Associate Professor Jim Whittle (MBBS, PhD, FRACP) is a Medical Oncologist and clinician–scientist specialising in neuro-oncology, with a primary appointment as Neuro-Oncology Clinical and Research Lead at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He provides specialist care for patients with primary brain tumours, including glioma, glioblastoma, and NF1-associated tumours, and leads early-phase and precision medicine clinical trials within the Peter Mac Neuro-Oncology and Phase I clinical trials programs.

He is Co-Director of Research Strategy for the Brain Cancer Centre (BCC), where he plays a key role in shaping institutional research priorities, integrating laboratory discovery with clinical translation, and building national and international brain cancer research platforms.

Associate Professor Whittle is also Laboratory Head and Co-Lead of the Brain Cancer Research Laboratory (BCRL) at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), where he leads a nationally and internationally recognised translational research program integrating discovery science with first-in-human clinical trials. His work focuses on accelerating drug development for brain cancer through perioperative (Phase 0) clinical trials, spatial and single-cell multi-omics, functional genomics, and patient-derived models.

He is the founder and lead of the Brain Perioperative Program (BrainPOP), a $16M Victorian Government–funded platform (2022–2027) that combines surgery, oncology, imaging, cognition, pharmacodynamics, and computational biology to redefine glioma therapeutic development. This program has delivered landmark first-in-human perioperative trials published in Nature Medicine and Lancet Oncology.

Associate Professor Whittle also leads national initiatives in adolescent and young adult (AYA) neuro-oncology, and directs neuro-oncology care within the statewide NF1 clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His research portfolio spans glioma, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, survivorship, and digital health, with over $46M in competitive funding secured.