University of Melbourne researchers recognised at Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research

Dr Asha Bonney, Dr Brooke Conley, and Dr Rachel Joyce posing with their framed certificates at the awards ceremony.
[L-R] Dr Asha Bonney, Dr Brooke Conley, and Dr Rachel Joyce at the awards ceremony. Image credit: Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions

Three researchers from the University of Melbourne and partner organisations have been recognised at the 2024-25 Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research, which celebrates Victoria’s most talented early-career researchers.

Peeneeyt Thanampool Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellows Dr Brooke Conley from the Department of Physiotherapy and Dr Rachel Joyce from the Department of Medical Biology at WEHI were co-awarded the Aboriginal Researcher Award.

Dr Conley was recognised for leading the ‘Staying Strong with Arthritis’ program, which has responded to a community-identified need and addressed a critical gap in arthritis care through developing culturally appropriate arthritis education resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Dr Joyce was recognised for separate research that discovered a small group of early cancer-forming cells found in women with a hereditary gene mutation that increases their risk of developing breast cancer, and identified an existing cancer drug that can target these cells to delay tumour growth. These findings point to a future where high-risk women could take targeted drugs to prevent cancer and avoid life-altering surgery.

Dr Asha Bonney, a Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) and a respiratory physician, received the Health Services Researcher Award for leading research at the University and the RMH to provide education and develop referral pathways for patients undergoing lung cancer screening.

“Congratulations to Brooke, Asha and Rachel on their success,” said Professor Jane Gunn AO, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

“This is a tremendous celebration of their impact on the health and wellbeing of so many in the community and highlights the breadth of important research that is being led by our early-career academics in collaboration with our esteemed partners.”

A full list of recipients can be viewed on the Victorian Government website.