Genomics researcher wins Commonwealth Health Minister's Award

The Commonwealth Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research for 2016 has been awarded to Dr Joseph Powell from The University of Queensland (UQ). The award recognises outstanding individual achievement by the top-ranked National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellowship recipient.

Dr Powell was acknowledged for his work using large-scale genomic data to investigate how DNA sequence variants contribute to human disease. According to NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso, his achievements in the field of statistical genomics are “making a significant contribution to our understanding of the genetic basis of human disease”.

“His research is developing and exploiting new computational and statistical methods to explore how changes in non-coding DNA cause changes in gene expression that affect disease susceptibility,” said Professor Kelso.

“Work at this frontier will ultimately benefit the broader community through new approaches to the control of specific diseases.”

The award was presented to Dr Powell at the Medical Research Week Dinner, hosted by the Australian Society for Medical Research in Melbourne last night. In addition to the award, Dr Powell receives a $50,000 grant that will help his team at UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience to further their research.

Pictured: Dr Joseph Powell.