Announcing the winner of the 2025 John and Anne Leece Family Prize

The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) and The University of Sydney are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 John and Anne Leece Family Prize is Dr Artur Shvetcov.

The John and Anne Leece Family Prize has been made possible by generous philanthropists John Leece AM and Anne Leece and supports the advancement of high achieving PhD candidates or early career researchers at WIMR.

Dr Artur Shvetcov is a Senior Bioinformatician and Head of the Bioinformatics Program in WIMR’s Neurodegeneration and Disease Modelling Lab. He leads an independent research program applying machine learning to large-scale multi-omic and clinical datasets to pinpoint the underlying biological mechanisms, identify early biomarkers, and facilitate laboratory experiments to test new precision medicine therapies.

Dr Shvetcov says, “Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Parkinson’s disease dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis collectively affect millions worldwide and are major drivers of disability and death. Despite their distinct clinical syndromes, they share aspects of overlapping biology, limited treatment options, and no scalable precision diagnostic tools.

“We know that a gene called APOE ε4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s and is present in up to 80% of cases. However, my recent work demonstrated that APOE ε4’s effects are not limited to Alzheimer’s. Instead, we think that APOE changes the immune system in ways that predispose people to developing neurodegenerative diseases.”

The project supported by The Leece Family Prize will address the need for precision diagnostic tools by developing interpretable machine learning models that integrate clinical and proteomic data to identify disease-specific diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for APOE ε4 carriers.

Dr Shvetcov says, “By enabling personalised risk prediction, earlier diagnosis, and safer, targeted treatment strategies, my goal is to directly transform clinical management. The identification of robust, genotype-specific biomarkers and pathways will not only accelerate therapeutic development but also inform patient stratification in clinical trials, reduce misdiagnosis, and provide actionable tools for clinicians.”

WIMR Executive Director and Chair of the selection panel for the 2025 John and Anne Leece Family Prize, Professor Philip O’Connell said the panel was impressed by the high standard of submissions.

“Dr Shvetcov stood out as an exceptional candidate for the Leece Prize this year. His pioneering work uses bioinformatics to better understand neurological diseases that affect millions of people and place a significant burden on healthcare systems globally.

“The project he outlines, to be advanced by the John and Anne Leece Family Prize, is innovative, clearly articulated and will contribute significantly to our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. We look forward to watching the latest developments of his research following this award.”

Dr Shvetcov says, “I am very grateful to John and Anne Leece for their support of Australian research. This funding will have a real impact on my work, hopefully benefiting many people around the world with Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegenerative disorders.”

Through this prize, John and Anne Leece’s inspiring and invaluable commitment to supporting early-career researchers and PhD students at WIMR is actively enabling the next generation of researchers to develop their expertise and contribute to life-changing medical discoveries that will save lives and provide hope for current and future generations.