TIMELINE – CANCER Fellowships/Prizes
2020 – 

Recipient 1: $10,000
Matthew Grant
St Vincent’s Hospital – Palliative Nexus Research Group, University of Melbourne

Thesis Title:An exploration of informal communities of care for cancer patients.

Recipient 2: $10,000
Deborah Meyran
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – Clinical Science

Thesis Title: New CAR-T cells to enhance paediatric therapies suitable for children.

Recipient 3: $10,000
Stefan Byelosevic
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – Basic Science

Thesis Title: Investigating FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 metabolic reprogramming in acute leukaemias developing CAR-T cell therapies.

Recipient 1: $10,000
Kenji Mark Fujihara
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – Basic Science

Thesis topic: The determinants of sensitivity and mechanisms of action of APR-246 (Eprenetapopt) 

Recipient 2: $10,000
Martin Vu
University of Melbourne – Population Health

Thesis topic: Using real-world evidence to assess the clinical utility of high-throughput sequencing technologies: the pursuit of precision medicine for haematological malignancies.

Recipient 2: $10,000
Stacie Shiqi Wang
WEHI, Children’s Cancer Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital – Clinical Science

Thesis topic: Chimetric antigen receptor T cell therapy in paedriatric high-grade glioma.

$150,000 over 3 years

Recipient: Cancer Council Victoria
Venture Grants Scheme-2020-2022

Picchi Brothers Foundation Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research

Project: Creating novel methods to monitor the marketing of products that increase the risk of cancer to children – an intelligent systems approach
Lead investigator: A/Prof Kathryn Backholer – Deakin University

$10,000 Picchi Award for Excellence in Cancer Research VCCC
Recipient 1: Dr Irene Deftereos –
Research Area: Clinical Science – Investigating current evidence and practices for improving the nutritional status and outcomes of patients undergoing resection of upper gastrointestinal cancer.

Recipient 2: Dr Asha Bonney
Research Area: Population Health – Lung cancer screening with low dose computed tomography (LDCT); exploring opportunities to optimize disease
prevention across a range of health outcomes in Australia.

Recipient 3: Dr Wenxin Hui
Research Area: Basic science – Reprogrammed CRISPR-Cas 13 suppresses tumour RNAs with single-nucleotide precision.

$10,000 Picchi Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research VCCC
Recipient 1: Dr Aaron K Wong
Research Area: Clinical Science – Western Health
Dr Wong is a trained palliative care physician and medical oncologist. He is Palliative Care Clinical Trials Lead at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and
The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and is completing his PhD on the role of pharmacogenomics on opiod use for the treatment of pain due to advanced
cancer. Thesis Title: Accelerating Pharmacogenomic Guided Opiod Prescribing into Clinical Practice in Cancer Patients.

Recipient 2: Dr Rachel Delahunty
Research Area: Population Health – The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Rachel is a medical oncologist at The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The Mercy Hospital for Women and Geelong University Hospital. She has a special interest in gynecological oncology and translational research and recently completed her PhD through the University of Melbourne and Peter Maccallum Cancer Centre. Thesis Title: Reducing the morbidity and mortality of ovarian cancer through prevention.

Recipient 3: Amanda Chen
Research Area: Basic science – Amanda is a fourth year PhD student at The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. In her PhD she has developed a novel
CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing approach to enhance CART Cell therapy, a form of immunotherapy that involved the adoptive transfer of engineering T Cells in cancer patients. Thesis Title: CRISPR/Cas 9 Engineering of Next Generation Armoured CART Cells.

$10,000 Picchi Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research VCCC
Recipient 1: Julia Lai-Kwon

Julia’s PhD research involved co-designing an electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) symptom monitoring system for people receiving immunotherapy. Collaborating with key stakeholders, a prototype was integrated into the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s electronic medical record. This system allows patients and caregivers to report and track immunotherapy side effects remotely, receive self-management advice, and alerts clinicians to severe or worsening symptoms in real-time.
The project has produced adaptable workflows for various healthcare settings and specific workflows for Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. It has resulted in numerous grants, publications, and presentations, including funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Western Central and Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service, as well as invitations to present at international conferences like the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Recipient 2: Nicola Creagh
Research Area: Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Centre for Health Policy, University of Melbourne
Thesis: Evaluating the implementation of a universally available choice for self-collection cervical screening in Australia: the solution to improving equity?

Nicola’s PhD research is evaluating the implementation of universal access to self-collection cervical screening in Australia’s health system, aligning with the National Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer. The study examines both the implementation process and the impact on cervical screening participation.
To date, Nicola’s research has resulted in two first-author publications, with another manuscript under review and a final PhD publication in preparation. The work will assesses changes at the health service level due to policy changes and will provide the foundation for questions on how broader policy, funding, and governance structures can enhance the equitable implementation of innovations in health systems. This research will underscore the importance of policy implementation science.

Recipient 3: Marina Yakou
Research Area: Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University
Thesis: Tissue-dependent dichotomy in IL-15 mediated anti-tumour immunity to colorectal cancer

Marina’s work leverages previous discoveries during her PhD around the potential of harnessing cells that fight cancer in the colon for targeted colorectal cancer immunotherapies, limiting unwanted side effects to unaffected organs.
These significant findings have opened a new avenue in the future of immunotherapy for treatment of colorectal cancer and other solid malignant cancers.
Marina’s latest work will build on these findings, investigating the critical role of cytokines (cells released by the immune system), including IL-15, in regulating these anti-tumour properties in the colon.