2023 Harold Mitchell Travel Fellowships

By Rob Clancy, staff writer

Arwaf Alharbi and Dr Rukmali Wijayarathna 2023 Harold Mitchell Travel Fellowships

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2023 Harold Mitchell Travel Fellowships

As academic life returns to normal after several years of limited travel opportunities, the 2023 Harold Mitchell Travel Fellowships, provided by the Harold Mitchell Foundation, provide young scientists with much-needed opportunities for to expand their horizons.

The two Harold Mitchell Travel Fellowships, awarded to a senior PhD Student and a Postdoctoral Researcher, enable promising Institute young scientists to travel and participate in conferences and other forums, as well as receiving mentoring and support from leaders in their fields.

The recipients will gain experience, knowledge and connections to help them broaden their careers in medical research.

As well as their experiences when away, they will each return with new insights and experience, plus contacts for collaboration at the highest levels in the world of medical science.

Arwaf Alharbi at Hudson Institute

Arwaf Alharbi

Nucleic Acids and Innate Immunity group, Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases

Harold Mitchell Fellowship – PhD award

Arwaf Alharbi works on defining the immunomodulatory effects of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), which is a class of RNA therapeutics. Her research involves characterising their immunomodulation of TLR7 and TLR8 which are critical innate immune sensors involved in the host defence against invading pathogens by detecting pathogenic nucleic acids. She will make use of her travel fellowship to attend the 19th Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, which will be held in Barcelona, Spain in October and to visit Anna Kajaste-Rudnitski’s laboratory at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.

Dr Rukmali Wijayarathna, Postdoctoral Scientist, Endocrinology and Immunophysiology at Hudson Institute

Dr Rukmali Wijayarathna

Endocrinology and Immunophysiology group, Centre for Reproductive Health

Harold Mitchell Fellowship – Post Doctoral award

Dr Rukmali Wijayarathna studies the unique immunoregulatory mechanisms within the male reproductive tract. She was recently named one of Hudson Institute’s emerging leaders. She will use this fellowship to travel to attend and present at several major events, including the 48th Annual Conference of the American Society of Andrology (ASA) in Boston, USA, the 15th Network for Young Researchers in Andrology meeting in Montreux, Switzerland and the Society of Reproductive Biology Annual Meeting (SRB) in Brisbane. She will also visit the Laboratory of A/Prof. Maria Battistone at Harvard Medical School, USA and Prof. Nathalie Dejucq-Rainsford at IRSET-Inserm, Rennes, France.

Congratulations to our other award recipients

Bryan Williams Traineeship Award

The Bryan Williams Traineeship Award was established to acknowledge Hudson Institute Emeritus Director and Distinguished Scientist, Professor Bryan Williams.

  Hudson Institute Travel Awards

  • Dr David Hennes (Translational Tissue Engineering Research Group)
  • Kirstin Tindall (Epidemiology and Clinical Trials & Endometrial Stem Cell Biology Research Groups)
  • Zenhua Ming (Sex Development Research Group) 
  • Associate Professor Jun Yang (Endocrine Hypertension Research Group)
  • Dr Nicole Campbell (Regulation of Interferon and Innate Signalling Research Group)
  • Dr Paul Daniel (VPCC Next Generation Precision Medicine program)
  • Sara Di Simone (Interventional Immunology in Early Life Diseases & Microbiota and Systems Biology Research Groups)
  • Dr Sarah Moody (Testis Development and Male Germ Cell Biology Research Group)

This research was supported by | Harold Mitchell Foundation

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