Rotary Melbourne 17 Aug
Event description
Rotary Melbourne Weekly Club Meeting - 17 August 2022
Guest Speakers Professor Douglas Hilton AO FAA FTSE FAHMS, Executive Director, WEHI
& Dr Danushka Marapana, Senior Malaria Researcher
Title 'WEHI Research Impact and Combatting Malaria'
Time 12.30 for 12.50 -2.00pm
Venue No35 Restaurant Sofitel Hotel on Collins
Price $53 (2 course lunch @ No35)
$10 Zoom only online access
About the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) [pronounced We-High]
Established in 1915, WEHI is Australia’s oldest and longest serving medical research institute. For more than 100 years, WEHI researchers have been making transformative discoveries in cancers, infectious and immune diseases, developmental disorders and healthy ageing. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies and highly collaborative networks, WEHI brings together multidisciplinary teams comprised of world-leading experts from a range of diverse scientific disciplines, all committed to creating a brighter, healthier future for all. For more information: www.wehi.edu.au
Professor Douglas Hilton AO FAA FTSE FAHMS, Executive Director, WEHI
Doug is the sixth director of Melbourne medical research institute WEHI, the inaugural head of the Brain Cancer Centre and the Lorenzo and Pamela Galli Chair in Medical Biology
Doug champions fundamental science and its transformative impact on our lives. As a medical researcher, he and his team focus on how blood cells are produced, how they function, and how they “talk” to each other.
Doug is an inventor on more than 20 patent families, most licensed, and has led major collaborations with industry to translate his discoveries into better treatments for diseases like asthma. His research is also being developed to find medicines that help the body to better fight cancer.
Doug is a passionate advocate for health and medical research, diversity and inclusion, and gender equality in science. He is a past president of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI), serves on the Research Committee of The National Health and Medical Research Council and on the Australian Government Medical Research Advisory Board. His achievements and contributions to medical research have been recognised by awards including appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia, and as a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Science; of Technological Sciences and Engineering; and of Health and Medical Sciences.
Dr Danushka Marapana
Dr Danushka Marapana is currently a senior research officer at WEHI working with Professor Alan Cowman’s team studying malaria, a parasitic disease that is responsible for more than 620,000 deaths each year, mostly in children under the age of five. Dr Marapana completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne and his PhD at WEHI. Dr Marapana’s current research aims to advance the understanding of how malaria-causing parasites infect and cause disease in human cells. Recently, new parasite strains emerged that are resistant to available drugs. His research aims to develop new methods of killing these drug-resistant parasites. Ultimately, the hope is that this will help us to develop new antimalarial treatments that will help to overcome the emerging drug-resistance problem.