Telethon Kids opens Adelaide branch

One of Perth’s oldest and most respected medical research institutes has launched a new South Australian operation, as part of a broader planned expansion.

The new facility was officially opened tonight by SA Premier Peter Malinauskas on Wednesday night, marking the first such expansion by a Western Australian research house.

Telethon Kids will continue its focus on early years development, adolescent health and Indigenous genomics at its Adelaide facility.

Telethon Kids Institute chair Julie Bishop said the official opening of the Adelaide facility was just the start of the institute’s expansion beyond WA.

“Telethon Kids is already a national powerhouse in child health research,” she said.

"We work in communities right across Australia and globally, and it is now time to broaden our presence in SA with the opening of this new facility."

The Institute’s executive director, Jonathan Carapetis, said Telethon Kids had researchers working in SA for some time now, but the official opening of the new facility would provide a showcase for its work in the state.

Telethon Kids Institute was established in 1990 as the Telethon Institute for Child Health. Its founder, Fiona Stanley, had led groundbreaking research into the role of folate in improving childbirth outcomes.

More recently it has been leading research into autism.

The May federal budget significantly expanded a Telethon Kids Institute-led early intervention scheme to treat autism, devoting more than $22 million to boost the pilot program.