2021-2022 Rowden White Trust
Awardees have been announced for the 2021-2022 Rowden White Trust project support for Early Career and Mid-Career Researchers and the Career Development Awards for GR students and Early Career Researchers.
We are pleased to announce the awardees for the Rowden White Trust Project support for ECR and MCR for 2021-2022 are:
A/Prof Yasmin Jayasinghe - Oncofertility digital innovation and registries; contribute towards MRFF and NHMRC applications to design, validate and implement an innovative Customisable Digital Oncofertility Care Intervention.
Dr Michelle Peate - Development of a stepped care platform for self-management of menopausal symptoms after cancer and the elective egg freezers' disposition decisions (EEDD) study.
Dr Clare Whitehead - Adaptive Platform Trials, to test antenatal and postnatal interventions to improve outcomes of preterm birth; foundation of an innovative ATP; designing integrated data collection tools.
Dr Ellen Menkhorst - Improved clinical care for women with late-onset preeclampsia; understanding of early pregnancy placental function/defect through analyses of early pregnancy placental biopsies and the function characterisation of key proteins
Dr Wei Zhou - Effective treatments for embryo implantation failure; to prove the role of miR-124 in implantation and determine effects on future fertility by producing a genetically modified mouse model
A/Prof Louise Owen and A/Prof Brett Manley - AIROPlane study will compare levels of oxygen use at birth for premature babies to determine the more effective in preventing the need for later breathing support
Dr Matthew Wakefield - Application of machine learning and molecular evolution techniques to "genome scarring" signatures in cancer to provide improved detection in FFPE exome samples; allowing targeted cancer drugs to be selected for treatment
A/Prof Brett Manley - To fund the longer-term (2 years' corrected age) neurodevelopmental follow-up of extremely preterm infants enrolled in the PLUSS trial at the RWH. Whilst the PLUSS trial is fully funded by an NHMRC/industry grant, this longer term follow-up (PLUSS2) remains unfunded.
The recipients of the Rowden White Trust Career Development Awards for GR students and Early Career Researchers are:
Lucy Caughey - Elective Egg Freezers' disposition decisions; to fund training in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)
Sherine Sandhu - To undertake qualitative research training in relation to the evaluation of the efficacy of an egg freezing Decision Aid (DA)
Dr Wei Zhou - Effective treatments for embryo implantation failure; to prove the role of miR-124 in implantation and determine effects on future fertility by producing a genetically modified mouse model
The Rowden White Trust generously awarded a total of $398,795 for people and project support and $4,550 for career development.
The late Sir Alfred Edward Rowden White (Rowden White) and his brother Sir Edward Rowden White in 1955, created the A.E. Rowden White and Edward R. White Foundation (RW Trust) at University of Melbourne to assist funding of Medical Research at the Royal Women's Hospital (RWH), Carlton. It was the ‘dearest hopes’ of the White brothers that the foundation ‘will be fostered, amplified and encouraged in the most practical ways, by the use of the funds which will forever be available from the foundation’. Within the Last Will & Testament (1957) of Sir Rowden White, he expressly states that two thousand pounds out of the income of his Residuary Estate, is to be paid to the Foundation per annum. This is an incredible philanthropic gift and- today- makes the Rowden White Trust one of the most valuable in the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences.