Melanoma researcher wins $1 million Pfizer research fellowship

Dr Mark Shackleton was named at last night’s AusBiotech 2010 Conference Dinner as the winner of the 2011 Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellowship grant for his proposal ‘Identifying determinants of human melanoma progression’.

Medical oncologist and the head of the Melanoma Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Shackleton was chosen to receive the $1 million grant for his work in improving understanding of the mechanisms through which melanomas progress in patients, with a view to identifying new and more effective therapies against the disease.

“The relevance of this work for both the medical community and the wider community is significant,” said Dr Shackleton.

“By studying clonal evolution and by developing more clinically relevant models of disease progression, we expect to be able to identify new biomarkers of disease and identify new and improved therapies for the treatment of melanoma.”

The Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellowship covers salary, travel and other establishment costs, which will assist Dr Shackleton in establishing his research project at the Melanoma Research Laboratory, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Winners of the Fellowship are chosen by an independent group of respected Australian medical researchers.