Media Releases
Young Scientist Shines
If the last few months are any indication of Lauren McKnight’s career as a scientist, then the young PhD candidate has a bright future ahead of her. In the past three months, Ms McKnight has won three awards for her research into how and why people develop asthma.
The first in this young student’s hat-trick of accolades came in November of last year, where she won the 2009 NSW Flow Cytometry Prize for her use of the technique, which counts and examines microscopic particles such as cells.
Ms McKnight’s second and third awards came at the Australasian Society for Immunology conference in December 2009. At this annual event, Ms McKnight took home first place for her scientific poster, which explained how the immune system plays an important role in the development of asthma. She also won a science communication prize for the presentation of her research to the nonscientific community.
Executive Director of the Centenary Institute, Professor Mathew Vadas says, “Scientists at the Centenary Institute are devoted to educating bright young minds that will become our future leaders in the field of medical research. I am extremely proud of Lauren’s achievements. She is certainly someone the scientific community should watch, and I look forward to seeing what she will accomplish in the coming months.”
Currently, Ms McKnight is in the fourth year of her PhD candidacy, working with Professor Barbara Fazekas de St. Groth in the T Cell Biology group at Centenary Institute. She plans to stay in Australia to pursue a Post Doctoral in the field of allergies and asthma.
Ms McKnight is passionate about her research at Centenary and hopes that the results will bring a benefit to community health.
She says, “There are over 300 million people affected by asthma worldwide, and nearly 10-15% of Australians have the illness. Although asthma is treatable, there is currently no cure for the disease. My hope is that through the research we do at Centenary, we will be able to find a cure to this widespread disease.”
