Dr Ashvind Prabahran, Haematologist, Monash Health
Research focus: Exploring feasibility of low intensity induction followed by allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukaemia
This research is supported by the Bill Long Charitable Trust (Equity Trustees).
Dr Ashvind Prabahran is a recipient of a Monash Partners Strategic Translation and Research (STAR) Clinician Fellowship. The program invests in emerging and mid-career clinical academics to support their career pathway development and train the next generation of researchers. Monash Partners spoke to Ashvind upon accepting this Fellowship.
What is your career background and research history?
After completing my specialist training in clinical and laboratory haematology, I undertook a PhD and fellowship in Bone Marrow Transplantation at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. My doctoral research focused on Poor Graft Function, a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in which the bone marrow fails to recover despite donor engraftment. This work combined laboratory immunology, translational science, and clinical data, and included a period of research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States to extend and validate key findings.
Since then, my career has centred on bone marrow failure syndromes, transplantation and myeloid malignancies, integrating clinical practice with translational research and clinical trials.
How did you become interested in focusing on leukaemia?
The most common indication for bone marrow transplantation is Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and bone marrow transplant is the most effective treatment for leukaemia. I am interested in strategies that can maximise the beneficial effect of bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of leukaemia, as well as improving the safety of transplantation overall, making it more accessible to patients as a treatment option.
What is the prevalence of acute myeloid leukaemia in Australia and current issues that patients and families face?
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a relatively uncommon cancer, with approximately 1,000 new cases diagnosed each year in Australia. It predominantly affects older adults, although it can occur at any age.
Patients and families face several ongoing challenges:
- Intensive treatment requirements, often involving prolonged hospital stays.
- High symptom burden, including fatigue, infections and treatment toxicity.
- Uncertainty around prognosis, particularly for older patients or those with high-risk disease.
- Limited access to novel therapies, which may be available only through clinical trials.
- Psychosocial and financial strain, given the sudden onset and intensity of care.
Improving supportive care, expanding trial access and developing more tolerable therapies remain key priorities.
Tell us about your research study.
My research study aims to evaluate the usage of azacitidine and venetoclax as a pre transplant treatment for patients with AML. Currently patients with AML are treated with intensive chemotherapy or azacitidine +venetoclax to establish a remission prior to moving forward with a transplant. Intensive chemotherapy is associated with significant risks including death and can have toxic effects on a patient, whereas azacitidine and venetoclax is a much gentler treatment. Currently azacitidine and venetoclax is reserved for older patients with comorbidities because it is gentler than induction chemotherapy. However, the beneficial effects of azacitidine and venetoclax may be extended outside of older patients. Furthermore, there is still uncertainty whether the use of azacitidine and venetoclax as an upfront treatment changes any outcomes post bone marrow transplant.
My study aims to evaluate whether there are any changes to outcomes post-transplant if patients receive azacitidine and venetoclax versus intensive treatment alone.
What are you hoping to achieve with your research?
Ultimately, I would like to design a trial aiming at investigating the optimum treatment combination for patients with AML who require a transplant.
Why did you apply for a Monash Partners STAR Clinician Fellowship?
I am interested in research and was looking for a pathway to support research in conjunction with my clinical work.
Why is support for emerging and mid-career clinical academics crucial?
Emerging and mid-career clinician scientists often face the greatest pressure: balancing clinical loads, research leadership, teaching and early career grant competitiveness. Without structured support, many promising researchers are lost to purely clinical roles.
What is the significance of receiving the Star Clinician Fellowship for your career and research?
Receiving the STAR Clinician Fellowship is a major milestone. It provides the time, resources and institutional support needed to advance my research program, deepen collaborations, and generate the data required for future NHMRC and MRFF applications.
What are your future aspirations for your research/career?
My vision is to establish myself as an independent clinician scientist, overseeing a research program focused on leukaemia, bone marrow transplantation and marrow failure. I will leverage multi-centre clinical studies incorporating novel therapeutics, from which clinical data and patient samples will be used for my research. My program will develop novel therapeutic approaches directly benefiting patient health concurrent to an iterative process where clinical data and biological samples will inform the development of future studies. My program harnesses emerging sophisticated techniques such as single cell sequencing, liquid biopsies, spatial proteomics and transcriptomics to answer critical questions about disease processes.
