Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha, a Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital haematologist, has received the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences’ (AAHMS) Jian Zhou Medal.
The Medal is awarded annually to a rising star of Australian health and medical science – an individual who is making a significant impact in translational medical science, primarily working in Australia.
Prof Pasricha is recognised for his research into anaemia, a blood condition which impacts over 800 million women and children worldwide and which can impair development.
His work has informed World Health Organisation policy, and has involved international field trials looking at different approaches to alleviate anaemia in low and middle-income countries.
“My vision is to eliminate the burden of anaemia around the world, especially in children,” says Prof Pasricha, who is also an epidemiologist and molecular biologist who leads the Population Health and Immunity Division at WEHI.
“I’m very grateful for the recognition the Academy has given to the public health, translational and discovery work of my team that is working hard to improve health for the billions of people worldwide impacted by or at risk of anaemia.”
Read more about Prof Pasricha’s research on the AAHMS website, or watch the below.
The Jian Zhou Medal was instigated in 2020, is named in honour of cervical cancer vaccine co-inventor Professor Jian Zhou, and recipients are officially presented the Medal at the AAHMS’ annual meeting each October.
Previous Jian Zhou Medal recipients with Peter Mac roles are:
Four researchers at the Peter Mac have recently been recognised for their contribution to cancer research with promotions.
Paul James is a Clinical Geneticist and the Director of the Parkville Familial Cancer Centre at the Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Head of Clinical Genetics in the Department of Genomic Medicine (Royal Melbourne Hospital). Paul has been promoted to a Professor.
Paul is currently focussed on studying the effect of Polygenic Risk Modification on breast cancer risk management and prevention: (PRiMo) trial. The trial is a national randomised controlled trial coordinated from Peter Mac to examine if the addition of polygenic risk information improves the management of women at risk of familial cancer. This is one of the first trials internationally to bring polygenic risk into clinical care.
Amit Khot is a Senior Haematologist and Bone Marrow Transplant Physician, and Stream Lead for the Myeloma and Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) service at the Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital. Amit has been promoted to Associate Professor.
Amit’s ongoing research interests include investigation of immunotherapy, bone marrow transplantation and novel agents to improve outcomes in myeloma and lymphoproliferative disorders. He is especially interested in T-cell disorders and in collaborations to optimise care of patients with myeloma and other haematologic malignancies that need intensive therapies with interventions such as prehabilitation.
Piers Blombery is a clinical and laboratory haematologist and lead of the molecular haematology service in the Department of Pathology at Peter Mac. Piers has been promoted to Associate Professor .
Piers is a haematologist specialising in the aggressive lymphoma tumour stream and leads the molecular haematology service at Peter Mac. Piers runs the Wilson Centre for Blood Cancer Genomics which is a translational diagnostics research program and he is also responsible for the genetic haematology service at Peter Mac including an expanding clinical research program in inherited blood diseases.
Lev Kats is a laboratory head within the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Program at the Peter Mac. Lev has been promoted to Associate Professor.
Lev has a primary research interest in blood cancers, epigenetics and targeted therapies.
A high-tech microscope slide which promises to revolutionize how early-stage cancers are diagnosed has won the 2022 Eureka Prize for most innovative use of technology.
Developed by La Trobe University along with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the NanoMslide turns the humble microscope slide into a diagnostic lab.
Breast cancer cells automatically light up due to a special coating on the slide’s surface, making abnormal cells easy to spot and to differentiate from healthy tissue.
The NanoMslide, in development for six years, works with existing microscopes and removes the need to manually stain slides and other steps which can introduce interpretation errors.
The Eureka Prize was tonight awarded to NanoMslide’s co-inventors Professor Brian Abbey and Dr Eugeniu Balaur from La Trobe University, and Peter Mac’s Associate Professor Belinda Parker who led its clinical validation.
The Eureka Prizes are Australia's most comprehensive national science awards, and its new technology category is sponsored by The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
“We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to be awarded the ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology,” Associate Professor Parker says.
“NanoMslide has enormous potential for enabling faster, cheaper and more accurate diagnosis of early-stage breast cancers and may also be readily adapted to early diagnosis of a host of cancers including lung, melanoma and colon cancer.
“Not only is it a game-changing technology in cancer diagnosis, there are further potential applications in industry and we’ve just scratched the surface of what is possible with NanoMslide.”
A paper which showed how NanoMslide could be used to accurately diagnose very early-stage breast cancer was published in Nature in 2021.
This research was done in collaboration with the Garvan Institute using samples collected as part of a National Breast Cancer screening program.
The Australian Museum’s Eureka Prizes are the country’s most comprehensive national science awards, honouring excellence across the areas of research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science.
Successful nominees were announced July and the Eureka Prizes 2022 winners were announced at an event tonight in Canberra.
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The mighty Peter Mac ‘Bloods’ strutted their stuff in two hard-fought contests today as part of the 2022 Medical Research Cup at Princes Park.
Blood’s coach and Peter Mac researcher, Ryan Brown, said it was fantastic to have researchers from Peter Mac suiting up for a game of AFL against colleagues from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and St Vincent’s Institute for Medical Research.
“COVID has meant this is the first time we’ve been able to hold the Medical Research Cup since 2019,” Ryan said.
“The day is very much about having fun, getting the researchers out of the lab and having the opportunity to meet others who have similar roles at other organisations.
“Almost half of the Peter Mac team have never played AFL footy before but the excitement and eagerness to learn people showed was really inspiring.
“The Medical Research Cup is a great chance to build relationships with colleagues from Peter Mac and elsewhere, and to have a kick of the footy at the same time,” he said.
Ryan passed on his thanks to WEHI who took the lead in organising this year’s event.
“This has been in planning for the last few months so it was fantastic to get such a beautiful day to play footy,” he said.
“A big thank you to Rhiannon Coulson from the Goel Lab at Peter Mac who has been involved behind the scenes with pulling the Bloods together and helping to coach the team.
“We had players this year who hadn’t even seen a footy ground before right through to those who played in high school and some who were playing again for the first time since 2019.
“Thank you also to Julie Blasoili for being our trainer today and to the crowd who came along – there was lots of excitement among the spectators!
“Congratulations to everyone who took part today. Winning is great but getting away uninjured is even better!” Ryan said.
An image of a zebrafish brain lighting up like a ball of flames has taken out the MicroART Image of the Year as part of National Science Week 2022.
An image of a zebrafish brain lighting up like a ball of flames has taken out the MicroART Image of the Year as part of National Science Week 2022.
The image, titled Travel Inside a Fish Brain, was captured by Andrea Usseglio Gaudi, a PhD student in the Ben Hogan Lab.
It shows an intricate tangle of vessels inside the brain of a six-month old zebrafish in vibrant fluorescent yellow and red.
Presented as part of a virtual gallery experience, Peter Mac’s MicroART was viewed by tens-of-thousands of people from across the globe via the gallery platform.
“We we’re blown away by the response to MicroART and I’m so proud to present the inaugural win to Andrea for his stunning image,” Manager of the Centre for Advanced Histology and Microscopy, Paul McMillan says.
“It was fantastic to be able to share complex science in a visual way, giving an insight into the incredible work being done by our researchers to find new and improved treatments for cancer.”
Andrea’s image was part of his PhD project which is investigating evolutionary development to discover possible interactions between different cell types surrounding the brain vasculature.
“I’m incredibly honoured to have been voted Image of the Year and I thank everyone who engaged with the images and took the time to vote for me,” Andrea says.
“It was a pleasure to be able to share my work alongside the Peter Mac team as part of National Science Week and I hope we inspired young people to think about pursuing a career in science.”
You can view Andrea’s image and dozens of others in the MicroART virtual gallery, available on the Peter Mac website.