Prof Benjamin Kile brings with him an extensive background in academic and research leadership, most recently serving as the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide, and formerly as Head of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Monash University. He has also held leadership roles at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), including Joint Head of the Chemical Biology Division, where he spearheaded a restructure of WEHI’s early-stage drug discovery program, now the National Drug Discovery Centre. 

Prof Kile’s research career has focused on the molecular regulation of blood cell formation and function, with a particular interest in the impact of targeted cancer therapies on cellular survival. His scientific achievements have been recognised by numerous awards and fellowships throughout his career, including from the Australian Government as Life Scientist of the Year in 2010.

He has served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of MuriGen Therapeutics and currently serves on the boards of the Australian Genomics Research Facility and the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute. In recent years, Professor Kile has played a pivotal role in the establishment of the South Australian Immunogenomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI) and was instrumental in developing the vision and securing significant federal funding for South Australia’s first Comprehensive Cancer Centre.