TIMELINE – CANCER Fellowships/Prizes
2020 – 2029

$10,000

Recipient: Kenji Mark Fujihara

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Basic Science

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

$10,000

Recipient: 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.

$10,000

Recipient: 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.