Melbourne Uni student wins prestige award

The Swiss-based Serono Foundation has awarded a US$90,000 postgraduate fellowship grant to an ex-Melbourne Uni PhD to pursue research into cancer biology.

Dr Ian Frew, who completed his PhD in May this year, has been awarded the money for a two-year research project into the identification and characterisation of novel functions of the pVHL tumour suppressor.

Frew, previously working at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute with the director of the institute, Prof David Bowtell, has already made his mark as winner of the MacCallum Student Medal. Frew was described by Bowtell as "very talented" during his four-year stint at the institute.

"He is a very talented guy, very bright and very focussed. He was working with us on Siah protein research, targeting the degradation of proteins," said Bowtell. "I think there is a good chance he will come back here at some stage -- we'd love to see that anyway."

Frew, who will continue his work on the protein involved in hypoxia sensing, will be working in Switzerland as a result of the award, at the Institute of Cell Biology, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, under the supervision of Prof Wilhelm Krek.

"The Serono Foundation Fellowship Program aims to assist young scientists", said Dr Aliza Eshkol, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Serono Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Science. "We hope these awards will enhance the research efforts of the winners, whose findings will contribute to scientific knowledge potentially leading to new medical solutions."

Frew's winning application was selected from a large number of applicants from all over the world, with his application being subjected to peer reviews by world experts in cancer research.