News and events | Women's Health Foundry

Q1 2027

Women's Health Symposium

Women's Health Foundry is convening a national Women's Health Symposium, supported by the NSW Government and expected to bring together more than 300 participants from research, clinical care, industry, investment and government — strengthening connections across the women's health innovation ecosystem and creating new pathways for translation and investment.

August 2026

Women's Health Investment Roundtable

Women's Health Foundry, AusBiotech and Tenmile are co-convening a dedicated investment roundtable focused on women's health, bringing together investors and sector leaders to explore pathways for increasing investment into women's health innovation.

June 2026

Dr Steve Burnell appointed Non-Executive Director

Dr Steve Burnell — Managing Director of Tenmile, the Tattarang-owned Australian health technology venture capital company, and former global business leader and M&A lead at Roche-Genentech in the USA — joined Women's Health Foundry as a Non-Executive Director. His appointment brings deep capability across health-tech venture capital, global biotech operations, and real-world data, alongside a continuing senior strategic advisory role at Minderoo Foundation across COVID-19, Cancer, and Ocean Genomics.

May 2026

MTAA Women's Health MedTech Summit

Proto Axiom CEO Anthony Liveris speaking at the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) Women's Health MedTech Summit in Sydney, 27–28 May 2026 — a national gathering convening industry, clinicians, researchers and policymakers around women's health medtech innovation.

May 2026

Professor Victoria Cogger appointed Non-Executive Director

Professor Victoria Cogger — international research leader in ageing liver biology and targeted drug delivery, inaugural Executive Director of the A$780 million Sydney Biomedical Accelerator, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, and co-founder of EndoAxiom — joined Women's Health Foundry as a Non-Executive Director. Her appointment grounds the Foundry in a leader operating at the interface of academia, health systems, and translational science.

May 2026

AusMedtech 2026 women's health innovation panel

Proto Axiom CEO Anthony Liveris joined Session 8A — “Unlocking Australia's women's health innovation” — at AusMedtech 2026 in Perth, alongside Tara Croft (Baymatob), Dr Joey Man (Tenmile), Joanna Morris (Matilda Health) and Dr Nicholas Pachuda (Neovate Capital), chaired by Kerri Lee Sinclair (AusBiotech). The panel examined how Australia can translate its world-leading clinical and research strengths in women's health into globally competitive companies, reframing the field as core healthcare infrastructure rather than a niche impact category.

May 2026

Professor Robyn Norton AO appointed Non-Executive Director

Professor Robyn Norton AO FAHMS — Founding Director of The George Institute for Global Health, Professor of Public Health at UNSW Sydney and Emeritus Professor of Global Health at Imperial College London — joined Women's Health Foundry as a Non-Executive Director. Her appointment brings one of the most senior global voices in sex- and gender-equitable health research, including leadership of The George Institute's Global Women's Health Program and the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine.

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

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

Perspectives of Endometriosis Care

Proto Axiom and the Foundry supported the Perspectives of Endometriosis Care workshop at the University of Sydney — a panel discussion and networking event convening clinicians, researchers, consumers and innovators around one of the most historically underserved areas of women's health.

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

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

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

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. The first joint activity, a Women's Health Investment Roundtable also co-convened with Tenmile, is set for August 2026.

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

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.

Event program

Challenger Pitch for Health 2026 — full program

Ten pitches in the Proto Axiom stream competed for the Challenger Prize ($150,000) and Open Prize ($100,000), alongside the St Vincent's stream. Grant winners are profiled on the Impact page.

Proto Axiom stream — finalists

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 — 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.