Dr Kristy Brown awarded NBCF Mavis Robertson Fellowship

Hudson Institute breast cancer researcher Dr Kristy Brown has been awarded the Mavis Robertson Fellowship by the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF).

The fellowship is awarded by the NBCF to a female researcher considered to have the greatest promise as a leader in breast cancer research.

Mavis Robertson was a founder of the NBCF’s major fundraiser, the Mother’s Day Classic, Trustee of the NBCF for more than 10 years, and a pioneer of Australia’s compulsory superannuation movement, holding CEO and director positions in the superannuation industry.

The fellowship includes a $10,000 prize that can be used to increase networking opportunities, professional development and profile and to assist Dr Brown in reaching her professional and research goals.

Dr Brown is currently examining the therapeutic potential of a hunger hormone called ghrelin in treating oestrogen-dependent breast cancer tumours.

Said the NBCF of Dr Kristy Brown, “She exhibits great potential/promise as a leader in breast cancer research having established an international reputation in her area of research, and has demonstrated independence as a researcher in heading her own lab and securing research funding.”

Dr Brown’s research aims to understand why obese older women are at higher risk of developing breast cancer. She previously discovered that ghrelin blocks estrogen production in breast fat cells and halts human breast cancer cell growth in the laboratory.

This has profound implications for treating breast cancers, 70 per cent of which are estrogen dependent.

Dr Brown’s research is now looking at ways to stop breast cancer tumours spreading to other sites, and to find therapeutics with fewer side-effects, whilst reducing breast cancer-associated mortality.