(Duration: 8 minutes 50 seconds)

[Music]

[Red and blue logo revealed reading ‘STEM 2021 on demand. Educating for a rapidly changing world’.

Yellow and red logo revealed reading ‘Luminesce Alliance’. Screen shows photographs of a mother and child holding plastic cogs, an image of a double helix and code, and two adults looking at a book, one in a white lab coat.]

Kathryn Greiner:

Screen reads, ‘Kathryn Greiner AO, Chair Luminesce Alliance’. Screen shows Kathryn in front of a decorative wall.]

Hello, I'm Kathryn Greiner. I'm the chair of Luminesce Alliance. Luminesce Alliance is a collaboration of the Children's Medical Research Institute, the Children's Cancer Institute, the Sydney Children's Hospital Network, the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales. And isn't that a fabulous cohort of people?

Together, we're collaborating on research to improve children's lives, and in fact, to deal with the wicked problems that occur in children's health.

[Screen shows a short video of five children, walking away from the camera with backpacks.]

But to do that, we need to be focused on the science, the technology, the engineering, the maths. And this is where you as educators come in. The STEM subjects are critical to the growth in jobs that this arena of children's health will provide.

[Screen shows a bright blue sketch of a sphere that gradually grows into a moving cell. In the centre, the screen reads, ‘STEM’. Surrounding the cell are the words, ‘Technology’, ‘Engineering’, ‘Science’ and ‘Mathematics’ in a clockwise direction.]

Now we know that the New South Wales economic footprint and its blueprint is about the creation of jobs in this arena.

Dr Charles de Block:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Charles de Block, Team Leader, Functional Genomics of Leukemia, Children’s Cancer Institute’. Screen shows Dr de Block wearing a white lab-coat in a laboratory surrounded by medical equipment.]

For me, STEM is the bedrock for society. It is about problem-solving. It's about creatively addressing problems and trying to solve them. And we're only going to get there with people who have a passion.

Professor Mark Cowley:

[Screen reads, Associate Professor Mark Cowley, Computational Biology Group Leader, Children’s Cancer Institute’. Screen shows Professor Crowley in front of a whiteboard with green and black writing on it.]

The application of STEM is so important in healthcare and research these days, perhaps in a way that you couldn't quite tell in high school. But I guess we're here to say that STEM is going to be responsible for changing our understanding of biology and our understanding of disease over time.

[Screen shows a series of shots of two people in lab coats inspecting medical equipment.]

Professor Leszek Lisowski:

[Screen reads, ‘Associate Professor Leszek Lisowski, Unit Head, Translational Vectorology, Children’s Medical Research Institute’. Screen shows Professor Lisowski in front of a filing cabinet.]

Everything we do every day in this field uses science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. So you can imagine how knowledge in those four fields is going to be a driving force, is going to be the cornerstone.

Professor Adam Jaffe:

[Screen reads, ‘Professor Adam Jaffe, Head, School of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales’. Screen shows Professor Jaffe sitting in an office. Screen then shows a timelapse of a modern green building with people moving around it.]

Because we're on the cusp of this revolution in how we are going to change medicine in the future, we really need to think about what tomorrow's workforce looks like. It can't possibly look the same as the workforce we have today. There will be jobs that we haven't thought about at the moment.

Dr. Orazio Vittorio:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Orazio Vittorio. Scentia Fellow University of New South Wales, Children’s Cancer Institute’. Screen shows Dr Vittorio wearing a white lab coat in a laboratory surrounded by medical equipment.]

I think we have to think about the future. We need to know more about basic science like physic, maths.

Professor Georgina Chambers:

[Screen reads, ‘Professor Georgina Chambers, Director, National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit. Screen shows Professor Chambers in an office.]

There's never been a better time to be somebody moving into the STEM fields.

Professor Claire Wakefield:

[Screen shows a rotating image of a double helix and human figures in red, on a blue background. Screen reads, ‘Professor Claire Wakefield, Behavioural Sciences Unit,

Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick’. Screen shows Dr Wakefield in front of a decorative background inside the hospital.]

I like to take a really broad view of precision medicine and think about it being about choosing the right thing for the right child at the right time.

Ms Meera Warby:

[Screen reads, ‘Ms Meera Warby, Genetics Counsellor, Prince of Wales Hospital. Screen shows Ms Warby in front of a pale blue background.]

Precision medicine is really looking at that personalised level of care, how can we best tailor treatment to that person's specific genetic makeup?

Professor Sandra Cooper:

[Screen reads, ‘Professor Sandra Cooper, Joint Head, Kids Neuroscience Centre Children’s Hospital Westmead’. Screen shows Professor Cooper in front of a blue and grey panelled background.]

For me, in genetics, it's about trying to reap what answers you can in the genes in order to target a therapy, or a treatment, or even just prevent an adverse reaction.

Ms Meera Warby:

[Screen reads, ‘Ms Meera Warby, Genetics Counsellor, Prince of Wales Hospital’. Screen shows Ms Warby in front of a pale blue background.]

What treatment would work best? Should we be considering any other therapies that might've been outside of that particular scope?

Professor Mark Cowley:

[Screen shows a medical professional using an advanced microscope. Screen reads, Associate Professor Mark Cowley, Computational Biology Group Leader, Children’s

Cancer Institute’. Screen shows Professor Crowley in front of a whiteboard with green and black writing on it.]

It hopes to understand an individual, a person's risk to a whole range of different diseases and predict that risk upfront so that it can be much more proactive in tracking different patients with different risks.

Dr Anai Gonzalez Codero:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Anai Gonzalez Codero, Group Leader, Stem Cell Medicine Manager, Stem Cell facility, Children’s Medical Research Institute’. Screen shows Dr Codero in an office.]

In my field, we can obtain cells from patients and we can investigate the patient's cells to determine what disease they have and what is the best course of treatment for that specific disease.

Professor Raghu Lingam:

[Screen shows someone looking into a microscope. Screen reads, ‘Professor Raghu Lingam, Paediatric Population Health, University of New South Wales’. Screen shows Professor Lingam in front of a white background.]

It's thinking about genetic risk factors, inflammatory risk factors. So, the biological makeup of an individual, but also their psychological health and their social needs, so actually thinking about holistic health.

Professor Michelle Farrar:

[Screen shows a person standing behind a holographic display, touching and sliding items with their hands. In the centre the screen reads, ‘Vision for 2030’. Screen then reads, ‘Associate Professor Michelle Farrar. Paediatric Neurology, University of New South Wales’. Professor Farrar is standing beside an MRI scan of a person’s head.]

In the future, I think healthcare is going to be like what a science fiction movie is today. I think from a small blood test, we'll be able to take that and use the data that we get, or

from an MRI scan or a brain scan, put it through big computers and help them to come up with answers.

[Screen shows a series of short videos: blood cells, ECG tracing and MRI scan.]

Professor Adam Jaffe:

[Screen reads, ‘Professor Adam Jaffe, Head, School of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales’. Screen shows Professor Jaffe sitting in an office.]

What I see in 2030 is that we'll have to be trained in a whole host of skills that we're not trained at the moment.

Dr Orazio Vittorio:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Orazio Vittorio. Scentia Fellow University of New South Wales, Children’s Cancer Institute’. Screen shows Dr Vittorio wearing a white lab coat in a lab surrounded by medical equipment.]

I'm very confident that in 10 years time, so by 2030, we can increase survival for these kids.

Ms Vanessa Tyrell:

[Screen shows a montage of images of people smiling, including one young person with no hair on their head. Screen reads, ‘Ms Vanessa Tyrell, Program Leader, Zero Childhood Cancer, Children’s Cancer Institute. Screen shows Ms Tyrell in an office.]

I think the future of healthcare has to be bright. There's never been a time like this where the emerging biotechnologies, the commoditization of big data, high dimensional data.

[Screen shows a series of images of people looking at data on computers and an interactive whiteboard.]

Professor Sue Woolfenden:

[Screen reads, ‘Associate Professor Sue Woolfenden, Staff Specialist, Department of Community Child health, Sydney Children’s Hospital network’. Screen shows Professor Woolfenden in front of a white background.]

My particular area of interest is how do the social determinants of health impact on children's outcomes? And I think that's become even more relevant over the next 10 years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Screen shows a series of images of a baby being held by an adult.]

Ms Asra Golami:

[Screen reads, ‘Ms Asra Golami, Executive Officer, Research Ethics, Children’s Hospital Network’. Screen shows Ms Golami in front of a blue and grey panelled background.]

I envisage having learning healthcare systems in which research is embedded into the daily health care that we provide to our patients.

Ms Eliza Courtney:

[Screen reads, ‘Ms Eliza Courtney, Research Genetics Counsellor, Children’s Cancer Institute’. Screen shows Ms Courtney in front of a white background.]

I see an increasing role for genetic counsellors. Genetic counsellors are really quite pivotal to the rollout of genomic health care. And we work in multidisciplinary teams.

[Screen shows people sitting in a group looking at an interactive board with someone standing at the front of the room, manipulating data on the screen.]

Kathryn Greiner:

[Screen shows Kathryn in front of a decorative wall.]

Students need to be engaged in the science and the maths to participate as researchers, as doctors, as engineers, as medical technicians in this wonderful opportunity that we have certainly at Luminesce Alliance to improve the lives of all of our children.

Professor Raghu Lingam:

[Screen shows multi-coloured, bright lights moving quickly to form lines on the screen. Text appears in the centre of the screen that reads, ‘What skill sets will be needed in the future?’ The screen then shows Professor Lingam in front of a white background.]

To have a workforce that is motivated highly skilled and able to think on its feet. So people that are flexible, people that are trained, and people that are motivated to make a massive difference for us going forward.

Dr Charles de Block:

[Screen shows Dr de Block wearing a white lab coat in a laboratory surrounded by medical equipment.]

So the skills that we're going to need in the future are diverse, this is not just, we need clinicians and researchers, but I really believe that we're going to need bioengineers, people with strong computer skills, computer scientists.

[Screen moves through a medical laboratory, showing people looking into a microscope, various equipment, and a computer.]

Professor Mark Cowley:

[Screen shows Professor Crowley in front of a whiteboard with green and black writing on it.]

What we do now is so much more multidisciplinary than we ever did before.

Dr Charles de Block:

[Screen shows Dr de Block wearing a white lab coat in a lab surrounded by medical equipment.]

... like visual artists, communicators, because not only do we have to provide the best healthcare, but we're going to need to be able to communicate that healthcare effectively to our patients and our families.

Professor Sandra Cooper:

[Screen shows Professor Cooper in front of a blue and grey panelled background.]

And don't think doing mathematics is just to become a mathematician, it's about learning how to use these science foundation knowledge for more innovative applications.

[Screen shows red lines and numbers moving on a black background.]

Professor Georgina Chambers:

[Screen shows Professor Chambers in an office.]

... includes a whole lot of areas that require us to use our human intellect and our creativity to solve problems.

Dr Anai Gonzalez Codero:

[Screen shows a person walking through a laboratory past a sign that reads, ‘Stem cell and organoid facility’. Screen then shows Dr Codero in an office.]

STEM is now at a point where we can combine all the disciplines together and work together really well to really shape what we're going to be using in the future. My message is always to be passionate about what you do and make sure you're happy.

Ms Anneka Parker:

[Screen reads ‘Trainees in the workforce.’ Screen then reads, ‘Ms Anneka Parker, Medical Student, University of New South Wales’. Screen shows Ms Parker in front of a grey background.]

I had lots of teachers that just really encouraged me not to follow one thing or chase one thing that I was really good at, but to keep my options really open and to pursue a lot of different subjects.

Dr Ben Riggal:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Ben Riggal, Research Fellow Trainee’. Screen shows Dr Riggal in a laboratory.]

I've learnt about genomic analysis, about the technology, a lot of the sort of workflows and processes that the scientists and the pathologists go through.

Dr Noemi Fuentes Bolanos:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Naemi Fuentes Bolanos, Precision Medicine and Hereditary Cancer Research Fellow. Screen shows Dr Bolanos in front of a grey background.]

I am able to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge, as well as liaise with different stakeholders of the program, for example, genetic counsellors, psychologists.

Dr Neolia Nunez-Martinez:

[Screen reads, ‘Dr Neolia Nunez-Martinez, Research Fellow Trainee.’ Screen shows Dr Nunez-Martinez in front of a grey background.]

My goal for these six months is to help establish a new system of care for children with rare genetic disorders.

Ms Anneka Parker:

[Screen shows Ms Parker in front of a grey background.]

Wonderful creativity in medicine and a lot of room for flexibility so you don't just have to be a doctor, you can be a researcher, you can do a bit of both, find whatever fits you. So I think my teache

be doing, not just follow down a pathway that I felt like I had to follow. And that was really supportive and wonderful.

Kathryn Greiner:

[Screen shows Kathryn Greiner in front of a decorative background.]

Thank you for being on that journey as educators. It's over to you to encourage our students to participate. And we look forward to seeing them in future years on our fabulous journey.

[Screen reads, ‘Thank you to all the participants involved. Co-Producers, Anastasia Ioannou and Qoc Nguyen. Multimedia Coordinator, Samantha Carmont. Screen shows logos from left to right: Luminesce Alliance, The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, Children’s Cancer Institute, Children’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and NSW Government. Screen also reads’ luminesce.org.au’ at the bottom of the screen.

Screen reads, ‘SISP. An initiative of the NSW Department of Education. Video concludes by displaying the NSW Government logo.]

[End of transcript.]