Congratulations to CMM's Deputy Director, Professor Rob Parton on being awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Laureate Fellowship.
Rob was awarded $2.9 million and will use the Laureate to investigate how therapeutics specifically delivered to target cells in a body rather than broad-spectrum treatments such as chemotherapy causing significant side effects.
His research at UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) involves understanding how medicines move from the bloodstream into tissue and then into specific parts of cells.
Rob's team will track nanoparticles that can precisely target diseased cells without
delivering medicines to healthy cells – therefore avoiding side effects.
‘The Laureate will enable us to uncover key mechanisms in different cell types that enable a nanoparticle to be tailored to pass into a specific diseased cell,’ he said.
‘In the past researchers have studied cells in a culture dish in the laboratory. The aim of the Laureate is to understand how cells work in their natural environment.’
The ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships are highly coveted, providing support allowing leading scientists to focus on significant research areas.
Rob's team will utilize CMM's state-of-the-art equipment for 3D correlative light and electron microscopy. He will also share his research widely, building on the virtual reality ‘Journey to the Centre of the Cell’ project that used 3D electron microscopy generated in the CMM to let people experience what it would be like to travel through a cancer cell.
