2023 VCCC Alliance Picchi Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research

Published Catarina de Freitas on Wed, 10/25/2023 - 13:37

2023 VCCC Alliance Picchi Awards

With Picchi Brothers Foundation

The VCCC Alliance together with the Picchi Brothers Foundation celebrate the achievements of this year's three Picchi Awardees for Excellence in Cancer Research. 

The VCCC Alliance together with the Picchi Brothers Foundation, award three outstanding VCCC Alliance member PhD students with a Picchi Award in Basic Science, Clinical Science or Population Health.These awards aim to inspire and encourage the next generation of cancer research leaders, providing recipients with opportunities to support their development towards research independence.

The Picchi Brothers Foundation supports the awards in the hope that they will inspire and encourage the next generation of leaders in cancer research.

Our 2023 award recipients

Clinical Science

Aaron Wong

Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital

Accelerating Pharmacogenomic Guided Opioid Prescribing into Clinical Practice in Cancer Patients

Basic Science

Amanda Chen

The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

CRISPR/Cas9 Engineering of Next Generation Armoured CAR T Cells

Population Health

Rachel Delahunty

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Reducing the morbidity and mortality of ovarian cancer through prevention

 

Presentations

2023 Picchi Awards Ceremony Opening

2023 Picchi Awards Ceremony - Rachel Delahunty

 

Rachel Delahunty

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Reducing the morbidity and mortality of ovarian cancer through prevention

Rachel Delahunty 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 gynaecological oncology and translational research and recently has her PhD though the university of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre accepted.

2023 Picchi Awards Ceremony - Aaron Wong

 

Aaron Wong

Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital

Accelerating Pharmacogenomic Guided Opioid Prescribing into Clinical Practice in Cancer Patients

Dr Aaron K Wong is  dual trained Palliative Care Physiscian and Medical Oncologist. Aaron is a 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 opioid use for the treatment of pain due to advanced cancer.

2023 Picchi Awards Ceremony - Amanda Chen

 

Amanda Chen

The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

CRISPR/Cas9 Engineering of Next Generation Armoured CAR T Cells

Amanda Chen is a fourth year PhD student in the Beavis and Darcy laboratories at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. In her PhD, she has developed a novel CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing approach to enhance CAR T cell therapy, a form of immunotherapy that involves the adoptive transfer of engineered T cells into cancer patients. Specifically, this CRISPR/Cas9 editing strategy enables the "armouring" of CAR T cells to express potent immunomodulatory factors in a tumour-localised manner, demonstrating enhanced therapeutic efficacy in preclinical murine models, while maintatining a favourable safety profile. Amanda's work has the potential to improve CAR T cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumours, which currently respond poorly to conventional T cell therapies.

2023 Picchi Awards Ceremony - Closing remarks

Course Details

Globe on table
Course type
Webinars
Duration
60 mins
Price
$0.00
Curriculum Area
Research (incl. Clinical Trials)
Leadership and Non-Technical Skills
Speciality
Early to mid career researcher
Senior researcher / scientist
Student/trainee
Clinician
Research
Cancer sciences

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Alliance members