MIPS docs secure prestigious postdoc Fellowships
Three PhD graduates from MIPS were
recently awarded prestigious international
postdoctoral Fellowships.
Dr Phuc Ung has been awarded a VESKI Victorian
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Dr Ung has
relocated to Switzerland to work for two years
at the University of Zurich under Professor Gilles
Gasser in the Department of Chemistry. He
will return to MIPS to work for a third year with
Professor Ben Boyd in Drug Delivery Sciences.
Dr Ung will be investigating multimodal lanthanide
theranostic agents for luminescence imaging, MRI
and photodynamic therapy in cancer treatment.
Or, more simply, how cancer treatment would
change if we had a safe, localised, non-invasive
method for targeting tumour cells. The research
will use advanced techniques in cooperation with
Professor Gasser’s group, a world leader in the
field of metal-based phototoxic compounds.
Dr Sandeep Chhabra was awarded a CJ Martin
Biomedical Research Fellowship by the National
Health and Medical Research Council. NHRMC.
He has joined the hallowed halls of Harvard in
Boston, furthering his work in the laboratories
of Professor Gerhard Wagner at the Harvard
Medical School.
Dr Chabra’s research will investigate the
mechanisms and structural basis of multiple drug
resistance for the development of more effective
therapeutic strategies to combat cancer and
bacterial/fungal infections. He also received
an Australian Society for Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Fellowship to travel to the
US and present at the Experimental Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance Conference in California
in April.
Also in Boston is Dr Lori Ferrins. With the ink
barely dry on her thesis, Dr Ferrins has
commenced a research Fellowship at Northeastern
University. Working in the Neglected Diseases
Laboratory of Professor Michael Pollastri, she
will be furthering her research into inhibitors for
the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis.
Dr Ferrins was the 2014 recipient of the BASF
Science and Technology prize in the 2014
Victorian Young Achiever of the Year Awards.
“It demonstrates that
our doctoral program
delivers great researchers
– and research that is
truly world class.”
Dr Ferrins sees the MIPS doctoral program
as a gateway to groundbreaking research.
“The MIPS PhD program is globally connected,”
she says. “It fosters collaboration and enhances
your future prospects as a researcher. I’ve been
mentored by world-class researchers and had
exposure to a community of experts in drug
discovery, in both academia and industry.”
Professor Bill Charman, Dean of the Faculty,
says these international postdoctoral Fellowships
are testimony to the calibre and international
standing of MIPS. “It’s exciting to see Lori,
Sandeep and Phuc furthering their research
internationally. It demonstrates that our doctoral
program delivers great researchers, and research
that is truly world class.”
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