- Professor Akhter Hossain, Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby, Dr Laura Vella and Dr Niamh Moriarty have been named the recipients of this year’s Florey Fellowships.
- The Florey Fellowships promote scientific excellence by providing security and support to leading researchers.
- This year’s Fellowships were made possible by philanthropic support, including The Marian and E.H Flack Trust.
The Florey Fellowships
The Florey is pleased to announce Professor Akhter Hossain, Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby, Dr Laura Vella and Dr Niamh Moriarty as this year’s successful recipients of the Florey Fellowships.
Providing security and support for researchers is vital to promoting scientific excellence and a culture of success. Starting in 2022, Florey Fellowships have been a way to support the work of leading investigators.
The Fellowship offers recipients salary support to allow them to continue ground-breaking research that has the potential to have meaningful and lasting outcomes for both science and the community.
Ranging from epidemiology to stem cell-derived innovations, the Fellowships are a testament to the outstanding achievements of our winners in their respective fields of expertise.
Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby
Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby is Head of the Neuroepidemiology Group at The Florey and has been awarded a five-year Senior Florey Fellowship.
As an epidemiologist and public health physician, Professor Ponsonby has extensive experience in the conduct and analysis of population-based studies, and how to translate their findings into public health.
The judging panel has stated, “Anne-Louise’s work has established important and informative cohorts that are bearing new insights into neurological diseases particularly those with developmental origins.”
It has the potential to put The Florey at the forefront of new insights into neurodevelopmental disorders and in prevention strategies.
Professor Akhter Hossain
Professor Akhter Hossain has been awarded a three-year Senior Florey Fellowship for his work in developing new chemical methods to prepare and scale the production of therapeutic insulin and insulin-like peptides.
Professor Hossain has been the Head of the Insulin Peptides Group at The Florey since 2012.
Akhter is an exceptional scientist and role model of Florey values.
The judging panel commends Professor Hossain’s work, stating, “Akhter has an impressive research portfolio in peptide chemistry straddling fundamental research with numerous commercial opportunities and existing industry engagements.”
Dr Laura Vella
Dr Laura Vella’s work at The Florey focuses on the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr Vella has been actively researching EVs for over 15 years and was one of the first Australian scientists to publish in the field. She is the Head of the Extracellular Vesicle Group at The Florey.
“Laura has a clear vision and workplan with a translational focus on applications of EVs,” says the panel. Dr Vella has been awarded a three-year Senior Florey Fellowship.
It is clear that she is regarded as a global leader in this fast-moving field. Laura has excellent internal collaborations and a key skill set, her potential is very high.
Dr Niamh Moriarty
Dr Niamh Moriarty has been awarded a three-year E.H Flack Fellowship to fund her preclinical research, which focuses on improving the outcomes of human stem cell-derived neural transplants for the purpose of treating Parkinson’s disease.
Dr Moriarty’s Fellowship was given by The Marian and E.H Flack Trust, an independent philanthropic trust started in 1935 under the Will of the late Edwin Harold Flack.
Dr Moriarty works as a Senior Research Officer in the Stem Cells and Neural Development Group at The Florey.
