Maria Kavallaris AM FAHMS FRSN is an Australian scientist, based at the University of New South Wales' Children's Cancer Institute, where she is best known for her contributions to the field of cancer research. On 25 January 2019, Kavallaris was appointed a member of the Order of Australia.

Early life and education

Kavallaris was born in Australia, and is of Greek and Cypriot descent.[1] She returned to Morphou, Cyprus, with her family while still in primary school.[2] Soon after, Cyprus was invaded by Turkey, forcing her family to flee for safety to Kavallaris' maternal great grandparents' house in the mountains.[2] Four weeks later, Kavallaris' family headed to a British base, were airlifted to the UK, and then returned to Australia again (1974).[2]

In grade 10, Kavallaris left high school to complete a pathology technician course.[2] She then pursued a Bachelor of Applied Science at the University of Technology Sydney, where she was also working in the laboratory of Alan Pettigrew.[2] In 1983, when she was 21, Kavallaris was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer.[2][3] While undergoing chemotherapy, she decided to complete her undergraduate degree and pursue a PhD in cancer research.[2]

During the first year of her PhD at the University of New South Wales, Kavallaris's 30-year-old brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died within six weeks.[2][3]

Research career

Following her PhD, Kavallaris worked at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, U.S.A., as an IARC Cancer Research Fellow where she made significant contributions towards understanding the role of cytoskeleton proteins in tumour growth and cancer cell survival.[2][4][5] She then returned to Australia to work at the newly opened University of New South Wales' Children's Cancer Institute in 1984, where her research focuses on childhood cancer.[2][6] This has involved using nanotechnology to develop cancer therapies, and to determine mechanisms which lead to anti-cancer drug resistance.[7][8]

Kavallaris is a founding Director of the Australian Centre for Nanomedicine that she established in 2011.[1][7][9] She is also the head of the Translational Cancer Nanomedicine Theme at the University of New South Wales' Children's Cancer Institute.[2][10] She is co-Chair of the Australian Institute for Policy and Science, and past President and Life Member of the Australian Society for Medical Research.[6]

Kavallaris has received over $40 million in research funding, and has trained over 50 students.[6] She has an h-index and i10-index of 59 and 132 respectively, and has been cited over 12,400 times.[11]

On 25 January 2019, Kavallaris was appointed a member of the Order of Australia.[1][12][13] She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN) [14] and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. She was also recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily.[15]

Awards

  • Young Tall Poppy Award (2004)[16]
  • Australian Museum Eureka Prize (2007)[17]
  • Knowledge Nation 100 Award (2015)[18]
  • The Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Award (2015)[9]
  • Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2016)[19]
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (2019)[20]
  • NSW Premier's Science and Engineering Prize for Leadership in Innovation (2017)[4][21]
  • UTS Chancellor's Alumni Excellence Award (2019) and UTS Alumni Excellence Award – Science (2019)[22]
  • Lemberg Medal ASBMB (2019)[23]
  • Member of the Order of Australia (2019)[1][12][13]
  • NSW Premier's Woman of the Year Award (2020)[24]
  • Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology, with Justin Gooding, Julio Ribeiro, Aidan O'Mahony, Robert Utama and Lakmali Atapattu (2021)[25]

Selected bibliography

  • Maria Kavallaris, Dennis Y-S Kuo, Catherine A Burkhart, Donna Lee Regl, Murray D Norris, Michelle Haber and Susan Band Horwitz. Taxol-resistant epithelial ovarian tumors are associated with altered expression of specific beta-tubulin isotypes. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 1997.
  • KM Murphy, V Ranganathan, ML Farnsworth, M Kavallaris and Richard B Lock. Bcl-2 inhibits Bax translocation from cytosol to mitochondria during drug-induced apoptosis of human tumor cells. Cell Death and Differentiation. 2000.
  • Pei Pei Gan, Eddy Pasquier and Maria Kavallaris. Class III β-tubulin mediates sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs in non–small cell lung cancer. Cancer Research. 2007.
  • Eddy Pasquier, Maria Kavallaris and Nicolas André. Metronomic chemotherapy: new rationale for new directions. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. 2010.
  • Maria Kavallaris. Microtubules and resistance to tubulin-binding agents. Nature Reviews Cancer. 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Tsirtsakis, Anastasia (25 January 2019). "Highly respected Greeks on Australia's Honours list | Neos Kosmos". English Edition. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Stamocostas, Con (29 March 2018). "After fleeing bombs as a child, and surviving cancer in her early 20s, Professor Maria Kavallaris' breakthrough research in nanotechnology is helping to fight childhood cancer | Neos Kosmos". English Edition. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  3. 1 2 Alexander, Matt Burgess and Harriet (14 February 2015). "Surviving cancer: four tales of beating the odds". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Childhood cancer leader's star on the rise at NSW Premier's Science and Engineering Prizes". Children's Cancer Institute. 23 October 2017. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  5. ↑ Administrator, LPSC. "Professor Maria Kavallaris named as Liverpool Plains Shire Australia Day Ambassador 2018". www.lpsc.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 "Prof Maria Kavallaris". Cure Cancer. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  7. 1 2 Amanda Hoh (31 March 2017). "Meet three scientists finding cures for childhood cancer". ABC News. Archived from the original on 5 December 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  8. ↑ "Professor Maria Kavallaris". CBNS. Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  9. 1 2 "Professor Maria Kavallaris one of The Australian Financial Review and Westpac's 100 Women of Influence 2015". Children's Cancer Institute. 24 September 2015. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  10. ↑ "Professor Maria Kavallaris". Children's Cancer Institute. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  11. ↑ "Maria Kavallaris - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.ca. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  12. 1 2 "Maria Kavallaris receives Order of Australia". Children's Cancer Institute. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  13. 1 2 "Eastern pride: Oz Day honours list". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  14. ↑ "Fellows - The Royal Society of NSW". www.royalsoc.org.au. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  15. ↑ "100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to follow on Social Media in 2023". oncodaily.com.
  16. ↑ "2004 NSW Award Winners". AIPS. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  17. ↑ Anonymous (22 August 2007). "Eureka! for UNSW". UNSW Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  18. ↑ "Professor Maria Kavallaris one of 'The Knowledge Nation 100'". Children's Cancer Institute. 10 December 2015. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  19. ↑ "Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Fellows List" (PDF). Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  20. ↑ "Fellows of the Royal Society of NSW (K)". Royal Society of NSW. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  21. ↑ "The life-long effects for childhood cancer survivors". SBS News. Archived from the original on 1 August 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  22. ↑ "Game-changers celebrated at the 2019 UTS Alumni Awards". University of Technology Sydney. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  23. ↑ "Maria Kavallaris". Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  24. ↑ Hutchinson, Yolande (5 March 2020). "Children's cancer researcher named Woman of the Year". UNSW Newsroom. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  25. ↑ "2021 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners". The Australian Museum. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
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