crossman and Dr Yen-Zhen (Angel) Lu, continuing the program’s commitment to building a strong pipeline of future research leaders.