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Biochemistry Fellowships for ECRS including our own Gabby Watson

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Two early career researchers (ECRs) from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) have received Fellowships from the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), in recognition of their outstanding work in their field.

Congratulations to Dr Gabby Watson from the Rossjohn lab and Dr Chris Stubenrauch from the Lithgow lab.

Dr Gabby Watson’s postgraduate research utilised structural biology to design and characterise cyclic peptides targeted to an intracellular breast cancer protein, Grb7. This resulted in six publications, many as first-author, including two in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

She is currently investigating the complexities and specificities of ligand recognition by the inhibitory receptor CD96, an emerging target for cancer immunotherapy, with some of this research recently published in Structure.

This ASBMB Fellowship will enable Dr Watson to travel to Vienna, Austria, to present her latest research at the 32nd European Crystallographic Meeting.

“I am honoured to receive an ASBMB Fellowship, and grateful to have the opportunity to discuss our recent discoveries on CD96 ligand recognition with experts in the European crystallographic community,” Dr Watson said.

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Jamie awarded the ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship

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Professor Jamie Rossjohn has been awarded a highly prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowship from theAustralian Research Council, worth $2.9 million over five years.

NHMRC Australia Fellow, Professor Jamie Rossjohn, from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, was announced as a recipient of the 2016 Australian Laureate Fellowship at a ceremony in Canberra on Friday.

This fellowship will help Professor Rossjohn to continue his research into how key immune recognition events enable immunity.

Professor Rossjohn said his project would be supported by the cross-disciplinary approaches within the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, key platform technologies at Monash and the Australian Synchrotron.

“This recognition is always a consequence of a team effort – students and researchers of the laboratory, collaborators, and Monash University,” Professor Rossjohn said.

“I would like to acknowledge the support of the ARC team within the Monash Research Office – they were superb in ensuring my application was in the best possible shape,” he said.

Most recognised for his contributions to understanding the function and dysfunction of the immune system, Professor Rossjohn has provided profound insight into T-cell biology. He has used structural biology to explain T-cell development and pioneered our understanding of lipid-based immunity by T-cells, recently showing how vitamin B metabolites represent an entirely new and important target for the immune system.

The Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, on Friday announced the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowships at the ceremony in Canberra.

“We must continue to encourage not only the brightest Australian minds to explore opportunities here, but also to attract the best from overseas to share their knowledge in Australia,” Senator Birmingham said.

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