Meet our first Gideon Gratzer PhD Scholar! Ihara ‘Shazia’ Adjumain!
Meet our first Gideon Gratzer PhD Scholar! Ihara “Shazia” Adjumain!
We are delighted to announce the successful candidate for the Gideon Gratzer PhD Scholarship: Shazia Adjumain.
Shazia is an impressive award-winning candidate who has just completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Hons) at Monash University and an internship at the Hudson Institute.
Our scientific committee were unanimous in their choice of Shazia. They were particularly impressed with how well thought out her proposal was, that her project will have impactful translation possibilities for paediatric brain cancer, and Shazia’s positive track record, experience and her awards she has received for supporting her fellow students.
All of us at RCD Foundation were particularly impressed by Shazia’s enthusiasm and passion for helping change the odds for childhood brain cancer, and we can easily see she has enormous potential.
Shazia’s proposed PhD proposal focuses on High-Grade Giolmas (HGGs), the most common and lethal primary brain tumour in children: it invades the entire brain preventing complete removal of the tumour through standard care of therapy and leading to almost universal recurrence. The proposed research will present how an anti-cell death protein MCL-1 contribute to paediatric cancer invasion and explore the precise targeting of anti-cell death therapies towards patients. The results of this work will improve our understanding of this devastating disease and may provide potential avenues for therapeutic intervention.
We’re proud to be funding the Gideon Gratzer PhD Scholarship in loving memory of Gideon Gratzer. In May 2018 Gideon was diagnosed with an aggressive GBM tumour at only eight years old. His treatment involved surgery, radiotherapy and targeted chemotherapy treatment. Gideon was a gorgeous, funny and gentle boy, devoted to his siblings and family. He loved going to school, all things Cookie-Monster related and entertained everyone with his quirky sense of humour and fantastic memory. In May 2019, almost 12 months after diagnosis, Gideon passed away, he was nine years old.
The Gideon Gratzer PhD Scholarship will provide $30,000 per year for three years.
Welcome Shazia to the RCD Foundation Research family!