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Cancer scientist awarded prestigious 2011 Victoria Prize
Victorian Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business Louise Asher announced at a ceremony in Parliament House that Professor Andreas Strasser has won Victoria’s highest honour for science in 2011, the prestigious $50,000 Victoria Prize, for his groundbreaking work in cancer.
Ms Asher said that Professor Strasser’s research had provided extraordinary insight into how cells work and why they mutate to become cancerous. Professor Strasser and his team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research continue to make landmark contributions in the field of cancer research and programmed cell death, and his work is renowned internationally, Ms Asher said.
Professor Strasser and his team were the first in the world to show, by exploiting mouse genetics, that abnormalities in the control of cell death, or apoptosis, can cause autoimmune disease or cancer and prevent tumour cells from responding to anti-cancer therapy.
Since 1998 the annual Victoria Prize has marked the achievements of exceptional Victorians such as Professor Strasser. The Victoria Prize is complemented by the awarding of the annual $100,000 Anne & Eric Smorgon Memorial Award to the Victoria Prize winner’s lead organisation (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) from the Jack & Robert Smorgon Families Foundation.
Ms Asher also announced the six winners of the 2011 Victoria Fellowships, which assist emerging leaders in science, engineering and technology. The 2011 Victoria Fellowships are awarded to:
Mr Liang Chen to continue developing technology to improve the quality of internet
transmissions;
Dr Mandy de Souza to continue research into new surface finishes for environmentally friendly cars;
Dr Darren Hutchinson to undertake specialist training to establish a Victorian Foetal Cardiology Unit;
Dr Brett Paterson to test a suite of tools he has developed for use in detecting early stage cancer;
Ms Jaclyn Pearson to investigate the interaction between E.coli bacteria and human cells; and
Dr Jean-Pierre Veder to investigate environmentally friendly solvents for use in aluminium production.
They each receive an $18,000 travel grant to undertake a short-term international study mission.
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