Award winners: CPA Research Institute’s Regeneration Team: Dr Megan Finch-Edmondson, Remy Blatch-Williams, Madison Paton (not pictured) and Dr Lara Jones (also not pictured) presented with their award by Professor John Prins, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
This award acknowledges the team’s role in achieving a national first: facilitating the first-ever umbilical cord blood infusion for a child with CP in Australia, delivered in April 2025. The milestone reflects years of research, advocacy and collaboration to translate cutting-edge science into real-world impact for families.
“They have demonstrated exceptional research expertise and leadership… bringing tangible benefits for the cerebral palsy community,” said Professor Michael Fahey, Paediatric Neurologist at Monash Children’s Hospital who supported the team’s nomination.
Led by Dr Megan Finch-Edmondson, the Regeneration Team is at the forefront of regenerative medicine for CP, working to unlock new treatments that can help to address the underlying brain injury that leads to cerebral palsy.
“This work has the potential to lead to a new treatment for CP. I am so proud of what we have been able to achieve so far, and excited about the potential of clinical trials we are actively working towards that can help us get there.” said Dr Finch-Edmondson
The compassionate access was enabled by the team’s world-leading research, including the largest global analysis of clinical trial data on cord blood for CP, which provided critical evidence to support regulatory approval in Australia.
As a Research Excellence team award, all members of the Regeneration Team were recognised including Dr Madison Paton, Mr Remy Blatch-Williams and Dr Lara Jones. The Regeneration Team’s success is made possible by broad collaboration, working in partnership with clinicians, researchers, industry and families, to establish a new clinical pathway for treatment of CP, overcoming regulatory, institutional and logistical challenges to make the treatment possible locally for the first time.
For Zara, the first child to receive the treatment, the results have been life changing.
One year on, Zara’s parents, Fiona and Michelle report meaningful improvements in mobility, independence and participation in everyday activities, outcomes that exceeded expectations from standard care alone. Key outcomes were also reported in a recent case report published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, however the team have continued to follow up Zara’s progress and are blown away with the results.
“We’d made history… This is a team of committed and passionate individuals who don’t just put their knowledge into their work, they put their care into it,” Zara’s parents shared.
Importantly, this breakthrough goes beyond a single patient. The work has already facilitated expanded access, including the approval of sibling cord blood use at Monash Children’s Hospital in October 2025.
The team are also leveraging this success to progress a clinical trial of donor cord blood for children with cerebral palsy.
The Makers and Shapers Award highlights the significance of this achievement, not only as a scientific milestone, but as a powerful example of research translation driven by collaboration, persistence and purpose to bridge the gap between discovery and the clinic.
This approach, that partners with the CP community to address priorities that matter most through the CPA Stem Cell Reference Group and the Monash Preterm Cell Therapies Parent Focus Group in Melbourne, has been central to the team’s impact and to the University’s recognition.
For more information and a mailing list to keep updated with cord blood for Cerebral Palsy, please visit: https://cerebralpalsy.org.au/advocacy/umbilical-cord-blood/
