Kylie Mason awarded Victorian Premier’s Award

Victorian scientist Dr Kylie Mason has today been awarded the prestigious 2009 Premier’s Award for Public Health and Medical Research for developing a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer and an unexpected finding about the life span of blood clotting cells.

Victorian Premier John Brumby presented Dr Kylie Mason with the award, and prize money of $16,000, at a ceremony at Government House today.

A researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and a consultant haematologist at the Royal Melbourne and Western Hospitals, Dr Mason has received worldwide acclaim for discovering that adding a new class of anti-cancer drugs, the BH3 mimetics, to standard chemotherapy, it is possible to eradicate a highly resistant blood cancer in mice.

During her research, she also unexpectedly helped solve the mystery of how the life span of blood clotting cells, platelets, is controlled. This finding, which is now licensed and patented, has the potential to improve the availability of platelets for transfusion.

Mr Brumby also presented the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research with the $30,000 Jack & Robert Smorgon Families Award.

Three other scientists received $8,000 Commendation awards from Mr Brumby.

Adrian Cameron, an epidemiologist at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute was commended for helping to answer important questions on the role of abdominal obesity and how metabolic syndrome can be used to predict the development of diabetes.

Liyen Loh, a researcher with the University of Melbourne’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, was commended for her work on how HIV evades the immune system causing a progression to AIDS.

Dr Anna Projetto, a researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, was commended for her groundbreaking research that has provided important insights into the possible causes of many autoimmune diseases and for her work that has helped improve the effectiveness of vaccines.

Dr Kylie Mason

Dr Mason’s work has been published in highly respected international journals including Cancer Cell, PNAS and Cell, as well as presented at prestigious conferences such as the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology. Dr Mason is a Victorian Cancer Agency Clinician Fellow and a member of the Victorian Cancer Agency Early Careers Innovators’ Network. She was a recipient of the Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award in 2008. She is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia.

Mr Adrian Cameron

Mr Cameron is an epidemiologist at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, whose work on the metabolic syndrome has helped answer important questions on the role of abdominal obesity and how the metabolic syndrome can be used to predict the development of diabetes – a question of relevance to both clinicians and researchers. The twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes are two of Australia’s greatest health challenges – in 2004/05, the AusDiab study showed that every day in Australia 275 adults develop diabetes and that the average increase in waist circumference in Australians over five years was 2.1cm. Mr Cameron is a member of the Australian Epidemiological Association.

Ms Liyen Loh

Ms Loh is a researcher with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the University of Melbourne, has been researching the factors governing how HIV evades the immune system, causing progression to AIDS. For the first time in HIV research, Ms Loh has shown very accurately how one virus replaced another virus, shedding significant new light on how HIV causes AIDS. With more than three million new HIV-1 infections each year, an effective vaccine is urgently needed. Understanding the underlying factors influencing how people respond to infection with HIV plays a pivotal role in successful vaccine design. In her current unpublished work, she is providing insight into when best to attack the hidden forms of HIV, thus re-energising the drive for a potential cure for HIV.

Dr Anna Proietto

Sr Proietto is a researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, is investigating the role of dendritic cells in regulating the immune system to prevent auto-immune disease. Her groundbreaking research in mice has provided important insights into the possible causes of many autoimmune diseases. Her research has also introduced a new approach to targeting antigens to dendritic cells to improve the effectiveness of vaccines. This is now under commercial development. Dr Proietto is now switching her attention to the study of the human dendritic cell system. She continues to work while studying medicine at the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the Australian Society of Immunology.