2019 Research Awards
This annual event is the leading NSW awards program to celebrate excellence and innovation in cancer research.
The 2019 awards ceremony was held at Parliament House in the afternoon of Wednesday 30 October 2019.
The following four awards recognise those outstanding researchers working to lessen the impact of cancer in NSW.
Jump to:
Outstanding Cancer Researcher of the Year
Professor Glenn Marshall
Professor Glenn Marshall AM FAHMS, Director of the Kids Cancer Alliance, is a renowned clinician and researcher in the field of paediatric oncology.
As one of Australia’s leading clinician-scientists he was profiled in The Lancet in 2013 – highlighting his influential role in both discovery science and clinical translation of childhood cancer research.
He has mentored more than 50 clinical fellows, research students and post-doctoral fellows in the field of childhood cancer.
He sees people with cancer every day and continues to use their unsolved problems as the inspiration for his research.
The Kids Cancer Alliance champions childhood cancer and chronic childhood disease, and has dramatically enhanced research infrastructure and opportunities for young scientists and clinicians.
Wildfire Highly Cited Publication
The Australian Pancreatic Genome Initiative
The Australian Pancreatic Genome Initiative is a global research enterprise of over 100 scientists, clinicians and allied health professionals – includes many NSW-based researchers.
With over 500 citations, their recognised paper is ‘Genomic analyses identify molecular subtypes of pancreatic cancer’.
Published in 2016, it is a foundation for the next generation of pancreatic cancer research.
Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow
Dr Matt Dun
Dr Matt Dun is an early-career fellow at the University of Newcastle.
Dedication, collaboration and hard work are the hallmarks of Dr Dun’s medical research career. He has been focused on providing innovative insights into the most common and devastating types of cancers, including acute myeloid leukaemia.
Acute myeloid leukaemia has a poor prognosis. Treatments fail because the DNA of the leukaemia cells has a high tendency to mutate, causing rapid resistance to therapies.
Dr Dun hopes to provide patients with a greater chance of achieving long term survival by determining the preclinical efficacy of novel anti-leukaemia drugs.
Outstanding Cancer Clinical Trials Unit
Northern Sydney Cancer Centre
Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, based at Royal North Shore Hospital, conducts a balance of commercial and investigator initiated studies.
In 2019, over 60 per cent of the trials recruited to target – a remarkable achievement which demonstrates strategic trial selection.
In addition, Northern Sydney Cancer Centre has doubled the number of enrolments in investigator-initiated treatment trials.
