Supporting commercialisation
Dr Adrian Achuthan from the Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital was recently awarded a Michael Hirshorn Medical Research Commercialisation Grant.
Tony Velkov (2018 fund recipient), Dr Janice Hirshorn (donor), Dr George Jacobs (donor),
Mrs Bella Hirshorn (donor’s mother), Associate Professor Peter Crouch (2019 fund recipient) and
Professor Erica Fletcher (2018 fund recipient).
Dr Achuthan​ will use this grant to accelerate commercialisation of chemokine therapy for treating rheumatoid arthritis.
The Michael Hirshorn Trust was generously established by Dr Janice Hirshorn and Dr George Jacobs to support initiatives focused on the commercialisation of biomedical research conducted at the University of Melbourne.
The fund was established in memory of Dr Michael Hirshorn, who was passionate about biomedical inventions and was a co-founder and Chief Executive of the company behind the bionic ear, Cochlear.
In 2004, Dr Hirshorn​ was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to medical technology through the development of strategies for product commercialisation.
The recipients of the award and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences met with the donors in late February to highlight the impact of this support to their research.