Wellington teenager Jemima Gazley's selfless campaign sees cancer drug-screening robot launched in Australian lab

A brain cancer drug-screening robot is being launched this week - in the name of a selfless Wellington teenager.

15-year-old Jemima Gazley died of an inoperable brain tumour last October, after spending the last weeks of her life fundraising for a cure she knew she would not live to see.

The sum of nearly $700,000was donated Dr Matt Dun, an Australian researcher who has been fighting to find a cure for DIPG – the same form of aggressive childhood brain tumour that took his own daughter's life.

This week, the Wish Laboratory is opening near his lab at the University of Newcastle - named for her fundraising campaign "Jemima's Wish".

It will house the JEM-bot – a robot that can test different combinations of drugs on brain tumours 400 times faster than scientists can do by hand.

Dun says it's "the world's first and only diffuse midline glioma-specific drug screening robot", and hopes it will amplify the rate at which they can develop new treatments.

"And I hope, in the short term, we'll come up with strategies to increase the survival of patients and give families hope that at least there is a treatment.

Australian researcher Dr Matt Dun is fighting for a cure for DIPG. Photo / Supplied

"And once there is hope, people will do better."

Over the past five years, the research team had identified chemicals that could get into the brain and target the disease, using tumours they have growing in the lab.

"But the problem is testing them is really slow, really laborious, and we wanted to take out any kind of bias in the system by getting it to become automated," he said.

"This robot which we call the JEM-bot, will allow us to screen multiple combinations at any given time, in the growth pattern of a diffuse midline glioma cell so that it can inform our studies."

He said it's heartbreaking to receive a brain cancer diagnosis, let alone to be told there's no treatment.

15-year-old Jemima Gazley died in October 2021. Photo / Supplied

"And for the most part because there isn't any recognised treatment the best thing is often just to do nothing, and that's a really hard thing for any parent and kid to swallow.

"Thanks to Jemima's amazing legacy we are able to test combinations of drugs based on the biology of DIPG that we're developing in real time."

A total of $696,420 was donated to Dun through Jemima's fundraising efforts, including $5382 of her own life savings.

She also donated her own brain tumour to Dun's research, and it will be the first to be tested with the JEM-bot.

Her courage and compassion captured the hearts of the nation, and she was posthumously bestowed the New Zealand Herald's 2021 Our Heroes Award.

Jemima Gazley's parents Oliver and Ray will be travelling to Newcastle next month to see the JEM-bot in action.

They said they are excited to visit Dr Dun, and see what their daughter has helped create.

"We hope that her tumour cell lines she donated are now settled in their new home and can help find a curve for DIPG.

"As Jemima said 'if I can't be cured, I'll be the cure.'"