The Fielding Foundation Fellowship 2017 has been jointly awarded to two outstanding immunology researchers at Hudson Institute, Dr Niamh Mangan, from the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases, and Associate Professor Marcel Nold, from The Ritchie Centre.
The Fielding Fellowship was established in 2014 through a five-year, $1 million donation to Hudson Institute of Medical Research by Melbourne businessman and philanthropist, Mr Peter Fielding.
The one-year fellowship seeks to supports Hudson Institute’s brightest young researchers, at the early- to mid-career stage, to undertake lifesaving medical research and to establish independent research careers.
Decoding cytokine to reduce infectious, inflammatory diseases and cancer
Dr Niamh Mangan is a research scientist and emerging expert in the immunology of infection and inflammation, who seeks to understand the role of the mucosal immune system in disease.In 2013, she worked in a team in CiiiD to discover and characterise an important, naturally occurring cytokine in the female reproductive tract, interferon epsilon, which may protect women from sexually transmitted diseases.
Dr Mangan has played a key role in the development of a research program around interferon epsilon, which has strong clinical potential in the treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases, and cancer.
Preventing life-threatening inflammation in the tiniest of patients
2017 Fielding Fellow Associate Professor Marcel Nold is a neonatologist and paediatrician, and co-head of the Research Group Interventional Immunology in Neonatal Diseases with Dr Claudia Nold.
A/Prof Nold’s research aims to reduce the burden of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease affecting premature babies, and necrotising enterocolitis, a devastating disease with a mortality rate of up to 65 per cent that causes the bowel tissue of newborn babies to die.
In 2016, A/Prof Nold was awarded the Fielding Innovation Award to commercialise a significant discovery. Working in a multidisciplinary team from Monash University and Hudson Institute, A/Prof Nold has since entered into a research collaboration with the global pharmaceutical company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd to develop next-generation treatments for autoimmune diseases.
Fielding Fellows are ‘leaders in their field’
Hudson Institute Director and CEO, Professor Bryan Williams, congratulated the two recipients.
“Dr Niamh Mangan and A/Prof Marcel Nold are two emerging research leaders in their respective fields, and extremely worthy joint recipients of the 2017 Fielding Foundation Fellowship,” Professor Williams said.
“We are indebted to Mr Peter Fielding for his foresight and commitment to groundbreaking medical research and developing the rich potential of our brightest young scientists. On behalf of the Institute, I thank Mr Fielding for his generous contribution to science.”
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