$1M+
Researcher grants deployed
Directly hosted via Challenger Summit and Pitch for Health since 2024
$19.5M+
Non-dilutive funding attracted post-incubation
Competitive federal grants won by companies after Proto Axiom incubation
950+
People convened
Across Pitch for Health, Women in Life Sciences, and partner events
200+
Applications received
Across Challenger Summit and Pitch for Health since 2024
14
Live pitches at Pitch for Health 2026
Finalists from universities and health systems nationally
Why this matters for Women's Health Foundry
Translation platforms do not emerge from strategy documents alone. They require demonstrated ability to convene the right people, evaluate early-stage science credibly, and deploy capital where it can make ventures more investable. Proto Axiom has been building that capability through national events, institutional partnerships, and direct engagement with Australia's research ecosystem.
The Challenger Summit and Pitch for Health programs have created a pipeline of relationships with researchers, university tech transfer offices, hospital research networks, and institutional investors — precisely the ecosystem that Women's Health Foundry is designed to serve.
Ecosystem follow-on
Funding attracted after Proto Axiom incubation
Two distinct measures sit alongside the researcher grants Proto Axiom hosts directly. The first tracks competitive non-dilutive capital won by companies after incubation. The second tracks private financing raised by those same companies. Together they show that the operating model produces ventures the rest of the market is willing to back.
Non-dilutive funding attracted post-incubation
A$19.5M+
Competitive Australian Government grants won by companies after Proto Axiom incubation, including MRFF Frontiers, MTPConnect TTRA, and AEA Ignite awards. Evidence that ventures shaped through the operating model go on to clear the bar set by Australia's most rigorous federal translation programs.
Private financing secured post-incubation
A$170M+
Equity capital raised by companies after Proto Axiom incubation across institutional and strategic rounds. Evidence that private capital underwrites the same ventures the federal grant system has already validated.
Figures reflect competitive Australian Government translation awards. Individual company attribution is held confidentially under partner and investor agreements.
Flagship event
Challenger Pitch for Health 2026
Co-hosted by St Vincent's Curran Foundation and Proto Axiom in Sydney, March 2026. Australia's largest medical pitch day — entirely bootstrapped and donor-led. Over 300 researchers, clinicians, founders, investors, philanthropists, industry leaders, and policymakers came together around a simple proposition: Australia produces extraordinary health and medical research, but we still need better, faster, and more repeatable pathways to turn that research into real-world impact.
Grant winners
Proto Axiom Challenger stream · Challenger Prize
Dr Jerry Zhou
Western Sydney University
Ins & Outs: Bowel Disorder Treatment at Home — developing a home-based system that helps people manage bowel conditions, bringing a proven therapy from the clinic into the home.
Proto Axiom Challenger stream · Open Prize
Dr Annaliese Dillon
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
A First-in-Class Therapeutic for Heart Failure — developing a first-in-class therapy for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, a common and fast-growing condition with no treatment that can slow or stop the underlying disease.
St Vincent’s stream · Winner
Dr Melissa Thomas
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Beyond PSA: A Simple Blood Test to Improve Prostate Cancer Care — a fast and accurate DNA blood test for advanced prostate cancer to quickly detect treatment failure, enabling personalised treatment.
St Vincent’s stream · Winner
Prof Mike Rogers
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Improving Diagnosis of Rare Genetic Conditions — solving the unmet need for a diagnostic test for certain rare but devastating genetic diseases, simplifying an accurate lab test into a quick procedure using a small blood sample.
Proto Axiom stream — all finalists
Ten pitches competing for the Challenger Prize ($150,000) and Open Prize ($100,000).
Prof Paul Beavis
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Precision Guided Munition (PGM) Technology — advancing a new form of CAR-T cell therapy to overcome barriers posed by solid tumours, strengthening the immune system’s ability to target and destroy tumours that are very difficult to treat.
A/Prof Severine Navarro
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
Novel Immunotherapy to Restore Natural Tolerance — developing AIP 2, a biologic inspired by a natural hookworm protein that helps the body maintain healthy immune tolerance, offering a new way to treat allergic and autoimmune diseases.
Dr Kirsten Coupland
The University of Newcastle
Harnessing Hypothermia to Protect the Brain (Theracool) — creating a drug-based method to safely cool the brain and protect brain tissue, making stroke treatment more accessible. Her formulation could be administered even before patients reach the hospital.
Emily Porter
Mamatech
Mamawand — a portable therapeutic ultrasound device that helps treat common breastfeeding-related inflammatory conditions like blocked ducts and mastitis, addressing the clear need for accessible at-home care for breastfeeding mothers.
Kailash Kumar Vinu
Actimo Labs Pty Ltd
ActiMap — an AI-driven tool that predicts how antibodies bind to their targets using only sequence information, giving researchers an early and quicker structural insight and reducing the risk of late-stage failures.
John Paul McKeown
Syncricity Medical Pty Ltd
Syncricity Medical — developing ultra-miniaturised, wireless implants to help with conditions like cerebral palsy, stroke, or chronic pain. These implants are designed to block abnormal nerve signals, offering long-lasting, targeted relief.
Dr Shea Carter
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
Targeting G9a to Overcome Tumour Immune Resistance — supporting commercialisation of a therapy that targets the enzyme G9a, which helps tumours grow and evade the immune system. Early results show potential to offer new hope for patients with treatment-resistant cancers.
Prof Garron Dodd
The University of Melbourne
StealthCo — developing a new treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes that works independently of the pathways targeted by current medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro, addressing a major need in metabolic disease care.
St Vincent's stream — other finalists
A/Prof Adam Hill
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
Precision Safety Screening to De-risk Drug Development (CardioSure) — current safety screens to identify proarrhythmic drugs are unreliable and can needlessly halt development. CardioSure more accurately detects heart risks to reduce waste and get safe treatment to patients faster.
Dr Lisa Sedger
St Vincent’s Centre for Applied Medical Research
Advanced Immune Cell Diagnostics — a test that detects the number and quality of immune cells to cytomegalovirus for people with impaired immune systems who experience life-threatening infections, expandable to all infections of immune-impaired patients.
St Vincent's Curran Foundation Pitch for Health 2025
The inaugural Pitch for Health, hosted by St Vincent's Curran Foundation in March 2025. Proto Axiom CEO Anthony Liveris served as Chair and Proto Axiom Science Analyst Laura Wimberger served as judge: the beginning of the institutional partnership that led to the co-hosted 2026 format.
Beyond the formal prize pool, a single donor contributed an additional A$100,000 in catalytic capital on top of the awarded grants, an early signal of the philanthropic confidence the model attracts.
This event established the model: competitive pitches from clinician-scientists, evaluated by panels with cross-sector expertise, with grant capital deployed to accelerate translation. The success of the 2025 format, and the relationship between Proto Axiom and the Curran Foundation, directly shaped the expanded Challenger Pitch for Health 2026.
Challenger Summit 2024
Proto Axiom's inaugural national biotech pitch event, held in October 2024 at St Vincent's Health Innovation Precinct in Sydney. Ten leading scientists from universities and research institutes across Australia and New Zealand presented their innovations to an expert panel of venture capitalists, industry leaders, and philanthropists, with over $250,000 in unencumbered grant financing awarded.
Challenger Prize ($150,000)
Dr Daniel Beard
University of Newcastle
Stroke recovery — improving blood flow to minimise long-term stroke effects
Axiom Prize ($100,000)
Chynna-Loren Sheremeta
University of Queensland
Innovative treatment for paediatric atopic dermatitis
AusBiotech collaboration: women's health focus
Through 2026, Proto Axiom and AusBiotech — Australia's peak industry body for biotechnology — have been working together on shared activity focused on translational innovation in women's health. The work brings together AusBiotech's national industry network and Proto Axiom's translation methodology and investor relationships; specific scope, timing, and program structure are being worked through jointly.
The collaboration reflects strong industry engagement with the category thesis and opens a channel to pharmaceutical and medtech companies that can serve as development partners, licensees, or acquirers for Foundry-supported ventures.
Timeline
May 2026
May 2026
Liza Noonan appointed Non-Executive Director
Liza Noonan — Chief Executive Officer of Cicada Innovations and former Executive Director of Innovation at Investment NSW — joined Women's Health Foundry as a Non-Executive Director. Her appointment brings two decades of deep-tech commercialisation, government innovation, and women-led venture building to the Board.
April 2026
April 2026
Sue MacLeman appointed inaugural Chair of the Board
Sue MacLeman — thirty-year life sciences industry leader and Chair of Medicines Australia — joined Women's Health Foundry as inaugural Chair of the Board. Her appointment anchors the Foundry's governance and deepens its connection to Australia's medicines and medtech industry.
April 2026
April 2026
Perspectives of Endometriosis Care
Proto Axiom backing the Perspectives of Endometriosis Care panel discussion and networking event, convening clinicians, researchers, and patients around one of the most historically underserved areas of women's health.
March 2026
March 2026
Challenger Pitch for Health 2026
Co-hosted with St Vincent's Curran Foundation — Australia's largest medical and biotech pitch day. $500,000 in grants, 14 live pitches, and over 300 attendees in Sydney. Entirely bootstrapped and donor-led. Featured two expert panels on translation infrastructure and sovereign growth capital.
February 2026
February 2026
Women in Life Sciences keynote
Proto Axiom board member Annalisa Jenkins delivered the keynote at the AusBiotech and Medicines Australia Women in Life Sciences luncheon and leadership summit, which convened more than 650 sector leaders in Sydney.
January 2026
January 2026
BCG × World Economic Forum: Women's Health Investment Outlook
Launched at Davos 2026, the BCG × WEF Women's Health Investment Outlook found that women's health captures just 6% of global private healthcare investment, that almost 90% of that already concentrates in cancers, reproductive and maternal health, and that endometriosis, PCOS and menstrual health together attract less than 2%. BCG identifies a US$100B+ market opportunity by 2030 across cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, menopause and Alzheimer's. The report calls for blended public–private–philanthropic finance and for adjacent life sciences companies to extend into women's health — a structural validation of Proto Axiom's translation model.
bcg.com →January 2026
January 2026
AusBiotech collaboration
Proto Axiom began working with AusBiotech on shared activity focused on translational innovation in women's health, bringing together AusBiotech's national industry network and Proto Axiom's translation methodology. Scope and timing are being worked through jointly.
March 2025
March 2025
St Vincent's Curran Foundation Pitch for Health 2025
Inaugural Pitch for Health event hosted by St Vincent's Curran Foundation. Anthony Liveris (Proto Axiom CEO) served as Chair and Laura Wimberger (Proto Axiom Science Analyst) served as judge. This partnership laid the groundwork for the expanded 2026 co-hosted format.
October 2024
October 2024
Challenger Summit 2024
Proto Axiom's inaugural national biotech pitch event at St Vincent's Health Innovation Precinct, Sydney. $250,000 in grant financing, ten finalists from universities across Australia and New Zealand.