Professor David Huang is a biomedical researcher who made fundamental research discoveries on programmed cell suicide (apoptosis) that laid the foundations for the discovery and development of a novel class of anti-cancer drugs. He made critical contributions towards revealing how BCL2, often overactive in blood cancers, and its relatives block cell death thereby uncovering how BCL2 could be targeted in cancer cells. In collaboration with industry partners, this work led to the development of venetoclax to target BCL2. Venetoclax has proven highly effective and is now approved in Australia and other jurisdictions for patients with some types of leukaemias and lymphomas.