Mary-Jane Gething legacy enabling greater opportunities for female scientists
Congratulations to the recipients of the MJ Gething Gender Equity Award in 2024.
Launched in 2019, the MJ Gething Gender Equity Award supports young researchers working in the biomedical sciences, with a focus on promoting gender equality and opportunities for female scientists.
The grant's 2024 recipients, Dr Melanie Eckersley-Maslin, Dr Susan Christo, Dr Natalie Thomas, Dr Meina Li, Dr Grace Lidgerwood and Dr Li Dong, join a long list of early career researchers, with significant caring responsibilities, who have benefited from this award to support their research profile and maintain momentum.
We acknowledge the award benefactor, Prof Mary-Jane Gething OA, her outstanding contribution to biochemistry and molecular biology, and for championing gender equity in the establishment of this award.
Learn more about the impact this award is making for these inspiring early career scientists.
Dr Melanie Eckersley-Maslin, Dept of Anatomy & Physiology
To support Melanie’s family whilst she is building her national and international reputation, presenting at conferences and seminars, and to provide ‘quiet time’ to focus on grants and paper writing.
“In addition to being an emerging research leader, I am also a mother to two young boys aged four and six. This brings a lot of competing challenges between my scientific life and my family life which can be hard to balance."
"When I was a student I had role models of amazing scientists, and role models of amazing mothers, but struggled to find anyone who was both. Now I realise that this wasn’t because they didn’t exist, but because we didn’t celebrate the diversity of different leaders in STEMM. I hope I can be a role model for the next generation, that I wished I had when starting my research career. Awards such as this are important not just by providing financial support, but also giving visibility to and normalising diverse career journeys”.
"Thank you to the selection committee and the donors who fund this award. It really will make a difference and it’s wonderful to feel supported.”
Dr Melanie Eckersley-Maslin is a is a Snow Medical Research Fellow and runs a research group investigating epigenetic plasticity in development and cancer. Her research interest is in understanding the molecular basis of cell identity. Melanie’s research program investigates how in development the first cells of the embryo are able to generate the thousands of cell types found in healthy adult cells. Remarkably, all these cells share the same DNA sequence, and so it is how the DNA is accessed by the cell that gives rise to this large diversity in cell types and functions. Melanie’s research also explores how deregulating these developmental pathways of cell identity may contribute to diseases such as cancer. Cancer can be thought of as a disease of cell identity, where by malignant cells escape the normal controls to take on new identities and functions. By understanding how cell identity is established in development yet deregulated in cancers, it is anticipated new therapeutic strategies can be developed for cancer patients.
Image: Melanie in the lab.
Dr Susan Christo, Dept of Microbiology & Immunology
To help fund attendance and participation at the prestigious Keystone conference in Vancouver; enabling Susan to travel with her husband and 6-month-old baby girl.
“Recently, we uncovered how a specialised immune population in skin termed ‘resident T cells’ contributes to autoimmune disorders such as alopecia and psoriasis. Unlike current therapies that only treat the symptoms, our work has revealed new methods to target the cells that cause the disease suggesting potentially novel avenues that can treat these life-long disorders. I aim to present our work and forge international collaborations that will lead to the clinical translation of our research."
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the generous Award from the incredible work and vision of Mary-Jane Gething and her Gething-Sambrook Family Foundation. Without the passion and vision of amazing women like Professor Gething, the opportunity to progress our research during motherhood would not exist."
Dr Susan Christo, Senior Research Officer, Mackay Laboratory, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, is a senior postdoc working on T cell immunology.
Image: Susan in the lab, and daughter Amelia.
Dr Natalie Thomas, Dept of Biochemistry & Pharmacology
To help fund a visit to Prof. Jonas Bergquist’s Laboratory, Uppsala University Sweden, to master a specialised technique of Ultra-Performance Supercritical Fluid Chromotography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPSFC-MS/MS); enabling Natalie to travel with her daughter and partner.
“My STEMM role model is May-Britt Moser, a neuroscientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 for her discovery of grid cells in the brain, which are crucial for understanding spatial navigation. Her innovative work has revolutionised our understanding of how the brain maps environments".
"As a mother, she inspires by demonstrating it's possible to achieve extraordinary scientific accomplishments while raising a family. Her ability to balance a high-profile scientific career with her personal life motivates me to pursue my passions relentlessly, showing that dedication and hard work can lead to remarkable achievements".
Dr Natalie Thomas is head Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long Covid Neuroendocrine Research Program. Her research focus explores the intersection of neuroendocrine research and biomarker studies. Her translational work aims to develop lab-based peripheral diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment response biomarkers in neurological conditions and chronic diseases, with a specific focus on steroid hormones. Her work aims to improve our understanding of the role steroids have in metabolism, neurological, and immunological processes and elucidate sex / gender-based differences.
Image: Natalie and family.
Dr Meina Li, Dept of Biochemistry & Pharmacology
To help fund Miena’s attendance at international conferences; enabling her to travel with her kids and a companion.
“I was inspired by my own mum. She taught me how to be an independent woman raising four children while managing to balance life and work”.
Dr Meina Li is a post-doctoral fellow in the Dept of Biochemistry & Pharmacology. Her current research interests focus on investigating the circadian control of casein kinase 1delta activity in combating fibrotic lung damage, which might prompt new chronotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Image: Meina and family.
Dr Grace Lidgerwood, Dept Anatomy & Physiology
To enable Grace to continue with her research momentum after a period of absence on maternity leave with her second child.
“Make sure your work has a purpose to you. I am driven by the satisfaction knowing that my research builds on studies both local and international that could potentially help communities of people who are afflicted by diseases without a cure”.
Dr Grace Lidgerwood is a Research Fellow in the Stem Cell Disease Modelling Unit. She works with patient-derived iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) to understand the mechanisms associated with macular degeneration. Her research involves differentiating iPSCs from healthy and diseased patients into retinal cells affected by AMD (age-related macular disease), and understanding what makes the diseased cells ‘sick’ using various approaches, including large-scale disease modelling coupled with single-cell transcriptomics studies and global proteomic changes.
Image: Grace with daughter, Grace in the lab.
Learn more about the MJ Gething Gender Equity Award
