Strategic Grants for Outstanding Women

Melanie Neeland is a Team Leader at MCRI and an honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at The University of Melbourne.

An emerging international leader in paediatric immunology, she established her independent research program at MCRI in 2020 following a PhD in immunology (2015) and a fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine (2017). This award will significantly advance Melanie’s research and leadership trajectory by enabling the recruitment of a research assistant to accelerate patient enrolment and laboratory studies. It will also help to support her participation in key international conferences to strengthen collaborations and enhance her global research profile.

Kate Hayward is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Heart Foundation Future Leader and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow.

Her research focuses on improving recovery outcomes for people living with stroke by testing novel treatments using innovative trial designs that efficiently generate high-quality evidence. She is leading the development of SEAMLESS - a national Adaptive Pipeline-Platform Trial designed to address unmet needs across the stroke care continuum. This grant will support Kate in establishing an Australia-wide network of SEAMLESS affiliated stroke centres and developing infrastructure to sustain a clinically embedded, platform-trial ready workforce.

Louisa Ng is Deputy Director of the Royal Melbourne Hospital Clinical School and the Subject Coordinator for Clinical Scholar and Transition to Practice (both final year subjects) in the MD at The University of Melbourne. She is also a Rehabilitation Physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

This grant will advance her career through extending educational research capacity, expanding international professional networks and providing fantastic opportunities for professional development. To achieve this, she plans to participate in the Harvard Macy Institute Health Professions Educator Program as a faculty member and to better understand research methodology through AMEE conference attendance.

Sarah Lensen is an IVF researcher and methodologist. Her research focusses on robustly evaluating infertility and IVF treatments and translating scientific evidence about treatment options into resources to support patient decision-making. She recently became Co-lead of the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group, overseeing the production of many systematic reviews evaluating treatments for infertility.

This grant provides funding to cover editorial assistance for these Cochrane reviews, allowing Sarah to dedicate time to her research and student supervision.

Christiane Kehoe is based at Mindful, Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health, Department of Psychiatry at The University of Melbourne. She is co-author of the evidence-based Tuning in to Kids®/Teens®/Toddlers® Emotionally Intelligent Parenting programs and led the development of Tuning in to Students™, evaluated in schools as part of a Whole School Approach.

This grant will support Christiane to pilot an online delivery of Tuning in to Students™ with teachers across Victoria, advancing her leadership in digital innovation, implementation science, scalable emotion-focused education and strengthening her capacity for future competitive research funding.

Anthea Lindquist is an obstetrician and co-leads of the Perinatal Epidemiology Group at the University of Melbourne. With a PhD from the University of Oxford, Anthea and her team are leaders in using big, linked data to examine the population-wide impacts of pregnancy and periconceptional exposures for mothers and children. With plans to develop Australia’s first national, linked perinatal dataset, they are also pioneering a digital health platform to translate pregnancy research into accessible, evidence-based care.

This funding will enable opportunities for Anthea and her team for global collaboration and capacity-building. It will be utilised to advance team expertise in digital health, data science and the translation of perinatal research into clinical practice.

Isabel Lopez Sanchez is Head of the Mitochondrial Biology and Disease Laboratory at the Centre for Eye Research Australia and an Honorary at the Department of Surgery, Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne. An early-to-mid career researcher internationally recognised for expertise in mitochondrial dysfunction and neurodegeneration, she leads a research program exploring how mitochondrial failure drives vision loss in optic neuropathies and genetic eye diseases.

Her work spans fundamental mitochondrial biology to translational studies identifying therapeutic targets for neuroprotective intervention. This grant will support a research assistant, key translational studies and international collaboration to accelerate therapeutic discovery and strengthen Isabel’s leadership in mitochondrial and neurodegenerative eye research.

Simranpreet Kaur is an emerging leader in childhood dementia research, with a strong focus on translational genomics and patient-centered innovation. Originally from India, she brings a unique perspective shaped by lived experience, resilience, and a deep commitment to equity in STEM. As a Graduate Women Victoria’s “Feminist Fathers Scholar”, Women of Color in STEM award finalists and Leadership Victoria’s “Joan Kirner Emerging Leader”, she is empowering the next generation of scientists, particularly women, gender-diverse individuals and those from underrepresented groups.

Simranpreet leads KINETIC, Australia’s first dedicated research program for KIF1A-Associated Neurological Disorder (KAND), an ultra-rare, severe childhood dementia. She has co-developed KINETIC with international KIF1A Foundations and affected families. Her multidisciplinary team pioneer’s innovative models and technological strategies to accelerate therapeutic discoveries. Simrandpreet is a strong advocate for inclusive research, mentoring and community engagement, and continues to bridge the gap between discovery and meaningful change for families affected by rare diseases.

Asha Bonney is a Respiratory and Sleep Physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Eastern Health, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the Melbourne Medical School, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medical Education at the Melbourne Medical School. Her research focuses on improving health outcomes for people at-risk and with lung cancer, with a specific interest in lung cancer screening.

This grant will enable Asha to build her research team to support new projects, as well as strengthen Asha's leadership skills and mentorship capacity.

Xiaowei Wang leads the Molecular Imaging and Nanotherapeutics Laboratory within the Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, Melbourne Medical School, and the Centre for Cardiometabolic mRNA Therapy at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. Her work focuses on developing cutting-edge mRNA and nanotechnology research into safer and more effective treatments for cardiovascular diseases.

This grant will support Xiaowei's participation in leadership and innovation programs at Harvard Business School and The Wharton School in Philadelphia, strengthening her capacity to drive transformative impact in medical research and mentorship while fostering collaboration, diversity and innovation in science.

Claire von Mollendorf is a medical epidemiologist, Principal Research Fellow and Team Leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Honorary Principal Fellow at The University of Melbourne. She has more than 20 years of research experience, including leading large scale multi-year studies in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Her research has included pneumonia and vaccine preventable infectious diseases (pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus infection and COVID-19). Her work has produced over 107 publications and contributed to vaccine policy changes.

This grant, which focuses on the role of air pollution in pneumonia, will complement her current work in the Asia-Pacific region and broaden her scope of expertise from infectious to environmental contributors to respiratory health.

Ann Frazier is the academic coordinator of the Department of Paediatrics Honours and Master of Biomedical Science programs and a senior research officer in the Brain and Mitochondrial Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Her research focuses on mitochondrial diseases, using human cell systems to generate preclinical models for mechanistic studies and drug screening.

This funding will support a research assistant to help Ann progress her research program involving stem cell derived cardiac and neuronal cell models of mitochondrial disease. It will free up to time to focus on project completion and manuscript writing, while continuing to dedicate time to student supervision and mentoring.