Fellowship Academy Profiles - MHLS | People and Culture

Dr Bianca Plouffe

School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

My field of expertise is G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signalling. These receptors regulate the whole physiology and their deregulation underlies several diseases. For this reason, GPCRs are the target of 33% of the actual pharmacological treatments. My particular interest is to understand how subcellular location of GPCR signalling shapes cellular responses and to take advantage of this knowledge to design new therapeutic approaches. My current targets are glioblastoma multiforme, and diabetic retinopathy.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Securing a position as an independent researcher and have the opportunity to train the next generation of scientists.

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?

Ultimately, my research has a positive impact on global population health and contributes to the advancement of the knowledge about cellular physiology.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?

Expand your field of expertise, be curious, and think outside the box. Focus on your joy to do science if you feel overwhelmed. Most importantly, use the complementary expertise available in a wide international network of collaborators. Team work is the key!

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Dr. Dessi Malinova

School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

I am interested in how immune cells recognise and respond to foreign agents, specifically to initiate antibody responses protecting us from infection. We also investigate how these cellular processes are altered in malignancy.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Securing the Patrick G Johnston fellowship and further external funding which has allowed me to establish and support my independent lab.

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?

Infectious diseases are still responsible for over 6 million deaths worldwide. Understanding the cellular processes behind our immune response can help to design vaccines and therapeutics which induce safe and efficient immune responses. This knowledge also links to cancer research as many of the cellular processes are inappropriately activated in leukaemia and lymphoma.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?

Be bold with your ideas, seek plenty of feedback, and speak to current fellows

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Dr. Stephen McMahon

School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

My current fellowship focuses on developing models to predict how individual patients will respond to radiation therapy. These models take into account differences in the genetics of each patients’ cancers, to identify those which may be more or less sensitive to radiation, to enable treatments to be individually tailored.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Receiving the Jack Fowler award from the Radiation Research Society, given to recognise contribution to the field by young investigators.

How does your research and its outcomes impact on wider society?

This research will be to enable radiation therapy to move away from current approaches, which deliver the same doses to all patients with a particular cancer, to a more personalized approach where treatments are tailored based on individual genetic features. This will help improve outcomes and reduce side effects for radiotherapy patients.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for a Fellowship?

It’s important to have a clear vision of what your research is about and what its impact will be (both scientifically and in society), as this is an important part of pitching your proposal to the wide audience involved in evaluating most fellowship proposals.