Pharmacia awards inaugural fellowships

Pharmacia has announced the recipients of its two inaugural Pharmacia Foundation Australia Fellowships, Dr Sally Dunwoodie of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and Dr Steven Stacker, of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

The awards are part of a new initiative from Pharmacia Australia intended to encourage local scientists, and provide financial support for a period of five years for salary, travel and research expenses.

"Pharmacia has been very impressed by the world standing of Australian science and our scientists, and has collaborated with, and supported, leading edge medical research undertaken in small start up companies, academic research institutions, and major teaching hospitals," said Pharmacia's president, Asia-Pacific, Rodney Unsworth.

"Through the Pharmacia Foundation Australia Fellowships, we can now provide similar support to leading individuals so that they can continue their work in Australia."

Stacker said that at $AUD170,000 this year with five per cent increases scheduled for each year of the grant, the fellowship was a significant amount of money coming into his laboratory, and a generous gesture in the current funding climate.

The two Fellows were chosen from a pool of 79 applicants, and Prof John Funder, who chaired the selection committee, said that it was an extremely difficult process to narrow down the field to the two winners.

While Pharmacia is currently in the process of being acquired by Pfizer, Unsworth said that Pfizer had made an initial commitment to continue the fellowship program.

Stacker, who is a Senior Research Fellow, co-heads the angiogenesis laboratory at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne. His group is investigating blood and lymph vessel formation (angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis) in tumours, particularly the involvement of certain growth factors in the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family.

"We were one of the first groups to define lymphangiogenic growth factors," he said.

The potential importance of lymphangiogenesis is related to the process of metastasis, or spread of the primary tumour into other locations. Usually solid tumours, such as breast cancers, are initially found to have spread to the lymph nodes, in a process that appears to be driven by lymphangiogenic factors.

Stacker said one of the big questions is whether the spread to the lymph nodes heralded the potential to spread into other tissues. "It may be a critical first step for the tumour to start its metastatic spread," he said.

In any case, the research provides insight into the processes driving the development of cancer, and potential targets for new anti-angiogenic treatments.

"It will spread some light on certain aspects of tumours," said Stacker.

The other recipient of this year's awards is Sally Dunwoodie, who heads the embryology laboratory at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney, where she is investigating genes influencing the differentiation and development of embryonic cells.