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PhD Fellowship in Diabetic Retinopathy: Ms Aparna Murali

Aparna completed her Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology and Master of Science in Genomics in India. Aparna was the highest ranked science graduate from her undergraduate university and has worked for the last 2 years in genome studies in cardiovascular disease. Her work focussed on diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of diabetic retinal neuropathy and diabetic retinopathy. Whilst at the LVF Ophthalmology Research Centre, she worked on cutting edge primary human cell culture models for diabetic retinopathy, publishing her work in international peer reviewed journals and presenting internationally.

In total her project was awarded $95,000 from the Layton Vision Foundation, and through the Foundation’s partnership with the University of Queensland, further fee support of approximately $115,000 was secured to assist her development as a vision scientist.  Aparnas research fellowship has placed her in excellent stead to secure her next step as a visual scientist in European centres.

Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Gene Therapy: Dr Charmaine A. Ramlogan-Steel

Dr Ramlogan-Steel obtained her medical degree at the American International School of Medicine in Georgetown, Guyana, after which she spent 2 years completing postdoctoral training in cancer immunology at the National Cancer Institute, USA under Professor John Morris, where she worked on the development of cancer vaccines in mice and humans.

She subsequently moved to the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Professor George Atweh where she worked in haematology for three years. On moving to Australia, Charmaine was involved in the research at the Liver Cancer Research unit at University of Queensland. Dr Ramlogan-Steel was awarded a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship of up to 3 years and up to $234,000 in Gene Therapy by the Layton Vision Foundation in March 2017.  Assoc Prof Layton has made a personal donation of $60,000 to the University of Queensland for consumables to support the work of this fellowship.

Dr Ramlogan-Steel has already produced her first international publication, with a presentation at the European Association for Vision and Eye Research in Nice.  She has since used her experience at the LVF Ophthalmology Research Centre to secure a senior position at the University of Central Queensland, where she will teach the next generation of scientists and clinicians.

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