Postdoctoral Research Fellowships support early-career researchers who have not received significant funding to undertake research focused on discovering and improving prevention, detection, treatment, and care for people affected by cancer.
These fellowships provide greater career growth and certainty for individuals, as well as assist in building research capacity and continuity for Victorian institutions.
Professor Erica Sloan, Chair of the Postdoctoral Research Fellowships Assessment Committee, explains what makes a great application.
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Research Governance Unit
grants@cancervic.org.au
Fellowship recipients
Fellowships commencing in 2025
Dr Lauren Alesi
Monash University
Preserving female fertility and long-term endocrine function following cancer treatment by inhibiting PUMA (Jan 2025 - Dec 2027)
Blocking the cell death protein, PUMA, to protect female fertility after cancer therapy
Dr Sarah Grimshaw
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
PROTECT. Physical activity and exercise during childhood leukaemia treatment to protect against sarcopenia and improve frailty outcomes (Jan 2025 - Dec 2027)
Physical activity to improve frailty outcomes for children with leukaemia
Dr Laura Jenkins
Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute
Combining EGFR inhibitors and histone deacetylase inhibitors to suppress MYC in colorectal cancer (Jan 2025 - Dec 2027)
Taking the MYC out of colon cancer
Dr Ryan O'Keefe
La Trobe University and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute
Dissecting the role of type 2 innate lymphoid cells in gastric cancer (Jan 2025 - Dec 2027)
Dr. Jia Quyen Truong
RMIT University
Targeting key protein-protein interactions for the treatment of mesothelioma (Jan 2025 - Dec 2027)
Blocking key protein interactions to treat mesothelioma
Dr Balaji Virassamy
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The University of Melbourne
Investigating how parity can protect against triple negative breast cancer (Jan 2025 - Dec 2027)
Breast cancer anti-tumor immunity following lactational involution
Fellowships commenced in 2024
Dr Philip Arandjelovic
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Identifying the molecular and cellular mechanisms for the initiation of β-catenin mutated HCC (Jan 2024- Dec 2026)
Locating the cellular source of a major subset of liver cancer
Dr Yuchen Bai
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Promoting cell proliferation to block the invasion of head and neck cancer (Jan 2024- Dec 2026)
Promoting cell growth to prevent the spread of head and neck cancer
Dr Milad Ghomlaghi
Monash University
An Integrated Approach to Identify New Network Vulnerabilities for Mesothelioma (Jan 2024- Dec 2026)
Novel Combination Treatment Strategy to Fight Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Dr Laura Porter
Monash University
Unlocking the potential of CAR T cell therapy for prostate cancer treatment (Jan 2024- Dec 2026)
Manipulating the immune system for the treatment of prostate cancer
Previous Fellowship recipients
Mr. Peter Georgeson
University of Melbourne
Linking gut bacteria to the development of colorectal cancer using multi-omic profiling (Jan 2023 - Jan 2024)
Identifying individuals at risk of developing bacteria-associated bowel cancer with DNA analysis
Dr Sibel Saya
University of Melbourne
Multi-cancer genomic risk assessment to target screening in general practice (Apr 2022 - Jan 2024)
DNA testing to predict risk of cancer in general practice
Dr Shengbo Zhang
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Engineering type 1 conventional dendritic cells using lipid nanoparticles to deliver mRNA that coding the novel chimeric antigen receptor to
initiate innate immune responses for tumour immunotherapy (Jan 2023 - Jan 2024)
A new approach to treat solid cancers
Dr Joanne Lundy
Monash University
The Endoscopic Ultrasound Molecular Evaluation of Pancreatic Cancer (EU-ME- PC) Study (Jul 2022 - Jun 2023)
Validating endoscopic biopsies to guide better treatment selection in pancreatic cancer
Dr Feng Yan
Monash University
Deciphering abnormal epigenetic characteristics in chemo-resistant stem cells using a transgenic mouse model of human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Jul 2022 - Jun 2023)
Examine chemo-resistant T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells and understand how they escaped from chemotherapy
Dr. Marc Rigau Cortal
University of Melbourne
Optimisation of the phosphoantigen-reactive gamma-delta T-cell receptor for use in adoptive T-cell therapy against the most common blood and solid tumours in the Australian population (Jan 2022 - Dec 2022)
Empowering human immune cells against blood and solid cancers
Dr. Stefan Bjelosevic
University of Melbourne
Delineating mechanisms of metabolic regulation of epigenetic state in FMS-liketyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)-driven acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)
(Jul 2021 - Jun 2022)
Dr. Heidi Fettke
University of Melbourne
Dissecting therapeutic vulnerabilities of advanced prostate cancer harbouringcompound androgen receptor alterations
(Jul 2021 - Jun 2022)
Dr Edmond Kwan
Monash University
Comprehensive circulating nucleic acid analysis to identify biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
(mCRPC) (Jan 2021 - Dec 2021)
Dr Peter Savas
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Extending genomic profiling to understanding outcomes in clinical trials (Jan 2021 - Dec 2021)
Mr Charles Bell
The University of Melbourne
Identifying new drug targets to specifically reduce the activity of genes that are essential for cancer cells (Jul 2020-Jun 2021)
Dr Tanjina Kader
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Development of a new test after a mammogram to help doctors and patients decide whether they should operate or save their breasts (Jul 2020-Jun 2021).
Dr Margs Brennan
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Testing MCL - 1 inhibitor treatment in humanised MCL - 1pre-clinical mouse models of Philadelphia-like paediatric acute lymphoid leukaemia (Jul 2019-Dec 2020)
Dr Na Li
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Discovering new genetic causes of familial breast cancer (Jan 2020-Dec 2020)
Dr Mohamed Saad
Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Identification of ADAM17-driven Molecular Events in Lung Cancer (Jan 2020-Dec 2020)
Dr James Whittle
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Targeting cell survival pathways in breast cancer (Jan 2020-Dec 2020)
Dr Simon Preston
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Targeting caspase-8 in T-regulatory cells as cancer immunotherapy in Hepatocellular carcinoma (Jan 2020-Jun 2020)
Dr Lara Edbrooke
The University of Melbourne
Rehabilitation in inoperable lung cancer - a cost-effectiveness evaluation (Jan 2020-Jun 2020)
Dr Pasquale Fedele
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Targeting IRF4 in Multiple Myeloma (Jan 2019-Dec 2019)
Dr Mark Miles
La Trobe University
A healthy life after cancer: curing cancers without creating new ones
Dr Rebecca Delconte
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Increasing Natural Killer cell ability to detect and kill cancer cells (Jul 2018-Jun 2019)
Dr Shuai Li
The University of Melbourne
Understanding why and how environmental factors change breast cancer risk by studying genes (Jul 2018-Jun 2019)
Dr Hendrika Duivenvoorden
La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science
Validating markers that predict early breast cancer invasion (Jan 2018 - Dec 2018)
Dr Simon Hogg
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Developing drugs that promote the immune system to eliminate cancer (Aug 2017-Jul 2018)
Dr Tan Nguyen
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Can we inhibit RNA degradation to help treat cancer? (Jan 2018 - Dec 2018)
Dr Tuong Linh Nguyen
The University of Melbourne
Predicting a woman’s future risk of breast cancer from her mammograms (Jan 2018 - Dec 2018)
Dr Ashleigh Poh
The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute
Improving responsiveness to anti-cancer immunotherapy (Jul 2017-Jun 2018)
Dr Antonia Policheni
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
How does cell competition and cell death prevent childhood blood cancer? (Jan 2018 - Dec 2018)
