Skip to content | Change text size
 

Recent Awards & Achievements of MISCL researchers

  • PhD's were recently awarded to Anne Fletcher and Richard Davis

    Anne Fletcher: Thymic Epithelial Cells: Post Natal Maintenance, Regeneration and Autoimmune-Associated Abnormalities
    Richard Davis: Genetic tagging of the MIXL1 locus enables isolation of human primitive streak-like cells from differentiating embryonic stem cells

  • January 2008: Anne Fletcher has won the inaugural Kay Patterson Award for Research Excellence for her work in identifying cells that could stop donor tissue rejection in transplant patients.

  • Professor Alan Trounson, the founding Director of MISCL, has been appointed Director of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), one of the wealthiest (three billion US dollars) and most prestigious benefactors of stem cell research in the world. Professor Trounson, not only established MISCL but he has been a driving force in the promotion of stem cell research in Australia, being instrumental in obtaining funding for the creation of the Australian Stem Cell Centre and being its first CEO. Professor Trounson has also been a major influence in development of infertility treatments; actively involved in the legislative process for permissive laws on assisted reproduction, human embryo research and research into nuclear transfer. His scientific knowledge has touched research areas as diverse as infertility, embryology, animal cloning technology and lastly stem cell therapies. Never shying from public attention, he has brought this controversial research to the public and in doing so has greatly influenced its wider perception. His research accolades and awards are numerous and his influence and mentorship to colleagues, more junior scientists and research students leaves behind his lasting legacy on the direction of stem cell research within Australia. His new position may forge new and influential collaborations between Australian Government, Australian stem cell research including MISCL and Californian stem cell researchers.

  • November 2007: Sue Mei Lim has just received her PhD for her thesis entitled "The consequences of misexpression of the Mixl1 homeobox gene on mesendodermal differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs)", under the supervision of Dr Ed Stanley and Associate Professor Andrew Elefanty.

  • Dr Anna Michalska was funded by the NHMRC to represent Australia at two workshops organized by the International Stem Cell Forum in Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, Maine: “ISCF, International Stem Cell Banking Initiative”  and “The 3rd International Human ES Cell Workshop” in October 2007. Anna was also nominated onto the European Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (hESCreg) advisory board and will speak at their launch symposium January 2008 in Berlin.

  • Dr Orly Lacham Kaplan has been recognised as the new BrainLink Women of Achievement winner until October 2008. See The Age article from October 18th for picture and story: Under the microscope

  • Dr Renea Taylor recently obtained the Servier Award to recognize the best scientific paper from an early career scientist to be presented at the upcoming Annual Scientific Meeting of the Endocrine Society of Australia. Renea will be presenting work recently published by Taylor and Cowin et al. Nature Methods 3(3):179-181, 2006  on the formation of human prostate tissue from embryonic stem cells.

  • PhD student Jonathon Niclis was a recipient of the prestigious Junior Investigator Poster Award at the International Society for Stem Cell conference, held in Cairns in June 2007 for his work entitled “Characterisation of two human embryonic stem cell lines carrying the Huntington’s disease mutation”